Morning: Latin Quarter. Bus to the Arab Institute’s observation deck atop starchitect Jean Nouvel’s startlingly modern building, with views above the Seine and Notre Dame Cathedral

Walk through the 17th-century Jardin des Plantes, the botanical gardens

Visit to the exotic, women-only steam baths at the century-old Paris Mosque.

Midday:

Light lunch in the Mosque’s Moorish-style tea salon

Afternoon:

Walk along the bustling Rue Mouffetard, the oldest market street in Paris

Visit to the small Musée Curie, the preserved office and lab of the illustrious scientist, the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the only woman to have received two.

Visit to the nearby Pantheon, the French necropolis to “great men” to see, among many others, the graves of Marie and Pierre Curie, and Josephine Baker, who recently became the only American, the only entertainer, and the only woman of color to be interred here.

Return to the hotel via the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens

Dinner – La Fontaine de Mars, a traditional French bistro since 1908 near the Eiffel Tower.

We'll being our day in Passy, the elegant Right Bank residential quarter. Visit to the Musée Marmottan Monet, a splendid small museum with a peerless collection of Impressionist paintings and Monet waterlilies.

We’ll pause in the facing park to enjoy a vintage hand-cranked carrousel.

Marché President Wilson, a twice-weekly market in one of the poshest parts of town. And/Or: resale and other shops along the Rue de Passy

Midday:

Lunch  – La Mascotte café, Avenue President Wilson

Afternoon:

Galerie Dior, the fantastic, newly installed homage to the esteemed couture house

Visit to the Hermès flagship to admire the coveted silk scarves

Return to Hotel

Evening:

Ile de la Cité

Walk to the historic Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, where we’ll board an hour-long cocktail cruise that will glide us past the great monuments along the Seine

Dinner – facing the bridge on the charming Place Dauphine

Bus to the Porte de Vanves flea market for vintage collectibles

Midday:

Return to St-Germain for lunch at Le Raspail café; stop at hotel to leave purchases, rest, freshen up

Afternoon:

The Marais

Bus to the Place des Vosges, a lovely square built in the early-17th century by Henri IV for the French aristocracy.

Visit to the Musée Carnavalet, the recently restored Paris history museum

Shopping in the neighborhood’s scores of boutiques

Evening:

Dinner –  Chez Janou, a cheerful Provençal restaurant decorated with vintage posters and memorabilia

Bus back to Hotel

A van will take us to the Château de Malmaison, Napoleon and Josephine’s estate purchased in 1799 outside Paris. The rose garden was once the largest in Europe.

Midday:

Lunch – La Maison Fournaise – on the Île-des-Impressionistes in Chatou, a 19th-century gathering spot for artists that was immortalized by Auguste Renoir in one of his most loved paintings

Afternoon:

Return to the hotel for free time in St Germain. 

Evening:

Montparnasse

Dinner – La Coupole, the legendary Jazz Age brasserie

Bus to the Canal St. Martin, one of the most popular sites with Parisians, the area features dozens of boutiques and cafés that face the 200-year-old waterway.

Stop in the Gare de l’Est, the 1849 train station where we’ll see the century-old mural that commemorates the departure from here of French soldiers for the front in the Great War

Walk through a little-known, tranquil garden built on the site of an old military hospital that was strategically installed close to the Gare de l’Est to quickly treat the wounded brought back from the front.

Walk along the picturesque Canal St Martin, an 1825 engineering feat ordered by Napoleon to bring clean drinking water to Paris, to watch barges and other small boats navigate through the locks and pass under graceful cast-iron footbridges.

Midday:

Lunch – Les Enfants Perdus, a chic restaurant near the canal that specializes in seasonal produce

Afternoon:

We’ll continue to the adjacent Upper Marais quarter for several notable concept stores and vintage-clothing boutiques

Return to hotel

Evening:

Dinner – Chez Dumonet – charming Left Bank bistro founded in 1898

Metro to the Nouvelles-Athènes quarter, a mid-19th-century neighborhood that was home to some of the greatest artists, writers, and musicians. Today, this trendy area is known as SoPi (South of Pigalle)

Visit to the Musée Gustave Moreau – a wonderfully intimate museum that honors the work of the Symbolist painter whose home and studio this was.

Walk to the nearby Musée de la Vie Romantique, set in a private 19th-century villa. We’ll enjoy a coffee in the garden tea salon.

Walk to the lively Rue des Martyrs, one of the most vibrant shopping streets in Paris.

Midday:

Lunch – Breizh Café Abbesses – excellent creperie near the charming Places des Abbesses

Afternoon:

Free time in Montmartre

Return to hotel

Evening:

Late dinner at La Petite Chaise, a short walk from the hotel, where we’ll be served in a private dining room for our farewell dinner

All guests make their way to the airport for flights home.

Bon voyage!