Pre & Post Trips

IAC Journeys Returns for Summer 2025!

Normandy & Brittany Pre-Trip: July 16-18 *** South of France Post-Trip: July 27-August 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a successful launch (when following the International Geography Championships, 82 students, parents, family members, and friends joined 12 IAC staff for a week-long tour from Vienna to Berlin), IAC Journeys returns for Summer 2025 with two amazing trips to explore France! We’re presenting a 3-day pre-tour of the highlights of Normandy and Brittany: two of France’s most historic and picturesque regions. Then, after the Olympiad concludes, we’ll take a full week to explore the South of France with stops in Lyon, Cannes, Nice, and many other beautiful cities and sites along the way. We hope that you will consider joining us for these two unique journeys that are specifically designed with our students and their families in mind.

Please note that in November and December, we will be in France scouting hotels, bus companies, sites, and other aspects of these trips. The summaries below are initial draft itineraries and will likely change somewhat by the time we open registration. Registration will open by the end of January at the latest, but possibly by late December. Space is limited: we’re putting an initial cap of 190 participants on the pre-trip, and 95 participants on the post-trip (not including our staff). Costs will be announced when registration opens. For further questions on both tours, please email tour leader and IAC Executive Director, David Madden directly at david@iacompetitions.com.

Please note that these are family tours. Participants do not need to be otherwise taking part in the Olympiad or have any prior experience with International Academic Competitions. However, you must have a child 18 years old or younger who is also coming along on the tour to take part in it, as this tour is specifically designed for families with children who are interested in the geography, history, and culture of France. Students coming unaccompanied to the Olympiad are unfortunately not allowed to participate on the tours.

Pre-Trip to Normandy and Brittany

We’ll depart Paris by bus early on July 16 to arrive mid-morning to arrive at Claude Monet’s Giverny. Giverny was home to Monet in his productive later years and was where he found inspiration for his Water Lilies series. The beautiful gardens and galleries will be an enchanting way to begin before we continue on to the cathedral city of Rouen for lunch. After admiring the Gothic cathedral (also made famous by Monet), we’ll then depart for the first of the D-Day sites we’ll see, the Pegasus Bridge and Museum. Made famous by British paratroopers as one of their first objectives after landing, we’ll then head to Caen for dinner. Participants can select an optional visit to Juno Beach (where Canadian forces landed) or Sword Beach (one of two where the British did) if they’re interested.

On day two, we’ll start after breakfast at the Caen Memorial Museum, where the full story of Operation Overlord and the Normandy campaign is told. You’ll even get a chance to tour the bunker fortress from which the German generals commanded their troops. Then we’ll take a trip back in time almost a millennium to 1066 with a stop in Bayeux to view the incomparable Bayeux Tapestry. Telling a story of another successful cross-Channel invasion, the Tapestry is a historic artifact like no other, as it depicts the Norman Conquest of England: originally for William the Conqueror’s new subjects, and now for you. After lunch in Bayeux, we’ll continue to nearby Omaha Beach, the bloodiest landing site, where American forces encountered fierce resistance. We’ll then continue to the Normandy American Cemetery to pay our respects to the thousands of fallen soldiers who fought to free Europe from Nazi tyranny. Our last D-Day site will be Pointe de Hoc, where Rangers led the way up the cliffs and where President Reagan gave a stirring address at commemoration ceremonies forty years later. Then, a two-hour bus ride (we’ll play some practice questions on the buzzers along the way) will bring us to one of the icons of France: Mont Saint-Michel. This gorgeous abbey rises out of the ocean where Normandy and Brittany meet, and is spectacular in the evening, as the sun begins to set. We’ll have a chance to get dinner there and take some time to enjoy the view before heading to a nearby hotel for the evening.

We’ll begin our final day by heading to Saint Malo in Brittany. Famous for being the lair of the corsair pirates, today Saint Malo is a charming seaport. We’ll have a chance to walk around and explore the city, and then have lunch. We highly recommend you try the most famous contribution of the Bretons to French gastronomie: the delicious crêpes you’ll find all over the city! Then it’s off to Rennes, the Breton capital, for an hour at the Brittany Museum, where you’ll learn about the unique Celtic heritage of France’s wildest region that juts out into the Atlantic. Finally, we’ll break out the buzzers on the bus for a small tournament on French history, geography, and culture for students and interested adults alike on the long trip back to Paris. We’ll break it up with a stop for dinner in the cathedral city of Chartres, and then have an after-dinner picture quiz on the bus back where you can test your memories of the trip. We’ll plan to arrive in Paris around 10pm at the end of a very full and fruitful 3 days. Luckily, there’s no need to wake up early the next day. Check-in will run throughout the day on the 19^th at the host school, and you are free to sleep in and then explore Paris at your leisure.

Post-Trip to the South of France

Provence. Côte d’Azur. The Riviera. Monaco. Amid the glamour, there are millennia of history and culture to explore in the magical South of France, and we hope you’ll join us as we discover it after the Olympiad concludes! We’ll begin by taking an icon of France: the TGV high speed train around midday (so you can rest up a bit after your last night in Paris) on July 27 as we head to the beautiful city of Lyon, where your tour leaders and IAC co-Executive Directors David and Nolwenn Madden once lived for a year. Considered the heart and soul of French cuisine, Lyon is a city that knows how to live and eat well. After checking into our hotel, we’ll make our way to the Resistance and Deportation History Center, a museum that tells the story of Lyon’s leading role in the French Resistance from 1940-1944, and the price that many of its citizens paid during World War II. Then you can feast on the Lyonnaise specialties and walk it off by climbing to the top of the Fourvière hill for a beautiful view of Lyon’s setting at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone Rivers.

