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.
Registration is now open for both the Pre-Tour and the Post-Tour! Space is limited: there is a cap of 230 participants on the pre-trip, and 130 participants on the post-trip (not including our staff). For further information on both tours, click on the links below. For questions, please email tour leader and IAC Executive Director, David Madden directly at david@iacompetitions.com.
Also 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 these tours are 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 Details
Normandy and Brittany are two of the most historic regions of one of the world’s most historic countries. From the construction of Mont-Saint-Michel, to the Norman Conquest, to the building of Chartres Cathedral, to the corsairs of Saint Malo, to the beaches of Operation Overlord, over a millenium of history awaits exploration! Please review the tour description below, as well as the above linked information pages on the planned timed itinerary as well as the costs, details, and practicalities. For further questions on the pre-Olympiad tour, please email IAC Executive Director and Tour Leader, David Madden, directly at david@iacompetitions.com.
Note that we will have professional tour guides accompany us on Day 1 and Day 2 to explain the history of the D-Day landings and Operation Overlord. Many explanations about the military history of Normandy will be done on the bus as we travel from stop to stop.
There will also be an optional book club solely for tour participants, which will run on the four Sundays directly prior to the tour (June 22, June 29, July 6, July 13). The book that we will read is Sir Antony Beevor’s monumental opus D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, which is often regarded as the most authoritative military history of the entire Operation Overlord campaign. If you are interested in learning more about this work, you may also wish to view the following lecture (part 1 and part 2).
Day 1 – July 16 – Paris to Caen, including stops at Honfleur, Pegasus Bridge, Sword Beach (Bus 1), Canadian Cemetery (Bus 1), Juno Beach, Gold Beach (Buses 2-5), and the Bayeux Tapestry
We’ll depart Paris by bus early on July 16 to arrive by late morning at the picturesque port city of Honfleur which will also double as our lunch spot. Honfleur sits on the English Channel and as a major trading center played a major role during the Hundred Years’ War and the French colonization of North America. We’ll then depart for the first of the D-Day sites we’ll see, the Pegasus Bridge (note: we are awaiting confirmation to visit the museum there. We expect it will be possible, but if the museum is unavailable for a bus, then the bus will visit Sword Beach instead). Made famous by British paratroopers as one of their first objectives after landing, we’ll then head to Juno Beach, where Canadian troops landed, and Gold Beach where the British landed and where remnants of the artificial Mulberry harbor can be seen. Bus 1 will also make a stop at the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian Cemetery and Sword Beach, the other British beach at the far eastern end of the landing zone.
Later in the afternoon, 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. Our dinner spot and stop for the night will be the city of Caen, which despite its proximity to the beaches, was itself the scene of ferocious fighting for two months following the invasion, and played a major role throughout the Normandy campaign.
Day 2 – July 17 – Caen to Saint-Malo, including stops at Gold Beach (Bus 1), American Cemetery, Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Utah Beach and Landing Museum, Sainte-Mère-Église, and Mont-Saint-Michel
Bus 1 will begin today with a trip to Gold Beach, and then continue to the first stop for the other buses: the Normandy American Cemetery where we’ll pay our respects to thousands of fallen soldiers who fought to free Europe from Nazi tyranny. Just below the cemetery lies Omaha Beach, the bloodiest landing site, where American forces encountered fierce resistance. We’ll then continue to 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. Continuing west, we’ll get lunch in or en route to Sainte-Mère-Église, which American paratroopers liberated in the early hours of D-Day, thus making it the first village in Western Europe to be liberated. Our final D-Day-related stop will be Utah Beach, at the far western end of the landing zone, where we’ll visit the Utah Beach Landing Museum, built directly around the remains of a captured German bunker.
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 hotels in nearby Saint Malo for the evening.
Day 3 – July 18 – Saint-Malo to Paris, including stops at Rennes and Chartres
We’ll begin our final day by heading into the historic center of 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 before heading to Rennes, the Breton capital, to 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! After lunch, we’ll have a chance to stop 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 three days. Luckily, there’s no need to wake up early the next day. Check-in will run throughout the day on the 19th at the host school, and you are free to sleep in and then explore Paris at your leisure.