Paris, Provence and the Painters of Modern LifeAbout the TourOur tour begins with a full week in Paris where we will gain insight into life in the nineteenth-century art capital, visiting monuments, sites, and neighbourhoods favoured by the artists and their friends. We will explore the city’s transformation under Baron Haussman and see masterpieces in the Musee d’Orsay and Musee Marmottan representative of major art movements of the time (Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism). On day seven we take a day-trip north to Compiegne, home of the museum of the Second Empire and the Chateau de Compiegne, autumn residence of Napolean III and his empress Eugenie.

On day 11 we travel north from Paris to Giverny to visit the home of Claude Monet and admire the famous gardens that inspired his series of water lily paintings. From Giverny we continue up to the Normandy coast to the village of Etretat with its soaring limestone cliffs that feature in numerous paintings of the era. After two nights in Etretat the tour heads south to Provence, in the footsteps of Paul Cezanne, who yearned to turn “Impressionism into something more solid and enduring.” The landscapes he painted near his home in Aix-en-Provence carried art from the nineteenth century into the modern era and laid the foundations for the development of cubism.

Tour background:Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Paris was the centre of the art world. The years bracketed by the beginning and fall of the Second Empire (1852-1870), in particular, were crucial to the birth of modern art. This was a time of exceptionally rapid social, industrial and technological change. Paris, under the direction of city prefect Baron Haussman, underwent a radical architectural transformation as much of ‘old Paris’ was demolished to make way for modern boulevards and leisure spaces. These years mark the birth of Paris as the modern capital we know today with its wide open spaces, theatres, train stations, bars and cafes.

In response to this rapidly changing urban landscape, artists created works that challenged longstanding traditions and ideals, turning their attention instead to contemporary reality. Painters, writers and sculptors associated with the avant-garde embraced ‘modernity’ and incorporated new technologies, fashions and inventions into their work.

Yet the essence of this ‘modern’ art involved capturing transitory and ephemeral aspects of the world around them, and required artists to spend time in the countryside. The countryside they frequented most was in the north and north-west of Paris, on the banks of the meandering Seine near Argenteuil and on to the Normandy coast. Monet’s quest to record the world around him, to represent the changing effects of light and movement, led him to Giverny where he created a garden with the express purpose of studying the water lilies on the pond.

He and his fellow artists travelled further north, to Etretat on the Normandy coast. There, they set their easels outside beneath the majestic limestone cliffs and painted the seaside landscapes famous in galleries throughout the world. One among them, Paul Cezanne, began to part ways with the Impressionists in his quest to see the world ‘objectively’. Unlike the impressionists (with whom he exhibited in the early part of the 19th century) who had seen the world subjectively—that is to say, as it presented itself to their senses in various lights and from various points of view—Cezanne, who insisted that human perception was inherently ‘confused’, wished to exclude the shimmering and ambiguous surface of things and penetrate the objective reality of things, a reality that did not change.

After years of living in Paris, Cezanne retreated to his home town of Aix-en-Provence where his meticulous studies of surrounding landscapes, the Mont St Victoire in particular, aimed to create an art as monumental and enduring as the art of the great masters of the past. His ambition was to ‘paint a living Poussin in the open air, with colour and light, instead of one of those works created in the studio, where everything has the brown colouring of feeble daylight without reflections from the sky.’

Day 9: Saturday 14 SeptemberThis morning you tour some of the covered passages and arcades of Paris. In the afternoon we make our way to the Marais district, home of the Museum of Paris, Carnavalet. Here, you enjoy a guided tour on the subject of Paris and the city’s urbanisation under Haussman. (B)

Day 10: Sunday 15 SeptemberOn your last day in Paris you visit the famous Pere-Lachaise Cemetery and the Catacombes of Paris. (B)

Day 11: Monday 16 SeptemberToday you leave Paris to head north. Our first stop will be Giverny where a local guide will take you through the gardens and Monet’s house. In the afternoon, the coach heads north to the coast, to the quaint fishing village of Etretat. (B)

Day 12: Tuesday 17 SeptemberYou have all of today for a coach tour of Etretat and its massive limestone cliffs that so inspired the Impressionists. There are clifftop walks and a rocky beach to explore. On a clear day, it’s possible to see all the way across to the white cliffs of Dover. This evening you’ll dine in one of the town’s casual seafood restaurants. (B,D)

