Prestige Holidays targets Francophiles

Independent tour operator, Prestige Holidays, is targeting Francophiles with the launch of two specialist interest tours for 2008. Available through The Travellers’ Club, the tours are: The Aix-en-Provence Music Festival, the perfect break for music lovers, and Painting Holidays for budding artists.

For further information on the tours consult Thetravellersclub.com.

The Aix-en-Provence Music Festival 9-13 July – This holiday explores the city of Aix and the surrounding region of Provence and offers the chance to listen to music and opera of the very highest quality during the Aix-en-Provence festival. The region is also well-known for sites such as the Cistercian abbey of Silvacane, the Montagne Sainte-Victoire (inspiration for many of Cézanne’s paintings) and the city of Arles famous for its Roman remains and its Van Gogh heritage.

The break costs £1295 per person including: return economy flights, transfers, accommodation in twin rooms at Le Mas de Guilles (thirty minutes’ drive from the centre of Aix) breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, transport for all visits, entrances to museums and tickets to two concerts and one opera.

The Aix-en-Provence festival is one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe and is on a par with Salzburg, Glyndebourne and Bayreuth.

Painting Holidays in a French Chateaux 12-19 and 22-29 June - Set in a beautiful part of west-central France, these holidays offer the perfect combination for anyone with an interest in painting and a love of French history and culture.

Mornings are spent in the Château de Forges under the expert tuition of well-known professional artists. Budding painters can improve their skills in oil, water colours, charcoal and pencil drawing. Afternoons feature visits to places of local interest. These include the abbey church of St Savin with its medieval roof paintings, the monastery of Fontgombault, the tiny but exquisite Romanesque church of Villesalem, the château of Loches and the bird reserve of the Brenne.

Participants can also enjoy walking, cycling, boating and fishing and will visit some of the local industries such as a stone quarry where skilled workers fashion exquisite carvings, a ‘fromager’ who produces delicious ‘pyramides’ of goats’ cheese and a local winemaker.

The breaks costs £1,095 per week at Château d’Ingrandes and £1,195 at Château de Forges and include: flights between London Stansted and Poitiers on Ryanair, transfers, bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, all painting tuition, transport around the region, visits / entrance fees to local places of interest. The two châteaux are located close to one another on the borders of the Berry and the Poitou, ancient duchies of the kingdom of France and about thirty miles to the east of Poitiers.

The Travellers’ Club offers imaginative and comfortable holidays taken at a leisurely pace which appeal to the elderly as well as younger people. Also as travellers tend to meet before departure, single travellers may have the option of sharing rooms, avoiding the cost of single supplements.