- Board your flight Begin your adventure to Paris, France.
France & Germany
Embark on an enriching journey through the heart of Europe, where history and culture come alive at every turn. From the iconic landmarks of Paris and the charming streets of Strasbourg to the fairytale-like Heidelberg, students will discover history and culture through guided tours, excursions, and immersive experiences, including a Rhineland cruise extension for added exploration. This tour balances education…
Request Info Request Quote
https://worldstrides.com.au/itineraries/france-germany
France & Germany
Embark on an enriching journey through the heart of Europe, where history and culture come alive at every turn. From the iconic landmarks of Paris and the charming streets of Strasbourg to the fairytale-like Heidelberg, students will discover history and culture through guided tours, excursions, and immersive experiences, including a Rhineland cruise extension for added exploration. This tour balances education…
Request Info Request Quote8-10 days
Destinations
France: Paris, StrasbourgGermany: Heidelberg, Rhineland
Your Adventure
- Meet your tour director and check into hotel
-
Paris city walk
Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Île St. Louis, Latin Quarter
This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Please note Notre Dame Cathedral is currently closed due to fire damage. - Louvre Museum visit The world's largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a Medieval fortress-turned-castle so grand it's worth a tour itself. You walk through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added in 1989, and step into another world--one with carved ceilings, deep-set windows, and so many architectural details you could spend a week just admiring the rooms. The Mona Lisa is here, as well as the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (the headless statue, circa 200 BC, discovered at Samothrace). The Louvre has seven different departments of paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and antiquities. Don't miss the Egyptian collection, complete with creepy sarcophagi, or the collection of Greek ceramics, one of the largest in the world. (Please note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.)
- Dinner in Latin Quarter
-
Paris guided sightseeing tour
Arc de Triomphe, Champs Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Opera House
What's that huge white arch at the end of the Champs-Élysées? The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz. Your licensed local guide will elaborate on this, and other Parisian landmarks. See some of the most famous sites, including the ornate 19th-century Opera, the Presidential residence and the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836. Spot chic locals (and tons of tourists) strolling the Champs-Élysées. Look up at the iron girders of the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. See Les Invalides (a refuge for war wounded) and the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater). -
Versailles guided excursion
State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors, Gardens of Versailles
The ultimate palace, Versailles was built by Louis XIII, and housed the royal family and its groveling court from 1682, when Louis XIV the Sun King moved in, to the French Revolution. Everything in Versailles is worth a look, from the 250-foot-long Hall of Mirrors, with themed salons- "war" and "peace" -on either side, to Marie Antoinette's faux country hamlet. When being a queen became too much to bear, she would pretend to be a commoner, tending her sheep and wearing peasant clothes. (Please note Versailles is closed on Mondays). - Seine River Cruise See the city from the water on an hour-long cruise along the River Seine. The Seine cuts right through Paris, dividing the city in half. See the Eiffel tower rising up on the Left Bank, the walls of the Louvre on the Right Bank. A guide will point out other monuments and architectural marvels as you pass, many of which are illuminated by clear white light at night.
- Travel to Strasbourg via TGV
-
Strasbourg guided sightseeing tour
Strasbourg Cathedral guided visit, Petite France
Guten Tag and bonjour. The capital of Alsace-Lorraine, Strasbourg embodies the best of the German and French cultures once battling to control the area. Join a local licensed guide for a walking tour of Petite France, Strasbourg’s medieval quarter. The magnificently Gothic Notre Dame cathedral is the city’s spiritual center, while in the adjoining square the elaborately carved Maison Kammerzell, once a wealthy merchant’s house, gives evidence of Strasbourg’s healthy economic history.
- Colmar & the Maginot Line excursion Explore a portion of the immense Maginot Line, a system of fortifications extending along France’s eastern borders. Designed with the slow-moving trench warfare of World War I in mind, the fortifications could not repel the bombs and tanks of the German army during World War II and therefore ultimately failed to protect France from invasion. Your Tour Director will show you the inner workings of the largest fort, Hackenberg, whose underground vaults included hospitals, trains for moving ammunition and soldiers, kitchens, barracks, and more. Then continue on to Colmar, a well-preserved 16th-century trading town where flowered bridges, half-timbered houses, and picturesque canals will make thoughts of war seem very far away.
- Four à Chaux visit
- Travel to Heidelberg
-
Heidelberg tour director-led sightseeing
Heidelberg Castle and wine barrel visit, Market Square
Surrounded by mountains, forests, and the Neckar River, Heidelberg showcases a quintessential German landscape. Join your Tour Director as you drive through this granddaddy of all college towns, with its scores of bars, cafés, and shops. Get a beautiful view Germany’s oldest university —founded in 1386—from the Marktplatz, Heidelberg’s main square. Head up to Heidelberg Castle, which is still a little wobbly from its partial destruction during the Thirty Years’ War, a 17th-century attack by the French, and a major lightening hit in 1764. The castle’s courtyard is home to the largest wine barrel in world, the Great Vat, which holds about 50,000 gallons of wine (possibly another contributing factor to the castle’s romantically off-balance appearance).
-
Rothenburg excursion
Marktplatz, Rathaus, Fountain of Saint George
Christmas reigns all year round in Rothenburg, a jewel of a town on Germany’s picturesque Romantic Road. Beyond the year-round Christmas markets, the town boasts one of the most intact medieval city walls in Europe and a fairly unique clock. During the Thirty Years’ War, a former Rothenburg mayor was offered the chance to save the city by chugging close to a gallon of wine; he succeeded (and then slept for three days straight), and his accomplishment is reenacted seven times daily by mechanical figures on the clock in the Marktplatz - adding a new twist to the concept of “cuckoo clock.” The enormous Gothic St. Jacob’s Church watches over the exploits from across the square.
- Travel to Frankfurt Frankfurt is a cosmopolitan and bustling city on the Main River. It is Germany’s financial powerhouse, and features a mixture of soaring skyscrapers, half-timbered houses, and also boasts a wealth of museums.
- Depart for your flight home/Start Rhineland Cruise extension
- Transfer via Cologne to Rhineland Towering over the train station, the Kolner Dom took seven centuries (300 years worth of interruptions) to finish, only to be scarred by 14 bombings during World War II. Catch your breath after a climb up the 509 stairs to the South Tower for a great view of the Rhine. Nine bells are housed in the Glockenstube, and in one corner, weighing in at 24 tons, is the Petriglocke, the world’s heaviest working bell.
- Cologne Cathedral visit Visit Kölner Dom, the most famous Gothic structure in Germany. In addition to its grandiose size; the cathedral also features the Shrine of the Three Kings, a huge Romanesque reliquary said to hold relics of the Three Kings, and the Altar of the Magi, the work of Stephan Lochner. Take the opportunity to Ascend to the Viewing Platform for wonderful views of Cologne.
- Rhine cruise from Koblenz to Rudesheim Cruise for several hours along the Rhine. Sightsee from the Deck.
- Disembark and stay overnight in the Rhineland
