Personalised French tours, with a maximum of eight people travelling together to explore ceramics, art, history, food, wine and spectacular countryside while meeting the artists and local people.

 

2008 Tour Schedule
June	July	September
fully booked	fully booked	fully booked

sample itinerary

 

2009 Tour Schedule
May 15 - 29	June 5 - 19	June 25 - July 9	September

Zeste French Tours - 2009

1. May 15 – 29.
   “In the Footsteps of the Impressionists”. A painting/drawing tour of the South of France with artist and tutor Cherry Manders. Visit regions where Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, Chagall and van Gogh worked. Paint on site. [Aix, Cassis, Antibes, Vence, Luberon valley, St Remy] Start & finish in Avignon.
   download information sheet
   
   
2. June 5 – 19.
   Pottery tour starting in Paris to Giverny [Monet], La Borne, pottery centre, Limoges, Loire Valley and back to Paris.
   
   
3. June 25 – July 9.
   Pottery, Haute Provence and music festival tour. Lyon, potters, participate in pottery workshop, head south through Haute Provence, and back near Lyon for international jazz festival at Vienne.
   
   
4. September 11 – 26.
   Pottery and wine tour. Pottery market in Lyon, through Bourgogne (Burgundy) during the vendanges, grape picking season, and north to Alsace, “la route du vin”, visiting potters’ studios and villages of interest.

All tours are led by Jane Annois as guide and French speaker. Tours include travel in France, accommodation and most meals. Maximum of 8 people on each tour. [7 for Impressionist tour].

Trips include items such as visits to potters studios, galleries and museums of interest, vineyards, restaurants, places of interest en route, great food always, local markets, etc.

Galerie des Ocres - Rousillon, Provence	Fontaine de Vaucluse, Provence

Each French tour has a maximum of 8 people. You will travel in a minibus driven by Jane, allowing for flexibility where the group can make day to day choices. Jane speaks French fluently smoothing the way, and gaining introductions to places otherwise unknown. An important aspect of the tour as with any trip to France is the food. We go to restaurants only frequented by the locals, are treated to culinary delights by French potters and discover local wines. Jane has taken many tours where people have enjoyed the French hospitality and experienced spectacular landscapes. Many have travelled with Jane multiple times because they enjoyed the tour experience so much.

Discovering the Provence countryside	Marché de Potiers by the historic Lyon cathedral

About your tour guide

Jane Annois has been participating in French Potters markets every year since 1997. As a French teacher and ceramic artist she began combining these two life time interests to form an ongoing rapport with French ceramic artists and the French countryside.

Jane has also taught ceramics at TAFE, primary and secondary schools, as artist in residence and in specialist workshops. She has been a demonstrator and guest speaker at numerous conferences in Australia and overseas, a highlight being the Australian representative at an international symposium in Amiens in France in 2001. She has exhibited her ceramic art internationally, notably in Paris in 2000, assisted by an Australia Council grant. The contacts she has made over this time, allow her to share with her fellow travellers a rare insight to French culture, and the ceramic world.

Jane has organised an exhibition of French ceramic artists in Melbourne in 2007 and a reciprocal Australian ceramic exhibition in France in 2008.

Enjoying a wine or two, Cassis near Marseille	Australians exhibit at the Lyon Potters Market