Day 13: Wednesday 18 SeptemberToday you will travel from the north down to the south. We depart Etretat in the morning and, in Paris, board a TGV to Aix en Provence, home to Paul Cezanne. (B)

Day 14: Thursday 19 SeptemberThis morning you are met by a local guide for a walking tour of the old town of Aix including Cezanne’s studio.(B,L)

Day 15: Friday 20 SeptemberA coach takes us into the countryside to visit Jas de Bouffan, Cezanne’s house, built in typical Provencal style. Lunch at a typical provencal restaurant. (B,L)

Day 16: Saturday 21 SeptemberToday you can opt to return to the countryside outside of Aix for a bush walk in the landscapes Cezanne so admired. (B)

Day 17: Sunday 22 SeptemberYou leave Aix and head further south to Cassis, a bustling fishing port on the Mediterrean made famous by artists Matisse, Dufy, Derain. You take a boat tour of the calanques around Cassis and enjoy dinner in one of the restaurants along the port specialising in fruits de mer and local fish dishes. (B,D)

Day 18: Monday 23 SeptemberYou have the day to enjoy this beautiful spot that so inspired artists at the end of the nineteenth century. There are clifftop walks, very different from those seen up north in Etretat. In the evening, stroll along the waterfront and enjoy the mild climate of this southern coastal village. (B)

Day 19: Tuesday 24 SeptemberThe tour ends today. You travel by coach to Marseille, then train to Paris. (B)

Day 20: Wednesday 25 SeptemberDepart for New Zealand

Day to Day ItineraryMeals provided where specified: (B) breakfast, (L) lunch and/or (D) dinner.

Day 1: Friday 6 September Depart New Zealand

Day 2: Saturday 7 September Meet at the hotel in Paris in the late afternoon.

Day 3: Sunday 8 SeptemberYour morning visit to the Musee d’Orsay includes a guided talk by an expert art historian. After the guided tour, you are free to explore the museum or sightsee in Paris. (B)

Day 4: Monday 9 SeptemberToday you embark on a three-hour walking tour of ‘Haussman’s Paris’ led by a local expert As you stroll, we'll discuss the role of these streets as the hub of fashionable Parisian life in the 19th century, providing a backdrop for novelty shopping, theaters, and all variety of entertainment, including the more sordid aspects of urbanism, from prostitution to the ever-present problem of rubbish disposal, sewage and overflowing cemetaries. Following the tour, you will lunch in a typical nineteenth-century brasserie. (B,L)

Day 5: Tuesday 10 SeptemberYou begin the day with an in-depth tour of the Paris Opera Garnier, built during the Second Empire to replace the old Opera Pelletier which burned down earlier in the century. Completed in 1875, the Garnier Opera is the jewel in the crown of Beaux Arts architecture in Paris. As well as admiring its spectacularly ornate yet rationally organised exterior, we will also visit its sumptuous interiors, including, if rehearsal schedules permit, the famous auditorium with its whimsical ceiling painting by Marc Chagall.

In the afternoon you will visit the famous Left Bank area of Paris, including the Isle Saint-Louis, the Hotel de Lauzun and Berthillon, home to what many consider the best ice cream in Paris! (B)

Day 6: Wednesday 11 SeptemberToday’s museum visit is to Musee Marmottan, home to Monet’s famous water lily series. This museum, tucked in a quiet corner of the residential sixteenth arrondissement, is often overlooked by tourists yet has one of the finest collections of impressionist painting in Paris. (B)

Day 7: Thursday 12 SeptemberFull day coach tour to Compiegne. The town of Compiegne, about two hours north of Paris, was the autumn residence of Emperor Napolean III. He and his empress, Eugenie, entertained here with lavish weekend parties for the political, artistic and scientific elite to attend. After the fall of the Imperial Regime in 1870, the Chateau de Compiegne became a national museum housing a collection of furniture and art from the period. (B)

Day 8: Friday 13 SeptemberFree day for you to explore Paris on your own. (B)

VicToria coMMuniTy conTinuing eDucaTion

Paris, Provence and the Painters of Modern Life

France 2013

Enrolment and other informationTour Leader Wendy Joyce holds a PhD in 19th-century French studies from Princeton University and has lectured at universities in France, England and Australia. She lived for eight years in France, where she worked as a tour guide. She is

a French/American and speaks French fluently.

enrolment/DepositWe are currently taking enrolments for this tour by phone, post or in person. Please fill out the enrolment form and either mail it to us or bring it in. You can also enrol by phone by calling 04-463 6556.

