Nine Days in France

France | Apr 24 - May 2, 2026

We spent wonderful nine days in France, traveling from Paris to Tours to Bayeux and back to Paris. On arrival in Paris, we took the high-speed TGV from Paris to Tours where we rented a car for our travels over the next few days. We drove to our hotel in the countryside from the city of Tours and spent time biking and touring Châteaux in the region.
We then drove to the city of Bayeux in Normandy where we toured the Allied landing sites from WWII as well as the American cemetery. We had an excellent guide that took us through the history and sacrifice of the Allied troops on June 6, 1944, as they begin the task of freeing Europe from Nazi occupation. Our hotel in Bayeux was in the town center within close walking distance of many nice restaurants.
Next, we traveled back to Paris where we spent four nights and toured many popular sites including a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and guided tours of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle Royal Chapel. Notre-Dame has been beautifully restored after the fire of 2019, and our guide gave us an engaging history of the Cathedral and its architecture. Sainte-Chapelle has the most beautiful stain glass windows one could hope to see.
We toured portions of the Musée du Louvre with an excellent guide where we focused on the Ancient Greece, Roman, and French Renaissance exhibits. Our guide brought history to life with detailed explanations of what was happening in society during these periods. Afterwards, we enjoyed a wine and cheese pairing at a lovely wine shop.
A final highlight of the trip was a private cooking class with French Chef Myriam where we learned to prepare a three course French meal. After the preparation, we enjoyed the meal with a nice bottle of French red wine (Une belle bouteille de vin rouge français).
Kimkim guided us through setting up the customized itinerary to focus on our specific interests, covering a region of France we had been wanting to explore. All our guides were outstanding. When we had an issue (which was rare), KimKim was very responsive to be sure everything was right. They even surprised us with a bottle of champagne on our first night for my wife’s birthday.