Art and Resistance in WWII Paris and Champagne

Paris and Champagne Tour Overview

This brand-new tour will be a moving and unforgettable journey to an extraordinary moment in French history. Our tour centres on real-life figures and events depicted in Bryn Turnbull’s best-selling novel The Paris Deception. As Nazi forces stole art from Jewish families and others they deemed enemies, they funneled these stolen works through Paris’s Jeu de Paume museum. From here, thousands of works were sent to Reich-controlled areas, exchanged, or destroyed. But others were saved, and we will explore the stories of the people who saved them.

We are thrilled to have three world-class guides with us on the tour. Bryn will be travelling with our group, sharing her experiences of researching and writing her gripping novel. Novelists Lisa Pasold and Samuél Lopez-Barrantes will guide us through what it was like to be in Paris during WWII. On their custom walks, Lisa and Samuél will share stories of the dangers people faced, the risks they weighed, the acts of courage and cruelty they committed, and the hopes they held on to.

From Paris we will take a short train ride to Champagne, where we will spend a few days exploring the historic towns of Reims and Épernay. Our home will be the truly fabulous Caserne Chanzy, right across from Reims’s stunning cathedral.

The region’s signature beverage needs no introduction, but what is perhaps less known is that Champagne was an especially active area of resistance. Through walking tours and visits to places like the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame in Reims, we’ll get a nuanced understanding of how so many men and women of Champagne fought for freedom. We’ll also take time to enjoy extraordinary medieval and renaissance architecture as well as taste various champagnes.

Paris and Champagne Itinerary at a Glance

Day 1: Arrive to Paris
Day 2: Atelier du Temps Passé art presentation / Le Marais walk
Day 3: Left Bank (Rive Gauche) walk / Cooking class near the Panthéon
Day 4: Montparnasse walk / Musée de la Libération
Day 5: Place Vendôme, Concorde, & Jeu de Paume / Les Invalides
Day 6: Train to Reims / Free time
Day 7: Reims heritage tour / Pommery and Villa Demoiselle tour and Champagne tasting
Day 8: Reims heritage tour, cont’d / Épernay
Day 9: Drive through Champagne countryside / Pressoria museum & Hautvillers
Day 10: Departure

Accommodation

Hôtel Le Littré, Paris; La Caserne Chanzy Hotel and Spa, Reims

Readings

The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull
Suite française by Irène Némirovsky

Bryn’s page-turning novel The Paris Deception evokes the atmosphere of WWII Paris through the stories of two women, an artist and an art conservator, determined not to be crushed by the Nazi occupation or the personal grief the war has inflicted on them.

I loved the Paris history walks, Lisa made the neighborhoods come alive.

Dave S., California

Melanie is excellent, not just as discussion leader and moderator, but also in many areas above and beyond that role: facilitator, mother hen, liaison with local resources, chief cat-herder, logistics genius, perennial friendly face.

Erika S., Florida

Leaders

Bryn Turnbull

Bryn Turnbull is the bestselling author of The Paris Deception and three other historical novels, including The Berlin Apartment, published summer 2024. She studied English at McGill University and has an ML in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews.

Lisa Pasold

Lisa Pasold will lead our walks in Montparnasse and central Paris. A writer originally from Montreal, she is the host and co-writer of Discovery World’s TV travel show “Paris Next Stop.” Lisa is the creator of “Improbable Walks”, story-telling walks focusing on legends and place memory. She has created these art walks to critical acclaim for festivals and gallery residencies in cities such as New Orleans, Toronto and Paris.

Samuél Lopez-Barrantes

Samuél Lopez-Barrantes will lead our walk in the Marais and host our Invalides excursion. Samuél is a novelist who lives in Paris, where he has taught creative writing at the Sorbonne, hosts literary salons, and leads historical walks on modernism, existentialism, and the Nazi Occupation of Paris. His second novel, The Requisitions, is a historical metafiction set in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Melanie Blake

Melanie Blake is the director of Classical Pursuits. She led her first tour in France in 2002 and never tires of all l'Hexagone has to offer, in all its complexity. She studied English and French at Fordham University and the Université de Montpellier, and linguistics at the University of Nottingham.

FAQ

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What’s Included

Accommodation in double occupancy, based on hotel listed or similar
Meals as specified in the itinerary
All activities as specified in the itinerary
All entrance fees
Local English-speaking guides
Literary discussions
Books and readings
Gratuities for local guides, drivers, hotel staff, and group meals
Taxes
Fully escorted by discussion leader Melanie Blake and author Bryn Turnbull

Online Learning: Presentations

The Berlin Apartment with Bryn Turnbull

December 12, 2024, 7 p.m. ET

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Toronto, Canada. Classical Pursuits organizes literary and cultural trips and seminars in Toronto, Canada, and around the world with our travel partner Worldwide Quest (TICO Reg: #2667946). Design by Ctrl Alt Create.