- Half day excursion (27 May 2015) to Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) collects and disseminates the entire France documentary heritage. BnF has a unique collection of 14 million books, documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps/plans, scores, coins, medals, sound documents, video and multimedia documents, and scenery elements covering all disciplines. According to BnF site information, about 150.000 documents are added to its collection yearly which is also supplemented by an access to over three millions documents provided by the digital library, Gallica. BnF’s diverse and plenty cultural events made known the library’s outstanding collections: exhibitions, lectures, symposiums, concerts and meetings which take place all the yearlong.
- Full day excursion (30 May 2015) at Monet's home and gardens in Giverny and the Versailles Palace
You can enjoy the two must-see places of Paris in one exciting day:
The famous gardens and home of impressionist painter Claude Monet in Giverny and the Versailles Palace.
The tour also includes a wonderful countryside lunch.
In Claude Monet's property at Giverny, you will the chance to discover the gardens created by the painter, the distinguished Japanese bridge in the middle of flowered paths and water-lily ponds. Monet spent there 40 years on painting various aspects of the gardens playing with colors and light and he concentrated on his love for nature, art and gardening. Since you stand in the gardens you feel you are in one of his paintings. Monet's property which left by his son to the Académie des beaux-arts (Academy of Fine Arts) in 1966 has undertaken a large scale restoration work and now become the Claude Monet Foundation that inaugurated in 1980. If you ever admiring a beautiful panting and dreamed that you are also part of it, then you have to visit these house and gardens.
For further information, you can visit: http://giverny.org/monet/home/
After lunch, we will visit the former home of French royalty, the Versailles Palace. Versailles Palace, a royal palace a few miles outside Paris, is known in French as the Château de Versailles.Versailles, built for Louis XIV expressing his power and the influence of France, is indicating the luxurious court and the artistic genius of the 17th and the 18th centuries. From 1682 to 1789 the Versailles was the capital of France and its court was the center of political power until October 1789 after the beginning of French Revolution. Versailles is a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régim (Old or Former Regime) and today is one of the UNESCO World Heritage. The Palace of Versailles is known for its huge gardens with many fountains and statues. It gardens are one of the largest in Europe, with a total area of up to 800 hectares. The vegetation cover is the work of the Royal gardener André Le Nôtre. Fountains and statues are depicted the Greek mythology. The total garden of Versailles spreads over three levels behind the palace, and is the continuation of palace architecture. Like the palace, so the gardens are designed to honor the king and his country. The great rivers of France represented as statues. In front of the Grand Canal, a huge cross-shaped channel, is the fountain of Apollo, the most majestic of all the fountains of Versailles.
For further information, you can visit: http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage
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