America’s Founding Fathers in Paris

Depart on an international flight to Paris

Paris, France

Upon arrival in Paris, join a group transfer to the hotel. After arrival, you may depart for an optional guided visit to the Hôtel National des Invalides, commissioned by Louis XIV in 1670 as a veterans’ home and hospital. Inside, learn about French military power at the Musée de l’Armée, which hosts one of the world’s largest collections of military history. This evening, gather for a welcome dinner.

Paris

Enjoy a guided morning walk through the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood. Here, John Jay, Thomas Paine, and John Paul Jones once lived among the cafés, bookshops, churches, and private houses of the Left Bank. Pause at the former Hôtel d’York at 56 rue Jacob, where Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay met British negotiator David Hartley to sign the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, formally ending the Revolutionary War. Gather for lunch at Le Procope, Paris’s oldest café, founded in 1686. Frequented by Napoleon, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it was also a meeting spot for French revolutionaries such as Danton and Robespierre. Afterwards, walk through one of Paris’s most elegant public gardens, the Jardin du Luxembourg, begun in 1612 for Marie de Médicis. Next, visit the nearby Église Saint-Sulpice, where Delacroix painted three murals inside the Chapelle des Saints-Anges (Chapel of the  Holy Angels) between 1854 and 1861. End the afternoon in the Latin Quarter, Paris’s old university district. Pass the Panthéon, the civic mausoleum where many of France’s greatest figures, including Voltaire and Rousseau, are buried, and the Sorbonne, one of France’s oldest universities, founded in the 13th century, before browsing the food stalls along Rue Mouffetard. Dinner is at leisure.

Paris | Versailles

Travel to Versailles for a private tour of the Bibliothèque Municipale de Versailles, housed in the former Foreign Affairs building, which was completed in 1763. Benjamin Franklin was formally received here in 1778, as France prepared the financial and military support that helped secure American independence. Inside, see its collections of paintings amid richly decorated 18th-century interiors. Gather for a special lunch at the Waldorf Astoria Versailles – Trianon Palace, recognized by Historic Hotels Worldwide, a program affiliated with the National Trust. After lunch, enter the Château de Versailles and view the Galerie des Glaces, the famous Hall of Mirrors. Gain guided access to the King’s Private Apartments, an exclusive experience beyond the reach of regular visitors. Return to Paris, where dinner is at leisure.

Paris

As American Minister to the Court of Versailles, Thomas Jefferson observed the first stirrings of the French Revolution in the late 1780s, meeting frequently with the Marquis de Lafayette and other key figures. Explore his role in these pivotal years on a private tour of the Musée Carnavalet, where artifacts and documents trace the revolution’s early days. After lunch at a bistro in Le Marais, take time to explore the formerly aristocratic neighborhood’s courtyards, shops, and museums on your own. Then, visit Cimetière de Picpus, one of Paris’s two private cemeteries, where Lafayette is buried. Stand at his grave, where soil from Bunker Hill was placed after his burial, and see the American flag that has flown here since World War I. Dinner is at leisure this evening.

Paris / Giverny / La Roche-Guyon

Travel to Giverny, the Normandy village where Claude Monet lived and painted from 1883 until his death in 1926. After lunch, visit Monet’s home and gardens and begin in the Clos Normand, the flower garden he planted in front of his pink house. Walk through the Water Garden, reached by a pedestrian tunnel, and view the green Japanese bridge, wisteria, and water lilies that appear in many of Monet’s late paintings. Visit Château de La Roche-Guyon, the ancestral home of the La Rochefoucauld family, built into limestone cliffs along a bend in the Seine. Here, the young Duc de La Rochefoucauld translated the Declaration of Independence into French, helping French readers understand the American cause. Return to Paris by way of the Champs-Élysées, passing the Arc de Triomphe and addresses linked to John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson.
Dinner is at leisure.

Paris

Begin at the Musée du Louvre with a personalized welcome and first access to the galleries on a specially arranged tour. View European paintings from the former royal collections, including works by Titian, Veronese, and Rembrandt that Thomas Jefferson encountered during his years in Paris. After lunch at leisure, choose how to spend the afternoon on your own. Gather this evening for a farewell dinner at Lafayette’s, set in the former mansion of the Marquis de Lafayette at 8 rue d’Anjou. Dine in this beautifully restored 18th-century house, where the menu draws on French classics.

Paris | RETURN

Following breakfast, depart the hotel on a group transfer to the airport.