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As a Europe Specialist and Certified France Agent with Totem Travel I often receive wonderful reviews of specific places from tour operators or representatives and I thought I’d share this from a recent review.

Toulouse is ideally situated in the heart of Southern France, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. Both modern and historic, bustling with fresh markets, winding streets surrounding the main square with charming shops, boulangeries, and more. The Golden Age in Toulouse was between 1500 and 1700. Merchants thrived on the pastel trade, from the WOAD plant providing a blue pigment and became Consuls, or Capitouls, finding power and prestige.

During the same period (between 1544 and 1662), the oldest bridge of Toulouse, the Pont Neuf, was built. You could spend days in Toulouse just exploring the shops, markets and museums.
A couple other sight not to be missed are the Saint-Sernin Basilica, which was built during the Romanesque Period between AD 1080 and 1120.

The Bemburg Foundation where you can tour Georges Bemberg’s art collection in the Hotel d’Assezat, a  XVII century mansion built for Pierre d’Assezat who made his fortune from WOAD, Mr. Bemberg is an avid art collector who divides his time between Paris, New York and Buenos Aires. Without a direct heir, Mr Bemberg became anxious in the late 1980′s about the fate his collection and developed the idea of a Foundation as a mean of preserving the integrity of his collection, while opening it to the public. The collection contains Matisse, Degas, Gauguin, Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso and opened in 1993.
And lastly don’t miss the House of Pastel to find to about the aforementioned WOAD. These dyes were the original source of wealth for the area of Toulouse. From 1463 to 1560 Toulouse enjoyed a real Golden Age thanks to the Pastel trade. The pastel leaves crushed and rolled-up in balls called “coques” gave the region of Toulouse its nickname of “pays de cocagne” or “land of riches” and has been used as far back as the Egyptians, who used it to dye the cloth wrappings used for the mummies.

l’Ariege boasts the Caves of Niaux. The Grotte de Niaux is one of the few cave systems where wall paintings are still open to the public. You enter from the hillside into a natural site of incredible history and beauty. About 350 m from the cave entrance is a large rock with a vertical surface. This surface is covered with dots and short lines in red and black. That is the first glimpse of prehistoric art a visitor to the cave sees. Its meaning is still unknown. Some see dots as female symbols and lines as male symbols. Much more impressive and interesting is the art in the Black chamber. There are extraordinary drawings of horses and bison. The visits to the Grotte de Niaux are extremely restricted to save the prehistoric cave paintings; only 11 visits per day so make sure you plan ahead for your tour.

Tarn is still in the Montagne Noire region and brings the stone building of the Soreze Abbey, home to the most prestigious school in France. Promoted to the rank of Ecole Royale (Royal School) it had 400 students living there from all over the world for 12 centuries; studying humanities, music, drawing and fine arts. Its sheer size and architecture give it both an air of majesty and a sense of military order. It closed in  1991 and has been renovated into a center for the arts including a beautiful hotel with a restaurant, after 1200 years the historic abbey has a new life.

Thanks to Laurelee Graham for this fun information about France. If you’d like help traveling to Southern France call Jennefer the Europe Expert at Totem Travel at (425) 765-4379 or shoot me an email at jennefer@totemtravel.com. I am here to assist in planning your dream holiday in France!

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As a BRITagent and SCOTSmaster at Totem Travel I am blessed to travel often and a favorite stop is always London. It’s one of my favorite cities and I am always looking for new and different ways to explore the city.

In an earlier Blog I talked about the 5 unusual things to see in London and here I will tell you about the next 5 on my list.

6. The ceremony of the keys is one of the best-kept secrets of the Tower of London. It has to be the best (and shortest) ceremony in London and has been a nightly event for the last 700 years. Led by the Chief Yeoman Warder, dressed in a scarlet Tudor coat, carrying a lantern and with foot guard escort, he makes his way to the gates at exactly 21:53. There are a limited number of tickets available and you must write in advance to the governor of the Tower. I can get the address for you. Just do it, but don’t be late!

7. There has been a church on the site of the present Southwark cathedral, next to London Bridge for over 1000 years. Many of Southwark Cathedral’s treasures include a Jacobean communion table, a tiny Saxon coffin and one of the earliest wooden effigies in England, a figure of a knight dating from the last quarter of the 13th century.

8. City Hall is one of London’s most spectacular new buildings and home to the Greater London Authority and Mayor of London. This landmark is at the heart of the more new London development next to Tower Bridge. It has several public areas that have been landscaped with seating, water features and trees and includes a viewing platform in the building to provide superb panoramas of the Pool of London. City Hall is open on set weekends throughout the year.

9. If blood and guts is more your thing, then the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garrett is definitely worth a visit.  Hidden in the roof of a church, a 300-year old herb garret houses Britain’s only surviving 19th century operating theatre which was used between 1821 and 1862 in the days before anesthetic and antiseptic surgery were the norm. On display is a variety of very sharp instruments used to ‘help’ the desperate patients!

10. . It is not every day that you can see glassblowing in London. Situated in the Leather market, a distinctive 19th century building erected by the Leather Warehouse Company the London Glassblowing workshop’s are as hot as hell, since there are several ovens burning to melt the glass. Here, mostly art pieces are made in limited editions and are exhibited in the adjoining art gallery.

So, the next time you’re in London, definitely see  Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey and Hyde Park, but take a day off the beaten path and check out some unusual sight in London.

If you’d like more information about travel to Europe and the UK please call Jennefer at (425) 821-4100 or shoot me an email atjennefer@totemtravel.com, I am a Europe Expert and would be delighted to assist you in planning your holiday in the UK and Europe.

As a Europe Expert I am often asked how to choose the best European tour and believe me there are quite a few tour companies to choose from. Trafalgar, Globus, Brendan, Cosmos, Tauck, Contiki, Collette and even more, so where do you begin, what do you look for?

Let’s start with the itinerary as that’s pretty important, first you need to choose which itinerary you’d like. For that you could decide to see just one country in depth, like France or Italy. Or you can choose a region, such Scandinavia or Eastern Europe including Prague or Tallinn or maybe just go for the gold and see a little of a lot of places for a taste of each.

Once you’ve chosen a place or region, next figure out how long you can be gone. Escorted tours start at about 8 days and range on up to traveling for more than a month. I find that most settle for somewhere in between. A couple weeks is just about perfect for me, I think that when traveling you should always come home just a bit BEFORE you’re ready rather than waiting until you’re tired of traveling.

So let’s say you’ve decided on a country, like Ireland, with timeframe of 2 weeks, now we can narrow down the tour company that is right for you.

Cosmos is a budget company that offers wonderful tours with 3 star hotels a bit farther out of town, daily breakfast and a couple excursions included.

Trafalgar and Brendan are a bump up with 3-3 ½ star hotels nearer the center of each city, daily breakfast, some dinners and more sightseeing excursions included.

Globus and Collette bump up another notch with many very central 4 star hotels, daily breakfast, a few more dinners, a maximum of 40 seats on each coach and even more sightseeing excursions included. Collette even adds in door to door service, they’ll pick you up and drop you at your door, so from the time you leave home Collette is taking care of you.

Tauck is one of the most inclusive with 4-5 star city center hotels, daily breakfast, dinners included almost every night and all sightseeing excursions included with some added benefits such as small groups and special personalized service.

Contiki is strictly for 18-35 year olds that would rather travel with a younger crowd and has excursions with a more adventurous flair.

As you can see, no matter your personality or travel preferences there is an Escorted tour company that will fit for you. So when you are ready to plan your European tour call or email the Europe Specialists at Totem Travel. We look forward to working with you!