Spring Scouting
In March, Ross and I headed to England and France for site visits for upcoming tours. It was a whirlwind 11 days, but we have so much great new knowledge to share with our travelers! Read on to see where we went.
How We Got There: We flew Virgin Atlantic into Heathrow and Air France out of Paris. We heartily recommend both airlines (they are both codeshares with Delta).
Where We Went: The Cotswolds, Paris, Provence, and the Dordogne in 11 days. Oof! On our scouting trips we pack a lot in to our trips, these are not vacations! The logistics of this trip were not easy as we had several closures and other practical things for we had to take into account. But we made it work!
Fresh off our red-eye flight, we headed straight from Heathrow airport into the Cotswolds. We were to put the final touches on our tour next May to the Gardens of England. Our first goal was to find the best towns to take our travelers to, and we found several. We also needed to visit a couple of new hotels that we plan to use for future stays. We had a splendid 48 hours: the sun was out and the magnolia trees were in bloom.
We then took the Eurostar from London to Paris, and then from Paris to Provence. We reworked the itinerary for our 2026 tour to Provence (full details here) and are over the moon with the results. We met with lovely teams at both hotels we are using. The first is in Arles, a historically-rich city that is also young and vibrant. The second is in the smaller village of Lourmarin, located in the Luberon (our favorite region of Provence). We also have great new restaurant and shopping recommendations (remember that we do trip planning too!). The sun was out, the weather was perfect, despite the howling mistral wind.
Then it was up to Paris for one night. Brasserie Lipp, one of Paris’s oldest brasseries, has been getting a lot of good press recently and we wanted to check it out. When we lived in Paris 15 years Lipp sadly had lost its glamour. While we have a few small reservations about recommending it, our overall impression was positive.
Finally it was down to the Dordogne, a rustic region of southwest France not far from Bordeaux and Toulouse. This is a beautiful region, full of the most charming small towns, great antique stores, loads of history and chateaux, and of course food (this is the land of foie gras and duck).
We have an upcoming private trip to the Dordogne this fall and we are also working on a future group tour there with a focus on gardens. Several of France’s best gardens are located here and after our site visits we are thrilled with possibilities of doing a garden tour here (stay tuned!).
Thank you for following along! We hope to see you on a tour soon!