Canadian War History: Paris, Vimy & Normandy

PVI
Embark on an unforgettable 9-day adventure through Canada’s wartime history, from Paris to Normandy. Explore iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre, then stand in awe at Vimy Ridge and its memorial. Pay tribute at Passchendaele and the Menin Gate, before discovering Juno Beach and the Canadian Military Cemetery in Normandy. End your journey with a vibrant city tour and dinner in the Latin Quarter, honouring Canada’s courage at historic World War I and II sites.
Learn more
-
Day 1 Overnight flight to France (Paris)
Day 2 Bonjour Paris
Meet your tour director and check into hotel
Paris city walk
Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Île St. Louis, Latin Quarter
Dinner in Latin Quarter
Details: Paris city walk
This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Please note Notre Dame Cathedral is currently closed due to fire damage.
Details: Notre-Dame Cathedral
View the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Work began in 1163 on a spot that had been a holy shrine since Roman times. Over the centuries, the cathedral has been the scene of some of France's most momentous occasions, including the coronation of Napoleon.
Day 3 Paris landmarks
Paris guided sightseeing tour
Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Opera House
Optional  Versailles guided excursion (pre-book only)  $100
State Apartments, Hall of Mirrors, Gardens of Versailles
Details: Paris guided sightseeing tour
What's that huge white arch at the end of the Champs-Élysées? The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz. Your licensed local guide will elaborate on this, and other Parisian landmarks. See some of the most famous sites, including the ornate 19th-century Opera, the Presidential residence and the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836. Spot chic locals (and tons of tourists) strolling the Champs-Élysées. Look up at the iron girders of the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. See Les Invalides (a refuge for war wounded) and the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater).
Day 4 Paris--Flanders
Travel to Flanders via Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge excursion
Wellington Quarry and museum visit
Hill 70 Memorial Park: Student-led group ceremony
Details: Vimy Ridge excursion
Visit Vimy Ridge and the World War I trenches and tunnels. View the endless graves made famous in the poem 'In Flanders Fields'. The Canadian War Monument is the largest monument from World War I honouring the Canadian soliders who lost their lives.
Details: Vimy Ridge guided visit
Visit Vimy Ridge and the World War I trenches. View the endless graves made famous in the poem 'In Flanders Fields'. The Canadian War Monument is the largest monument from World War I honouring the Canadian soliders who lost their lives.
Details: Vimy Trenches visit
Learn the meaning of trench warfare at the reconstructed trench line at Vimy Ridge. Stand where Canadian troops fought in the spring of 1917, and see the view of how little land stood between them and their German enemies. See the frontlines of the Canadian Corps victory that helped shape Canada’s national identity.
Details: Vimy Tunnels visit
Visit the Grange Tunnel at Vimy Memorial Battlefield Park. Over six miles of tunnel were either newly built or created from existing caves and medieval mine works. Learn how these tunnels helped the Canadian Corps plan their military strategy and win the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Details: Wellington Quarry and museum visit
Travel twenty metres below the streets of Arras to the Wellington Quarry, where thousands of soldiers hid underground before a surprise attack on the German front lines on April 9, 1917. Learn about the Battle of Arras and the troops who built and lived in the tunnels below the town. Discover the military strategy behind the tunnels and how it helped win the First World War.
Details: Hill 70 Memorial Park: Student-led group ceremony
The Battle of Hill 70 Memorial Park honors the Canadian Corps' significant victory in August 1917. The park features a striking obelisk, pathways adorned with 1,877 maple leaves symbolizing the fallen soldiers, and the General Sir Arthur Currie Amphitheatre. Groups will have the option to perform a student-led ceremony at the Memorial.
Day 5 Flanders
Passchendaele Canadian Memorial Park visit
Memorial Museum of Passchendaele 1917 visit
St Julien Memorial
In Flanders Fields Museum visit
Attend Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate
Details: Passchendaele Canadian Memorial Park visit
In 1917, the Allies slogged through the swampy, rain-soaked, mud-drenched ground of Passchendaele toward heavily armed German troops, losing many lives and tanks in the process. Canadian troops were brought in at the end due to the difficult conditions -- their earlier victories had conferred an elite status -- and with their efforts the high ground was finally won. The battle was ultimately meaningless, however; the corridor opened by the action later proved unnecessary. Because of the horror of the Battle of Passchendaele, the name has come to symbolize the idea of war in its most brutal and senseless form.
Details: Memorial Museum of Passchendaele 1917 visit
Step into the new immersive experience ‘Passchendaele 1917’ and find yourself right in the middle of the landscape of 1917. By means of powerful visualizations, appropriate music and historical images projected several metres tall, the Battle of Passchendaele is presented chronologically. A total experience in which young and old are completely immersed in the story and landscape of 1917.
Details: St Julien Memorial
German soldiers fighting on the Western Front first used mustard gas during the Battle of Ypres, and the St Julien Memorial marks the spot where Canadian soldiers first confronted this new weapon of war.
Details: In Flanders Fields Museum visit
