A Taste of Provence
and the French Riviera
Marseille, Biot, Cote d'Azur, Nice
September 29 – October 6, 2024
Premium packages from $7,995
Learn to make classic bouillabaisse using the morning's catch.
Join Us for a Cultural Deep Dive Inside Southern France
Savor the celebrated terroir of Southern France on an exclusive, behind-the-scenes journey through its ancestral growing regions and vibrant marketplaces with Sur La Table Culinary Director Meredith Abbott.
Through lively exchanges with local chefs and artisans, you and your small group will peek under the tablecloth of iconic French-Mediterranean Cuisine where centuries-old traditions are preserved and celebrated. Your days are bookended with luxury boutique hotel accommodations offering plentiful amenities and well-situated locations convenient to lively cafes, boutiques, and bustling seaports.
Contact our travel provider at 877-298-9677 for more information about this trip.
Trip Itinerary
Enjoy the best that Provence and the French Riviera offers on an 8-day transformative journey through one of the world’s most breathtaking coastal and agricultural regions. Learn to make traditional Bouillabaisse from a local chef, witness sea salt harvesting and artisans preserving ancestral crafts, sample the finest olive oil and wine from their very growing region. This immersive program combines exclusive tours, hands-on classes, intimate fine dining, and locavore living that transports you into the fabric of the food scene and vibrant community.
WHAT YOU’LL SEE, DO, AND DISCOVER
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• Arrive into Marseille and make your way independently to the hotel.
• Spend time at leisure settling in or exploring the Old Port.
• Join your fellow travelers for the opening event of the Culinary Reception.
• Afterwards, enjoy your first meal together at the Welcome Dinner at a local gastronomic restaurant.
Included Meals: Cocktail Reception, Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel La Residence -
• Start with coffee and refreshments during a private, before-hours visit to Maison Empereur, a hardware store that has become a local institution with over 30,000 unique wares lining their shelves.
• You’ll be guided around Marseille on a food tour highlighting the various immigrant food cultures for the duration of the morning.
• Private lunch with chef and owner at Boite a Sardines, showcasing the fresh fish and seafood staples of a typical Marseillaise meal.
• Stop at La Boutique a Glacier to sample locally-made ice cream, plus a revered chocolatier to see (and taste!) what sets French chocolate apart.
• Evening and dinner at leisure.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodations: Hotel La Residence -
For Day 3 and Day 5, travelers will be split into two smaller groups to allow everyone to experience an intimate, limited occupancy cooking class
• Join a local chef for a morning tour of the markets, sourcing fresh ingredients for your exclusive small-group cooking class to learn how to make the iconic dish of bouillabaisse (Group A).
• Spend the morning on a panoramic tour of Marseille, with a visit to a soap factory to experience one of the top artisanal products of the city (Group B).
• In the afternoon, you will visit la Fare les Oliviers to sample the vineyard’s olive oil and wines to understand first-hand the importance of terroir in French cuisine.
• Return to Marseille and enjoy dinner at leisure.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (Group A)
Accommodations: Hotel La Residence -
• Depart for the Salins de Giraud to learn the ins and outs of sea-salt production of the French Mediterranean, along with a guest lecturer from a regional rice producer.
• After the tour, you will have lunch at a nearby restaurant that showcases Camargue flavors such as Camarguaise salad (salad, egg, tuna, rice, tomatoes, pepper, onion), Camargue red rice, and herbs de Provence.
• In the afternoon you will journey up the Rhone to visit Souleiado Museum or Les Olivades factory, a hallmark producer of textiles in Provence for an exclusive tour of and insight into their factory.
• Return to Marseille and enjoy dinner at leisure.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodations: Hotel La Residence -
• Join a local chef for a morning tour of the markets, sourcing fresh ingredients for your exclusive small-group cooking class to learn how to make the iconic dish of bouillabaisse (Group B).
• Spend the morning on a panoramic tour of Marseille, with a visit to a soap factory to experience one of the top artisanal products of the city (Group A).
• In the afternoon, you will head out to Aix-en-Provence for a guided food tour of the smaller, inland Provencal city.
• Return to Marseille for a group dinner at la Mercerie (or similar), an intimate, bustling restaurant known for its use of quality local ingredients and natural wine selection.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (Group B), Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel La Residence -
• Check out of Hotel La Residence and transfer to the Cote d’Azur.
• Learn about glassblowing in the heart of the French Riviera and the signature style that distinguishes Biot glassware.
• Lunch at a local bistro.
• Visit the Musée Escoffier, a culinary museum dedicated to one of the fathers of French gastronomy, Auguste Escoffier, where you’ll sample the famed chef’s legendary Peche Melba (peaches and raspberry sauce over vanilla ice cream).
• Continue on to Nice and check into Hotel Le Grimaldi.
• Dinner at leisure.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodations: Hotel Le Grimaldi -
• Spend your final morning and lunch in Nice at leisure.
