France fast with Cosmos

My wife, Rose, and I traveled to France with Cosmos (Littleton, CO; 800/276-1241, www.cosmos.com) in May 2010. The eight-day/seven night “Jewels of France” bus tour cost $1,025 each, excluding airfare.

The tour was more or less what most tours are. You see a lot of things, you interact mostly with other Americans and you don’t have to worry about where to sleep or what to eat. We saw a lot of France. It was a good value.

We stayed in two- and three-star hotels as advertised. They were not wonderful, but they were adequate. The bus was new and extremely clean. Sandra, our guide, was petite, pretty and perky.

Besides spending a day in Paris, the tour took us to the WWII landing beaches of Normandy and seaside Honfleur. We stayed overnight at Mont-Saint-Michel, toured Saint-Malo and spent several hours in the home and garden of Monet. That, and visiting the cemetery at Normandy with its white stone crosses set against green trees and the blue sea, were the tour’s high points for us.

Personally, we did not care that much for Paris, mostly because the sights and museums were inundated with tourists, but the Eiffel Tower, both by day and, especially, at night, was spectacular. And the Louvre exceeded our expectations, even though we have been to the Hermitage and Madrid’s El Prado.

JOE PHELAN

Lincoln, CA