A deposit of NZ$1,600 per person is required at time of enrolment. This can be paid by cheque, credit card or eftpos. Enrolments after Thursday 13 June will be required to pay the full fee.

There may still be spaces on the tour after 13 June - please enquire.

Email reservations cannot be accepted.

Full paymentPayment of the balance of the fee will be required by 13 July.

Pre-tour Meetings There will be a pre-tour meeting to provide practical advice and information. Date to be advised. It will be an informal evening with tea and coffee provided.

Pre-tour study Wendy Joyce will give a series of presentations entitled Paris, Provence and the Painters of Modern Life on Saturdays 6, 13, 20 & 27 April from 10am–12pm.

Other pre-tour seminars may also be arranged. Keep checking our short course offerings.

commentary on-tourWendy Joyce will provide commentaries on tour. There will also be local guides.

TravelThe tour has been planned for people to meet in Paris and finish in Paris. It will also be possible to leave the tour in the South of France.

Please indicate on the enrolment form if you would prefer to join a group flight from New Zealand to France or leave the tour in the South of France.

accommodation/MealsAccommodation will be in 3- or 4-star hotels in shared or single rooms with private shower or bath. Breakfast will be provided each day. Lunch and/or dinner will be provided on some days - please see the proposed itinerary.

Passport/VisasIt is essential to have a current passport (valid for at least six months after return to New Zealand). Holders of passports issued by countries other than New Zealand are advised to check visa requirements with our travel agent Keith Leadbetter, at Travel Managers. All inquiries regarding passports and visas should be directed to:

Keith Leadbetter, Travel Managers, Phone: 04-978 2326 Email: keith.leadbetter@travelmanagers.co.nz

insuranceAdequate travel insurance is essential and is not included in the tour fee. Keith Leadbetter is happy to arrange this for you. Contact Keith for details.

Health and FitnessThe tour is not particularly strenuous and provision is made for a reasonable amount of free time. However you should be in good health and you should be able to manage your own luggage.

To ensure the wellbeing of tour members and overall enjoyment of the tour group, each tour member will be required to complete a medical questionnaire. Victoria University reserves the right to request written medical information or opinions on your physical capability for this study tour from a doctor or physician if necessary.

Fee (includes airfares to and from France) · NZ$10,500 (shared room) · NZ$12,250 (single room)

(A deposit of NZ$1,600 per person is required at time of enrolment. Payment of the balance of the fee will be required by 13 June.

There may still be places available on this tour after these dates - please enquire.

The fee includes:flights to and from France•accommodation in France•land travel in France •all breakfasts•3 lunches, 2 dinners•city taxes in France•all tips for guides and drivers•sightseeing and entrance fees as indicated in the •itinerary pre-tour meetings•pre-tour course (Paris, Provence and the Painters of •Modern Life)

The fee does not include:lunch and dinner in places other than those specified •insurance •passport costs •other items of a personal nature. •

The fee is subject to major currency fluctuations.

If you are travelling alone and request to share a room, you will be asked to upgrade and pay for a single room if a room-mate is not available.

cancellationVictoria University reserves the right to cancel the tour and to refuse or cancel any enrolment for the tour. In either event all payments made will be refunded in full.

Withdrawal Please note: If you withdraw from this tour:

before or on 13 June 2013, your deposit will not be •refunded.between 13 June and 10 July 2013, we will retain 50% •of the total fee paid.on or after 10 July 2013, we will retain 100% of the •total fee paid.

A withdrawal will only be effective when we receive written confirmation of the withdrawal.

You are strongly advised to take out adequate travel insurance to cover unforeseen circumstances.

Visit our website for full itinerary, tour information and enrolment forms www.victoria.ac.nz/studytours