Upcoming Tours:

France – June 11 to June 23, 2010

China – Sept. 3-16, 2010

France…Loire, Normandy, Brittany and More–2010

Tentative itinerary: A 16-day adventure—June 11 to June 23, 2010

Depart USA:  June11

Senlis/Chantilly:  1 nights (June 12-13)

Senlis was a prominent settlement from Roman times and was an important fortified town through the middle ages.  The monarchs of the early French dynasties lived here; in fact, Hugh Capet, the first King of France and founder of the Capetian Dynasty was formally elected King in Senlis by an assembly of nobles in the year 987.  The center of the town still preserves much of the medieval character of the original village.

The nearby Forest of Chantilly provided the royals with an important hunting preserve.  The first châteaux were built here in the 16^th century.  Although the larger of the two mansions was destroyed during the French revolution, it was later rebuilt and restored to its current glory.  It now houses the Museé Condé, a spectacular art gallery of European masterpieces.

From Chantilly and Senlis, we will travel through the French countryside to the Valley of the Seine, the historic (and modern) connection between Paris and the sea.  There, near a small tributary steam, we will immerse ourselves in the floral beauty of Monet’s country home and garden at Giverny.  We will also take time at Les Andelys for a view over the Seine and the fortress ruins of Château Gallard, built by the English king Richard Lion Heart as a bulwark to protect his ancestral Norman lands from the French king.

We will settle into Caen in the heart of Normandy.  Here, a visit to the Memorial where the history of D-Day is retold and commemorated is a must!  From here we will also visit the historic beach sites to imagine the events of June 1944.

A visit in the town of Bayeux will take us back to a much earlier battle and the victory of the Norman king William the Conqueror in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings.  This event brought England under the control of the Norman kings for several hundred years.  It changed the course of English history, effected the development of the English language and the gave England some of its most colorful monarchs.  In 1067, shortly after the battle,

a 225-foot-long tapestry was produced to depict the details William’s victory; astonishingly, it is still on display in Bayeux for us to examine.

Mont St. Michel/St. Malo/Dinan: 3 nights (June 15-18)

Mont St. Michel is one of the most evocative monuments of the Middle Ages.  The legends say that hermits lived in caves on this rock outcropping in the sea in the early centuries of Christianity, and after a vision of the archangel Michael in the year 708, a local bishop had a small chapel constructed there.  From the 10^th century onward, monks began building what became a great monument to their faith.

The province of Brittany stretches from here west toward the Atlantic.  From this region we can visit the spectacular coastline and charming towns, such as St. Malo and Dinan.

Loire Vally/Azay-le-Rideau: 4 nights (June 18-22)

Nothing can take us back into the elegance and decadence of French nobility in the 15^th to the 18^th centuries more effectively than a few days among the largest concentration of flamboyant châteaux in France—here in the Valley of the Loire River and its tributaries.   Here we can choose from dozens of evocative sites:  Chenonceaux, Amboise, Chambord, Azay-le-Rideau, and many others.

But here we can also experience other powerful bits of European history.  At the Abbey of Fontevraud, we can visit the tombs of some of the most fascinating figures of medieval history:  Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful and controversial women of her age; two Plantagenet kings of England, Eleanor’s husband Henry II and one of her sons Richard Lion Heart, also lie here.  They also lived for some time in nearby Chinon castle. (Do see the Kathryn Hepburn movie A Lion in Winter about this fascinating and dysfunctional family!!)

Chinon castle was also a pivotal location in the life of one of France’s greatest heroines, Joan of Arc; it was here in Chinon where she recognized the disguised Dauphin and began on the road which led her to put the Dauphin on the throne as Charles VII, to take the leadership of the military campaigns against the English, and to her eventual betrayal and martyrdom.

Chartres: 1 night (June 22-23)

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres is surely one of the most famous churches in Europe. The current church is at least the seventh sanctuary on this site and was built in a very short time mainly at the end of the 12^th and the beginning of the 13^th century.  Its conceptual unity, its beautiful craftsmanship, and especially the richness of its stained glass windows have made this cathedral a pilgrimage site for lovers of art, architecture and history.

Paris:  2 nights (June 23-25)

Return to USA:

China 2010: A New and Ancient World

Tentative itinerary: Sept. 3-16, 2010

NEW! Our most diverse and exciting itinerary yet! Why just follow the bus-tour masses when you can enjoy an exclusive Jensen Tours adventure?!

On this trip, you will see China’s highlights, but you will also seek out some of its most enticing byways with a very small group of like-minded explorers and with our local Chinese friends. Don’t be satisfied with anything less!