• In the afternoon you will venture to le Potager de Saquier in the hills above Nice to tour an organic farm and select vegetables and herbs to prepare for dinner.
• Dinner will be a hands-on cooking class with Rosa Jackson featuring Nicoise specialties, such as puree of courge de Nice, herb-crusted rack of lamb, and Swiss chard and leek gratin. Your meal will be accompanied by rosé selected by the sommelier.
• Close out your final day with a coffee in the greenhouse before returning to the hotel.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodations: Hotel Le Grimaldi -
• Enjoy a final breakfast at the hotel.
• Pack up your belongings and check out of the hotel.
• Depart for your independent transfer to the airport.
Included Meals: Breakfast
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A Taste of Provence and the French Riviera
8-Day Premium Travel Package from $7,995 pp
(based on double occupancy; excluding flights)
September 29 – October 6, 2024
Questions? Contact our travel provider at 877-298-9677
FAQs
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A deposit of $1,000 (unless otherwise specified) is due to secure your space on the tour. Deposits are refundable up to 50% until 120 days prior to departure. Your deposit is due upon reservation. Your final balance is due upon receipt of your invoice, 90 days prior to departure. If you are making a reservation within 90 days of the trip’s departure, full payment will be required upon confirmation.
Once you reserve your trip and pay your deposit, you will be sent a confirmation email with our Terms and Conditions, insurance information, and a Participant Information Form. Your Guest Services Advisor will reach out when it’s time to book airfare after a minimum of 10 travelers have enrolled on your departure. Final trip details will be sent roughly 2–3 weeks before departure.
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To get in touch with your travel provider
Email: reservations@academic-travel.com
Phone: 1-877-298-9677 (M-F, 9am-5pm ET) -
Airfare to and from the starting and ending point of the program is not included in the price to give you maximum flexibility in choosing your preferences for air travel. This way you can use frequent flier upgrades, depart from your airport of choice, or add pre- and post- trip extensions with no constraints. Please refrain from booking your airfare until your Guest Services Advisor reaches out to confirm your departure.
All drinks (wine and soft drinks) are included in the trip price for all group meals. Any additional alcoholic beverages are not included in the program price.
Tips to local guides, restaurant staff, bell staff, and drivers are all included in the trip price. Your Trip Leader and Travel Director are taken care of and will not accept tips. The only time tips are not included is during free time and meals on your own.
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Chef Meredith Abbott is the Culinary Director and Travel Ambassador of Sur La Table. A Seattle-based, classically trained executive chef and chef educator, she fuels her passion for inspiring confidence in the kitchen with an endless curiosity and extensive knowledge across many culinary disciplines. True to the Sur La Table mission, Meredith encourages building cooking skills that translate to a lifetime of celebration at the table.
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Our trips have a maximum group size of 25 people. They are large enough to meet new people with diverse backgrounds, but small enough to be on a first-name basis with everyone.
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Solo travelers are welcomed with open arms and there are usually a good number of them on our trips. Group meals generally take place at medium to large tables, and our Travel Directors ensure that everyone is included in conversation. Because our trips are priced for doubles sharing a room, there is a supplemental cost for those who choose to have the privacy of their own room.
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Our trips are designed to give our travelers special insight and understanding of the places we visit. The talks and commentary by our hosts and local guides are what make our itineraries special, and this kind of curated experience cannot be obtained on one’s own. For this reason, our trips generally do not incorporate long periods of free time during the day, although night times and some meals will be at leisure.
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Travelers should be in good health and able to walk up to 2 miles (with stops) over uneven terrain and be able to navigate stairs unassisted. In city centers, we try to walk from place to place due to traffic restrictions and in keeping with our commitment to environmental sustainability.
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Every effort will be made to try to accommodate any special dietary requests you may have. Please discuss your requests with us when signing up for a trip.
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We’ll send you a detailed clothing and equipment list well before departure so you know what you’ll need. We provide the rest: comfortable accommodations, an engaging daily itinerary, expert trip management and access to people and places that will thrill and delight you.
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Deposits will be 50% refundable 120 days prior to departure. Cancellation between 119-91 days before departure: 100% of deposit is forfeited. Cancellation between 90-61 days, 50% of the trip price is forfeited. Cancellation within 60 days of departure: no refund. You always have the option to transfer your deposit to a future Sur La Table Culinary Journey departure up until 90 days prior to departure with no penalty.
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We strongly suggest purchasing travel insurance to help protect your investment and provide you with financial recourse should you face trip cancellation or interruption due to sickness or quarantine. When purchasing a policy, please consult with a trip insurance agent to review what COVID-19- related contingencies are covered. While we will do our best to recover any unused portion of your trip due to sickness, it is often the case that payments cannot be refunded. We recommend using our partner insurance provider, Travel Insurance Services, which offers three different policies for you to choose from.