In Flanders Fields Museum presents the story of the First World War from the invasion of Belgium, to 4 years of trench warfare and peace in the region since. Visit the Museum and honor over 600,000 who fell
Details: Attend Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate
At 8pm traffic is stopped while buglers from the Ypres Fire Brigade play the Last Post and Reveille. Since 1929, this nightly ceremony has commemorated the almost 55,000 British Commonwealth soldiers who died nearby that could not be identified or found. The only time this Ceremony has not taken place was during the Second World War. Note the Menin Gate will undergo renovations from April 2023 to March 2025. During that time, scaffolding will partially cover the memorial and the name panels will not be visible to visitors. However, the names on the monument will be made accessible by means of a digital search application in the CWGC Ypres Information Center in Ypres, only a few meters away from the monument. During that time, the Last Post Ceremony will continue to take place daily at 8PM.
Day 6 Flanders--Normandy
Travel to Normandy
Arromanches D-Day Museum visit
Details: Arromanches D-Day Museum visit
Ingenious military engineering allowed the Allied forces to land at Arromanches on D-Day. Barges towed 600,000 tons of concrete across the English Channel, sinking them to create an artificial harbor, and then 33 jetties and 10 miles of floating roadways allowed the troops to land in France. Learn about this feat and other at the Arromanches Museum, where dioramas, interactive displays, and models detail the Allied landing.
Day 7 Normandy--Paris
Juno Beach Centre, park and bunker guided visit
Canadian Military Cemetery visit at Beny-sur-Mer
Travel to Paris
Details: Juno Beach Centre, park and bunker guided visit
The innovative Juno Beach Centre is one of the first museums dedicated solely to chronicling Canada's extensive role in World War II. The museum takes advantage of its setting near the D-Day Beaches to show visitors how the landings were accomplished, as well as detailing Canada's contributions to the entire war, both at home and abroad.
Details: Canadian Military Cemetery visit at Beny-sur-Mer
Pouring onto the beaches of Normandy, Canada's 3rd Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade represented the entire nation, with regiments from Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec. They secured the beachhead and held on against six days of counterattacks, when more troops were able to come ashore at the secured sight. The Beny-sur-mer Canadian War Cemetery contains more than 2,000 graves of the soldiers from the 3rd Division and the 15 airmen lost during these attacks.
Day 8 Paris landmarks
Louvre Museum visit
Montmartre tour director-led sightseeing
Sacré Coeur, Place du Tertre, Moulin Rouge
Dinner in Montmartre
Details: Louvre Museum visit
The world's largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a Medieval fortress-turned-castle so grand it's worth a tour itself. You walk through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added in 1989, and step into another world--one with carved ceilings, deep-set windows, and so many architectural details you could spend a week just admiring the rooms. The Mona Lisa is here, as well as the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (the headless statue, circa 200 BC, discovered at Samothrace). The Louvre has seven different departments of paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and antiquities. Don't miss the Egyptian collection, complete with creepy sarcophagi, or the collection of Greek ceramics, one of the largest in the world. (Please note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.)
Details: Montmartre tour director-led sightseeing
If you’re coming to Paris, you absolutely need to take a walk in Montmartre! This area will wake the artist in you up. Its narrow alleys, windmills, little details, and soul are some of the things that make Montmartre so unique. As you walk in Montmartre, you will quickly understand how it has inspired so many artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh. As you walk up the hill make sure to take in all that surrounds you, because in Montmartre you are likely to find surprises around every corner!
Day 9 Flight home from Paris
PVI
Tour Includes:
  • Round-trip airfare
  • 7 overnight stays in hotels with private bathrooms
  • Dinner daily
  • Full European breakfast daily
  • Full-time services of a professional tour director
  • Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
  • Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
  • Tour Diary™
  • Local Guide and Local Bus Driver tips; see note regarding other important tips
  • Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided
  • Note: Tour cost does not include airline-imposed baggage fees, or fees for any required passport or visa. Optional excursions, optional pre-paid Tour Director and multi-day bus driver tipping, among other individual and group customizations will be listed as separate line items in the total trip cost, if included.

We are better able to assist you with a quote for your selected departure date and city over the phone. Please call 1.888.378.8845 to price this tour with your requested options.

Please select a postal code
4366.00 total fee
Basic Options


Estimate total number in your group, including yourself and any chaperones
Private Tour
Please wait while we process your request...
EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL | STUDY ABROAD | LANGUAGE IMMERSION | CAREER EXPLORATION | SERVICE-LEARNING | PERFORMING ARTS | SPORTS

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

© 2023 Worldstrides, Inc.

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; others help us improve the user experience. By using the site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Read our privacy-policy to learn more.

AGREE & DISMISS