China! The very word inspires thoughts of exotic, distant and mysterious places. Maybe your first thoughts go back to Marco Polo’s trek to the court of the Mongol rulers in China during the Yuan dynasty, where he and his companions found a civilization that astonished the comparatively rustic Europeans. Others are overwhelmed by the amazing vitality and realism in the Han- and Tang-dynasty sculptures of horses and humans at a time when much Western art seemed positively primitive. Perhaps you remember the novels of Pearl Buck, who drew us into the stark existence of Chinese peasants as China approached the modern world or the violent 20th-century conflicts that brought Mao to power and resulted in the Western perception of inscrutable danger behind the “bamboo curtain.”

Today many of us also see the economic and manufacturing powerhouse that is beginning to define 21st-century China, and we were fascinated by the spectacle and excitement of the Olympic Games in 2008. Or maybe the cinema shapes your impressions: the stunningly beautiful films by Zhang Yimou based on Chinese history and marshal arts, such as Hero and The House of Flying Daggers, have impressed movie-goers around the world. (Zhang Yimou, by the way, was also the creator of the amazing Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.) .

China is all that and much, much more! It is a vast, diverse and fascinating country. To think you can experience all of China in one trip is as foolish as to think that you can see all of Europe in one brief vacation. But for this trip, we have selected a glorious cross-section of Chinese culture, history and landscape. As with all our other trips, we will avoid typical mass-tourism superficialities and will limit our group to about 15 participants. Of course, we want to stand on the Great Wall and stroll through the Forbidden City, but we also want to interact with Chinese people and to visit out-of-the way jewels of ancient culture.

TENTATIVE ITINERARY:

(Tentative Dates: Sept. 3-16, 2010)

Beijing: Here the new and ancient worlds collide. Amid the bustle of a vast and modern city, there are some of the most astonishing and beautiful manifestations of the past. You will visit The Forbidden City to glimpse the opulent life and traditions of the Ming and later Qing emperors who ruled into the 20th century. Sacred sites, such as the Temple of Heaven or the Yong He Gong lamasery, will introduce you to some of the powerful spiritual traditions of Chinese culture. You will explore the narrow alleys of some of the old hutong neighborhoods and dine in style on delectable Beijing duck and other culinary specialties.

Day 1: depart USA (B, L, D on airplane)
Day 2: arrival-transfer to hotel-welcome dinner. (D)
Day 3: Tian’anmen Square with Mao Memorial Mausoleum, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven. (B, L, D)
Day 4: Morning trip to the Great Wall at Badaling, afternoon visit to Summer Palace. (B, L, D)
Day 5: Morning flight from Beijing airport to Xi’an. (B)

Xi’an: Long before Beijing became an important city, Xi’an was the center of the Chinese world for many centuries. It certainly rivaled Rome and Constantinople as the greatest and most cultured city in the world. It is the only large Chinese city with nearly intact city walls, which date originally from the Tang dynasty about 1500 years ago and were reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty. More than 2000 years ago, Emperor Qin Shihuang unified all China for the first time and ruled from here. (Film buffs should see Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero, which fictionalizes events surrounding the ascent of this emperor.) Near the mound covering his vast…and still unexcavated…tomb complex, a peasant digging a well in 1974 made one of the 20th century’s most important and amazing archeological discoveries-the buried army of at least 8,000 to 10,000 life-size warriors and horses, fashioned of terra cotta and outfitted with arms and even chariots.

Day 5: Arrive in Xi’an. Enjoy a dinner of justly famous Xi’an dumplings; stroll through the bustling Muslim market nearby.

Day 6: Morning visit to Bingmayong (the terra cotta army). After lunch, we can explore lively center of the walled city. Near the Bell and Drum Towers is the Great Mosque. Still an active place of worship, it was built in Chinese style and so does not resemble the Western stereotypes of mosque architecture. Here we can gain insight into the long and rich Muslim heritage in China. If time allows, the Shaanxi Museum will show you a treasure trove of ancient Chinese artifacts. After dinner, we can take a stroll around the fountains at the Big Goose Pagoda.

Day 7: Morning flight to Yunnan Province in the far Southwest of China. Our goal is the Lijiang in the region near the eastern Himalayas; (B, L)

Lijiang: Yunnan Province in the Southwest of China is amazingly varied. It includes many minority nationalities and vastly different landscapes, from jungles along the Burma border to high mountains near Tibet. It is impossible to see everything in one trip, but we will take time to explore carefully one of the most beautiful regions. Lijiang lies in the far northwest of the province and is the home of the Naxi people, an ancient and strongly matriarchal group descended from Tibetan tribes. The old city is a maze of winding, cobbled lanes, gushing canals, stone bridges and low-slung wood-and-tile houses. This area may have inspired the fictional “Shangri-La,” and you will venture out to see some of the towering peaks, deep valleys, and mountain meadows where yaks are the local livestock.

