Paris Shines Brighter in December

Planning a trip to Paris in December is a great idea for a number of reasons notably decent airfares and hotel rates.  Not negligibly, the City of Light shines brighter during the holiday season and offers a slew of activities to make your visit fun and memorable.  Here are some attractions that will put you in a festive mood when visiting Paris in December.

• Christmas decorations and lights throughout the the city.
• Christmas market along the Champs Elysees
• Ice skating rinks like on Place de l'Hotel de Ville or indoor at the Grand Palais
• Whimsical holiday window displays at the department stores
• Scrumptious holiday food.

Lights on everywhere!! The Champs Elysees Avenue, street markets, the monuments, department stores, boutiques and restaurants are beautifully decorated and illuminated for the Christmas season.

It's been a long time tradition for the Parisian department stores to decorate their windows with whimsical musically animated scenes that are sure to please the little kid in all of us.

Many streets hold a Christmas market but the largest one is to be found along the Avenue of the Champs Elysees between Concorde Square and the Champs Elysees roundabout.  Here hundreds of little chalet-like stands line up offering strollers a chance to buy holiday gifts, ornaments, regional products and all kind of delectable goodies like hot cocoa, roasted chestnuts, crepes, cotton candy and more.

Oh what fun!! imaging skating outdoor in front of the Paris City Hall or facing the Eiffel Tower on Place du Trocadero? There is even a small rink set up on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower; here you are sure to be awed by the view!!.  There is also a much larger indoor skating rink installed inside the Grand Palais, on the Champs Elysees; a beautiful building built for the 1900 World's Fair.

First, you will feast your eyes looking at all tantalizing displays of Christmas specialities and be sure to treat yourself to holiday pate, foie gras, fresh oysters, cheeses and the ubiquitous Buche de Noel (Christmas log).

For your custom holiday travel package to Paris, visit my website www.enchanted-france.com or email your request at contact@enchanted-france

#Paris #ParisinChristmas #ParisTravel

The Battle of Verdun One hundred Years Ago

On February 21, 1916 begun the battle of Verdun, considered to be one of the bloodiest battles and the most emblematic of the World War I conflict.  This battle lasted for 300 days and 300 nights of uninterrupted fighting (February 21 till December 18) between French and German forces.  Verdun is situated in Northeastern France on the bank of the river Meuse in the region of Lorraine.  The First World War had already begun a year and half earlier in August 1914 and battles had been fought in Flanders (Belgium), the  Marne, the Somme and Picardy regions of France involving on the Allied side: French, Belgium,  British and Commonwealth troops.

Fort of Douaumont

In the early hours of February 21, the German army undertook a sudden and brutal offensive attack, in the Verdun  sector which had been relatively calm until this time.  Unprepared, the French positions were attacked by a non-stop barrage of heavy  artillery (some one million and half shells fell in one day); four days later, the German captured the Douaumont fortress. As the French fought  back to hold onto their positions, the conflict became a bloody stalemate - soldiers fought in an area of 20 km2 to gain a few meters and then losing some. Total hell on earth.

Shell Craters of the Verdun Battlefield.
Wikipedia

It is estimated that there were 700,000 casualties (170,000 French and 150, 000 Germans died plus countless injured and those lost in action who could not be identified). Not mentioning the hundreds of thousands of horses who died in the battlefield.  About  40 million artillery rounds were expended in the course of the ten month battle making it one of the costliest in men, horses and material in the history of humanity.





Verdun Battlefield can be visited from Paris as a day trip by minibus tours or as a private guided or self-drive tour.  A visit of the Verdun battlefields should include:

• Fort of Douaumont- A heavily armed concrete fort built in the rock used as a system of defense.  You can tour 3 levels of galleries , observations platforms, gun turrets, barrack rooms. As a young officer,  Charles de Gaulle was stationed and fought at the Douaumont Fort.
• Douaumont Ossuary- It contains the remains of 130,000 unknown soldiers French, German and others. 
• Douaumont Military Cemetery-facing the Douaumont Memorial,  here lay over 16,000  French soldiers who died on the battle field making it the largest French military cemetery.
• Bayonets Trench Monument-symbolizing the soldiers who fought and died in the trenches.
• Verdun Memorial-newly reopened. It displays photos, memorabilia, armament, uniforms, and vehicles used during the batttle.
• Destroyed Villages - Nine villages in the fighting zone were totally razed during the battle of Verdun. All that remain are markers symbolizing the outlines of the houses and public buildings. These ghost villages  are moving memorials of the ravage of war. 
• Underground Citadel in Verdun- The logistic and command center during the Battle of Verdun.  After the war, it is in the underground citadel that the selection of the unknown soldier to be buried under the Arc de Triomphe took place.  On a tour of the Citadel, you can view a reconstitution of this ceremony. 

Images: Douaumont  Ossuary.


In 1984, French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, met at the Douaumont Memorial and held hand for a brief moment as a sign of European reconciliation and friendship.

To book your tour of Verdun and other WWI  battlefields, contact Enchanted France or call us toll free 866 313 2856.


#travelFrance #Verdun #tourVerdun #enchantedFrancetours #vacationinginFrance #historytours, #WWItours

In the Footsteps of Impressionist Paris -April 10-17

This spring come follow in the footsteps of Impressionist Paris, a unique tour custom designed by Enchanted France - April 10-17, 2016

Monet-Impression Soleil Levant

The Impressionist art movement was born in Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century.  The term impressionism was coined by art critic Louis Leroy in an article written in the daily paper  Le Charivari on April 25, 1874.  In it he tells of visiting an art exhibit staged by a  group  calling themselves Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers etc. where he discovers the works of  Claude Monet whose painting Impression Soleil Levant he trashed and mocked. Undetered,  the group of artists that included Claude Monet, Pierre August Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissaro, Berthe Morissot and Edgar Degas adopted the term of Impressionism and went on to exhibit in eight successive independent salons held in Paris from 1874 to 1886.

Caillebotte-Pont de l'Europe

Artists of the Impressionist art movement rejected the traditional and conventional academic style of painting favored by the art world of the era instead they preferred a looser, brighter, more realistic and freer way to represent the world they perceived and lived in.  They took their easel and sketch books and went outside to depict city streets, cafe life, everyday people, bourgeois interiors, seashore and countryside.



Join us for a tour of Impressionist Paris and the Seine Valley including Rouen, Giverny, Moret sur Loing and Auvers sur Oise where we will follow in the footsteps of Renoir, Monet, Sisley, van Gogh and others.  Book Today. Space is limited.

Tour date: April 10-17

Highlights include:

van Gogh-Church in Auvers 

• Paris: Montmartre and other Parisian sites that inspired the Impressionists
• Visit the Orsay Museum where many masterpieces of Impressionism are on display
• Rouen: visit Notre Dame Cathedral, often the subject of
  paintings by Monet
• Giverny: visit the house and garden of Monet ; Also we will tour
  the special exhibit featuring Caillebotte
• Moret sur Loing and Barbizon: Visit the village often painted by Sisley ; as well as Barbizon, famous for its school of painting
• Auvers sur Oise: Van Gogh’s life ended in this little village
  outside of Paris ; we will visit the inn where he lived and the cemetery where he lays alongside his beloved brother Theo.

For more information and reservation, visit In the Footsteps of Impressionists or call toll free
866 313 2856.

#ParisTour #VisitFrance #Impressionism