Escorted Coach and Rail Tours to France
France rewards a slow look. Our holidays here tend to settle in one or two hotels and work outwards by private coach, so you see Saint-Émilion, Giverny or the chalk cellars under Reims properly rather than through a window.
The programme covers the Norman coast and the Impressionists, the vineyards of Bordeaux and Champagne, medieval Albi and Carcassonne, and the Riviera in carnival season. Some tours travel by air with transfers at both ends, some by coach and ferry, one by Eurostar. A guide travels with you throughout.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our France Tours
All three, depending on the tour. Most southern and western tours use return flights from the UK with airport transfers at both ends, then private coach throughout. The Normandy Monet tour travels by coach with a return ferry crossing, and one version goes by Eurostar from St Pancras. The Channel Islands tour sails by ferry from Poole. Each tour page states its own arrangements, and we are happy to talk through which suits you.
Yes. Open Group departures are made up of individual bookings, and single travellers are a normal part of most groups. Prices are quoted per person sharing a twin or double room, so if you want a room to yourself a single supplement applies; where we know it, the figure is shown on the tour page. Ask us about a particular departure and we will confirm the current supplement before you commit.
More than you might expect on a coach holiday, though rarely strenuous. French old towns are pedestrianised and often cobbled — Rouen, Saint-Émilion and the walled city of Carcassonne all involve slopes, steps and standing about in galleries. Vineyard visits mean uneven ground. We keep the pace unhurried and there is usually somewhere to sit, but if you have concerns about mobility please ring us before booking and we will be straight with you about a specific itinerary.
Travel from the UK, transfers, accommodation, the meals listed, all excursions named on the itinerary and their entrance fees, private coach travel and the services of an English-speaking guide. What differs between tours is the meal arrangement: some include breakfast and every evening meal, others add lunches on excursion days too. Drinks, optional extras and travel insurance are not included. The inclusions list on each tour page is the definitive one.
Yes — that is our Private Group arrangement, and a good part of what we do. Gardening clubs, U3A branches, church groups and groups of friends take a tour exclusively, and we can adjust dates, hotel standard and the balance of excursions to suit. Several of our France itineraries are costed on a group of around 25 to 30 travelling together. Tell us roughly how many you are and when you would like to go, and we will price it properly.
British passport holders do not need a visa for a short holiday in France. You will need a passport that is valid for at least three months beyond the date you leave the Schengen area and issued within the previous ten years. Entry requirements at the French border have been changing, so check the current government advice close to departure — and ask us if anything is unclear about your particular tour.
Where our French tours travel
France is large enough that a single tour cannot sensibly cross it, so each of ours takes one region and stays put. In the north, Normandy gives you Rouen's timber-framed streets, the cliffs at Étretat, the harbour at Honfleur and Monet's garden at Giverny within easy reach of one hotel.
Further east, Champagne is a compact triangle of Reims, Épernay and Hautvillers where the great houses keep their cellars cut into the chalk. In the south west, Bordeaux opens onto Saint-Émilion, the Citadelle de Blaye and the vast Dune of Pilat at Arcachon.
Deeper south again, Albi's brick cathedral and the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec sit above the Tarn, while Carcassonne combines its walled city with the Canal du Midi and Le Train Rouge. On the Mediterranean, tours reach Nice, Menton and Cap Ferrat, and one crosses into the Basque country by way of Biarritz.
Wine, Champagne and the French table
Food and wine are not an add-on in France, and several of our tours are built around them. In Champagne you visit Épernay and Reims with tastings included, and see how the second fermentation in the bottle produces what everyone else has to call sparkling wine.
Bordeaux is the other axis. The city itself was rebuilt in pale limestone in the eighteenth century and looks it; around it lie the appellations most British wine drinkers already know by name, with Saint-Émilion the prettiest of the medieval wine towns.
Elsewhere the eating is regional and unfussy:
- Cassoulet in the Languedoc, cooked slowly with beans, duck and Toulouse sausage
- Truffles from the hills around Villeneuve-Minervois in season
- Pintxos in Bilbao on the Basque tour, eaten standing at the bar
- Olive oil and citrus on the Riviera, where lemons ripen through winter
Monet, the Impressionists and French art
Claude Monet bought the house at Giverny in 1890 and spent the rest of his life gardening it, diverting a stream to make the water lily pond and building the Japanese bridge that recurs through the late paintings. It is still planted to his colour schemes and still worth the visit, which is why more than one of our tours goes there.
The pairing that makes sense is garden and gallery. Rouen, where Monet painted the cathedral facade again and again in changing light, has its own Musée des Beaux-Arts; Paris holds the Musée d'Orsay, the Orangerie with the great curved water lily canvases, and the Marmottan.
Further south the story is different. Albi was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's birthplace, and the museum in the old bishops' palace holds the largest collection of his work anywhere.
What an escorted tour to France involves
The shape is consistent. You travel out as a group, settle into one hotel or two, and go out each day by private coach with an English-speaking guide. Entrance fees for the excursions listed on each tour are included, so there is no queuing at ticket desks and no working out which museum takes cards.
Meals vary by tour and are always spelled out: some include breakfast and every evening meal, others add lunches on excursion days. Prices are quoted per person sharing a twin or double, and where a single supplement applies it is stated on the tour page.
Open Group departures put you with other individual travellers, most of them couples and solo travellers of a similar age. Private Group means a club, society or set of friends takes the whole tour and we build the dates and pace around them.