In the morning, we’ll begin with a small walking tour of the historic city center that dates back to Roman times, when as Lugdunum, it was the capital of Gallia Lugdunensis, one of the primary divisions of Gaul. And then it’s off to Provence on the TGV! We’ll take the train for about an hour before alighting at Avignon, a city most famous for having been the seat of the papacy in the late Middle Ages. We’ll tour the Palais des Papes (the Palace of the Popes), which is the best-preserved Gothic palace in all of Europe. You’ll also have a chance to walk out onto the Saint Bénezet Bridge, a landmark of the city which ends… halfway across the river (the bridge foundered in 17^th floods and was never rebuilt). You’ll then have some free time to further explore the city (which is magical at night) and have dinner. Then, after dinner, those who are interested (including family and friends in their own adult and student divisions) can play the Sud de France Bee with questions on the history and culture of the PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur) that we’re traveling through.

On Day 3 we’ll begin with a visit to Avignon’s famous Les Halles market. Provence is home to some of the freshest produce, vegetables, cheeses and other treats of French cuisine, and you’ll find it all right here. Eat a light breakfast as you’ll want a chance to indulge here! Then, we’ll board buses that will give us a chance to explore more of Provence beyond the train lines. Our first stop will be the Pont du Gard, another iconic monument of France. Built by the Romans to carry fresh water to their thriving city of Nîmes, nearly two thousand years later, the world’s most famous aqueduct still towers over the valley below. Then we’ll visit Nîmes itself, just a half hour away. Nimes was the largest Roman city in the South of France, and its theatre still stands and houses performances. We’ll stop for lunch, and you’ll have a chance to explore the city a bit on your own before our next stop: the hilltop town of Les Baux. One of the most picturesque villages of all of France, Les Baux has been a hilltop citadel whose prosperity depended on its mineral resources (cf. Bauxite) dating back to Celtic times. After sufficient time to admire the village and walk around, we’ll head to Arles, where we’ll spend the night. In the evening, those who are interested can play in the French Geography Bee next to the Roman amphitheater.

On day 4, after fortifying yourself at the nearest boulangerie, we’ll delve deeper into the Roman (and Greek, and Celtic) history with a trip to the Ancient History Museum. Loaded with artefacts, historical models, and displays bringing history to life, the museum will help provide context for the monuments and ruins we’ve been seeing. We’ll then board the bus for our lunch stop in another picturesque town, Aix-en-Provence, home to some of the most beautiful squares and streets in France, if not Europe. After lunch, we’ll be on the bus for several hours as we make our way to the seaside. On the bus, David and Nolwenn will share the story of how IAC was born in France in 2009, and some tips about being an exchange student (which is how David first got to know Europe up close while in high school) and on the college admissions process (David has worked as an alumni interviewer for students applying to Princeton). Finally, around 5:00pm, we’ll reach the sea, and the last hour will be spent on one of the most beautiful drives you’ll ever see as we move along the coast towards Cannes, our dinner stop. Home of the famous film festival, you can soak in the glamour of the Riviera while enjoying dinner overlooking the Mediterranean. Finally, it’s back to the bus one last time as we make our way to Nice, where we’ll be for the final three nights.

Day 5 will be a Nice day. Sorry, we had to go there. Obligatory puns aside, the metropolis of the Cote d’Azur dates back to its founding as the Greek colony of Nikaia in the 4^th century BC. The intervening 24 centuries have seen countless cultures (Greeks, Romans, Franks, Genoese, Italians, French, Arabs, Africans and more) leave their mark on the city. We’ll start the day by exploring Vieux-Nice, the old historic center of the city, home to winding streets, busy shops, bakeries, pastry shops, and historic sites galore. After lunch, we’ll then explore the Marc Chagall Museum, home to the world’s finest collection of one of the masters of modern art. In the late afternoon, you’ll have some time on your own to either stroll along the Promenades des Anglais, visit the Henri Matisse Museum, or simply enjoy some beach time. Tonight’s activity will be a Family Scavenger Hunt in Vieux-Nice! Details to be revealed at the start of the event.

On our final day, we’ll begin by taking the train a few towns east to Villefranche-sur-Mer. One of the crown jewels of the Riviera, this town sits on a promontory jutting out into the beautiful Mediterranean. After some time to explore and have an early lunch, we’ll continue to Monaco! We’ll see the famous casino, the Monegasque Palace, and explore the world-class Oceanographic Museum, with exhibits highlighting the fauna of the Mediterranean. Then, it’s up to you how to spend your final evening. Your options include: 1) Taking the train just over the Italian border to Ventimiglia or San Remo if you wish to have some great pizza or pasta and add another country to your trip list  2) Heading back to Nice. Then, you can leave your competing student with our staff: we’ll have a students’ picnic on the beach and play the Mediterranean History Bee. Meanwhile, you can head out for a parents’ date night for dinner and a trip to the Casino de Monte Carlo in Monaco (we’ll provide a staff escort on the train there and back) or 3) Head off on your own to explore the nearby villages of Menton or Eze (we’ll provide directions on how to get there and back to Nice). However you choose to spend it, it will be a memorable finish to an unforgettable week!

The trip will include the hotel on the final night, and then you are free to depart at any time on August 3. Of course, you are welcome to take more time to explore the Riviera, continue your travels into Italy, take the ferry over to Corsica, or head home at your leisure. Your tour leaders have very extensive knowledge of France, Italy, and beyond, so please ask us for any advice for your onward travel.