* France - Côte d'Azur, Verdon, Luberon and the Provence : Coach Tour

Arrive in Nice airport, where you will be welcomed by your guide, and coach transfer to Nice. Explore the old town, so Italian in feel, with its flower market, pastel facades and narrow backstreets. Check in to your hotel for dinner and overnight.

Set off for the village of Biot and a visit to a glassworks, then on to Vallauris famous for its potteries. Continue to Cannes, and free time for lunch. Explore this “Holly wood” of the French Riviera, with its famous seafront boulevard “la Croisette”, golden beaches and quaint old quarter. Return to the hotel. Dinner and overnight.

Discover the mediaeval village of Grasse, with its picturesque narrow streets winding up to the main square, the “Place aux Aires”. Plunge into the magical world of perfume creation with a visit to a perfumery. Free time for lunch. Then continue via the hill village of Gourdon and the Gorges du Loup to Vence, and neighbouring St Paul de Vence. This small and perfectly preserved mediaeval town enjoys a worldwide reputation as a home to artists and there are scores of galleries, craft shops and boutiques to browse. Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

Today’s outing takes you to Europe’s very own “Grand Canyon”, in the shape of the spectacular Verdon Gorges. Drive along the rim of the canyon with its sheer cliff walls towering vertiginously over striking turquoise-green waters, which for hundreds of thousands of years have carved a deep ravine through the dramatic landscape. Stop beside the shimmering blue waters of the Sainte Croix Lake and free time for lunch. Then visit Moustiers, famous for its beautiful faience ceramics with distinctive blue flower decoration. Check in to your hotel in the region for dinner and overnight.

Nestling at the foot of dramatic cliffs is the village of Fontaine de Vaucluse, whose powerful source surges from underground to spill into the bed of the river Sorgue, undoubtedly the region’s most beautiful river. Continue to the pretty town of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue with its innumerable antique dealers, art galleries and second-hand shops. Free time for lunch then visit the 12th century Abbey of Senanque, a most beautiful example of Cistercian architecture. Check-in to your hotel in the Luberon region for dinner and overnight.

Tour some of the « Most Beautiful Villages in France », starting with Bonnieux, Menerbes and then picturesque Gordes. Here, houses huddle in higgledy-piggledy fashion in a labyrinth of narrow streets around the imposing stone mass of the old castle. Free time for lunch then on to Roussillon and its famous ochre cliffs. Swathes of fragrant lavender sweep across the Provencal countryside and the Museum in Le Coustellet is a wealth of information on this lovely purple plant.  Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

Today visit Aubagne, a village famed for its hand-crafted figurines, called « santons », made for the Christmas crib, and watch some of the artists at work. Continue to Aix-en-Provence, city of a thousand fountains, and hometown of painter Cezanne. Admire the Renaissance buildings and visit the studio where the artist worked, then sample some of the town’s speciality sweets, or “calissons”. Check in to your hotel in the region. Dinner and overnight.

Founded around 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, in modern-day Turkey, Marseilles is the oldest city in France. Take a sightseeing tour around the harbour, up to the Notre Dame Basilica looking out over the city, and to the ancient St Victor’s Abbey built on the tomb of a Christian martyr. Pure and natural “savon de Marseille” soap is made according to traditional methods which you can witness first-hand at a soap manufacturers. Free time for lunch then transfer to Marseilles airport for your return flight. End of our services.