Day 7: After arrival at our hotel, nestled in the edge of Lijiang’s Old Town, we can get our first impressions of the winding lanes, streams and ancient wood-and-brick houses as we take an evening stroll. (D)

Day 8: To get acquainted with this amazing town, we will take a morning walking tour of the old city, including Sifang Jie (the old market square, where Naxi men and women gather daily to socialize and dance) and the Mu local chieftain residence. After a lunch of local food, we will visit Yuhu Naxi village and the former home of Joseph Rock (the famous and somewhat eccentric Austro-American botanist and explorer who stayed on and off in the Lijiang area from 1922 to 1949) Fortunately, little seems to have changed here since Joseph Rock left.

If the weather is clear, a stroll from the old town to the park around Black Dragon pool will provide beautiful views to the surrounding mountains. You may want to attend an optional evening performance of Naxi ceremonial dancing and music, led by a dongba, a Naxi spiritual leader in full regalia. Or you may choose a spectacular evening of dance and music celebrating the many ethnic cultures of Yunnan Province. (B, L, D)

Day 9: Today we will go to the high meadows around Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. If the skies are friendly, we can see the snow-capped peaks and glaciers. We will stop at the white water river, see herdsmen with their yaks, and take a lift to Dragon Spruce Meadow to enjoy the forest and mountain vistas. Lunch-then free time to explore the city, shop for handcrafts, and watch the Naxi people dance in the town squares. (B, L)

Shangri-La: The most mountainous corner of Yunnan Province borders on Sichuan Province and Tibet. Formerly this area was known as Zhongdian, but is now the County of Shangri-La, evoking the mysterious valleys of Lost Horizon. This region is largely inhabited by Tibetans and here we can see ancient Tibetan villages and towns and can explore historic Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. The altitude and mountainous terrain have kept the region relatively isolated, and many of the lakes and mountains are now protected in national parks and nature reserves.

Day 10: We will have a full morning’s bus travel farther into the mountains to a region toward the Sichuan and Tibet borders. In Shangri-La County, we can stop at the lakes in Potatso National Park, which is one of China’s first attempts to protect an entire environment as a nature reserve. Later in the day we will wander the lanes of Dukezong, one of the oldest and best preserved Tibetan towns of the region. For many centuries, this was a vital trade link on the so-called “Tea-Horse Road” which brought tea from the Chinese lowlands in exchange
for the sturdy horses of Tibet. (B, L, D)

Day 11: Today we will go even farther afield in Shangri-La. We will stop at Napahai Lake, a vast grassland area in the mountains, which becomes a sanctuary for migrating birds during the wet season. From here we can proceed on to the largest and one of the most venerable Tibetan Buddhist lamaseries in Yunnan Province. Originally built at the direction of the 5th Dalai Lama in 1679, it now has a rich history of some 325 years. Here we can see the monks at work and prayer. (B, L, D)

Day 12: Leaving the mountains at the edge of the Roof of the World, we will fly to back to China’s East Coast—to Shanghai, one of the grandest and most modern cities in Asia. The stunning contrast can hardly be greater. (B, L, D).

Shanghai: Now you can contrast the mountain villages with the amazing city of Shanghai. Once it was seen as the exotic, mysterious and lawless city of adventurers, gamblers, dandies, tycoons, missionaries, pimps and

international intrigue. Now it is a stunning modern metropolis of skyscrapers and high finance, but it still retains vestiges of its past. We will stay in the city center and will help you organize your time in this fascinating city. You may want to ascend to the top of the tallest buildings, take a cruise on the Huangpu River to see the stunning cityscapes, visit one of the most interesting museums in China, or go shopping in the maze of the Yu Garden market or in the modern malls!

Day 12: Arrive in Shanghai. Take an evening stroll along the famous Bund to see the skyline over the river at night.

Day 13: Today the bustle of the urban world will come flooding back to us. From the skyscrapers in the Pudong district to the busy market at Yu Garden to the famous Shanghai Museum on People’s Square, we will feel the pulse of modern China in preparation for our return to the US or for our further Chinese adventures.

Day 14: Return to the US

OPTIONAL EXTENSION: Join a few friends of our Chinese colleague, Tang Cai, for a 4-day trip to his origins in the far Northeast of China. He will take you to his home in the beautiful coastal city of Dalian. Then we will go to Heilongjiang Province—near Siberia—where he was born to a peasant family in a tiny farm village. We will visit that village and meet his relatives and friends. Ask for more information about this adventure!!!

For application forms or additional information:
Ask Sarah and Nancy at:
Quail Ridge Books: QRBooks1@aol.com
www.quailridgebooks.com
800-672-6789

Or write to: tours@jensentour.com
Jensen Tours
www.jensentours.com
336-379-8275 or (cell) 336-508-5256