Food, Wine, Sightseeing...and Ballet Trip: South of France (Toulouse and Bordeaux)

The "Miroir d'eau", the amazing reflecting pool at the Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux

At last, the Tours en l'air trip for those of you whose partner "isn't into ballet that much".

While most Tours en l'air trips squeeze as much ballet into as little time as possible, this wonderful trip to beautiful southwest France offers ballet (of course) but with more time spent enjoying all the other things the region has to offer.

Rendez-vous à Bordeaux from Bordeaux Tourisme on Vimeo.

Le Grand Theatre, Bordeaux

Wine. Gourmet meals. Beautiful medieval villages and impressive castles. Farmers' markets. Striking landscapes. Gardens. Prehistoric cave paintings. And, for aviation buffs, the possibility to visit a brand new aviation museum and the Airbus assembly line to see a super jumbo A380 under construction.

The gardens at Eyrignac

Bordeaux. Listed by the New York Times as its #2 of 56 places to visit in 2016, whose entire elegant 18th-century centre is the world's largest urban Unesco world heritage site, and boasts one of Europe's oldest opera houses, the Grand Theatre dating from 1780.

Did I also mention wine? Enjoy a daytrip to the world-famous vineyards of Saint-Emilion (and taste the local vintages, of course). You can also visit Bordeaux's brand new all-about-wine museum "La Cité du vin": http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/activities-and-interests/bordeaux-museum-la-cite-du-vin-a-playground-for-wine-lovers/article30368363/

We aren't forgetting the ballet, though. Here's the program (as usual I would see if I could arrange for us to watch class or rehearsals and have a backstage tour). PLUS!!! Exclusively for Tours en l'air, lunch and Q&A with recently retired international ballet star ROBERT TEWSLEY at Chateau Mathias.

Chateau Mathias

Chateau Mathias

Seize the opportunity in 2017, because it's not every year that these two companies' schedules align so that you can see a performance in each in one week. No guarantees that this trip will be available in 2018!

Booking is now open. Full info available here:  http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/08/toulouse-bordeaux-ballet-trip-july-2017.html

June 29 - July 10, 2017

 South of France:
Toulouse and Bordeaux (day trips to Saint-Emilion, Sarlat, and Carcassonne)

Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse

Les Sylphides, MC14/22 (Ceci est mon corps) (Preljocaj)

Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux

Romeo and Juliet (Jude)
BOOKING SEPTEMBER 2016

  

Are you tempted? Email me at toursenlair@gmail.com and I will add your name to the priority notification list and will update you as the itinerary and pricing firm up. No commitment is required yet, just an expression of interest.

DRAFT ITINERARY

South of France:

Toulouse and Bordeaux

Wine, Food, History, Gardens, and Ballet

(day trips to the Dordogne, Carcassonne, St-Emilion)

29 June – 10 July 2017

12 days, 11 nights

Hotel Mercure Wilson Toulouse

Thursday 29 June

Arrive Toulouse, France's “rose-coloured city”. Check in to four-star Hotel Mercure Wilson, a typical Toulouse red-brick building, 9 minutes walk from the Halle aux Grains theatre.

Friday 30 June

Morning: Private 2-hour walking tour of the historic centre of Toulouse. Backstage tour, Theatre du Capitole. Afternoon at leisure. Suggested activities: For aviation and aerospace buffs, visit the Cité de l'espace or the brand new Aeroscopia museum, with over two dozen vintage and modern aircraft, including 2 Concordes, on display. Or see a giant Airbus 380 under construction at the Airbus factory tour. 6pm: 1-hour lecture demonstration (in French) about the ballet program at the Halle aux Grains. See some of the tango festival events around the city. Welcome dinner.

Market day, Sarlat-la-Canéda

Saturday 1 July

Day trip to the Dordogne.

Wending its way past chateaux and villages, our private coach takes you to the picturesque medieval town of Sarlat-la-Canéda. Brief stop in Gourdon. The weekly farmers' market will be in full swing in Sarlat and you can sample the local foie gras, truffles, duck confit, and other produce. Walking tour of the old town (1 hr). We carry on to the nearby gardens at the Manoir d'Eyrignac, a fabulous reconstruction of a French formal garden with amazing topiary, as well as more informal Italian-style and English gardens. Return to Toulouse.

Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac

Sunday 2 July

Day at leisure. Suggested activities: Enjoy Toulouse's “Car-Free First Sunday of the month” and visit its museums and markets. Take a boat ride on the Garonne River or the Canal du Midi. Visit one of the tapas bars that seem to be on every corner in Toulouse.

Monday 3 July

Day trip to the Causses du Quercy regional park. Our private coach takes you to St-Cirq-Lapopie, “France's favourite village” (1 hr 45). One-hour guided walking tour. St Cirq, enclosed by fortified gates, includes many beautiful old houses whose facades of stone or wood were built between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. They are characterized by their steep-sloped, flat tile roofs. In the streets, open arcades of shops preserve the memory of craft activities that created the wealth of St. Cirq: coppersmiths and especially wood turners with workshops producing button moulds, bowls, cups and cooper's taps.
At the foot of Lapopie, mills, dams, ports, locks and a towpath evoke the glorious age of river commerce. Gourmet lunch.

Continue on (20 minutes) to Pech-Merle.

The medieval citadel at Carcassonne

230pm – 330 pm Visit the caves with their limestone formations and 25,000-year-old wall paintings. Return to Toulouse.

Tuesday 4 July

Day trip to Carcassonne.

8h15: depart Toulouse (1 hr 15 mins)

10-1230: Guided tour of the medieval citadel, including the castle of the counts, the Saint-Nazaire basilica with its remarkable 13th-century statues and stained glass, and the ramparts. “Medieval menu” 3-course lunch

230: return to Toulouse.

8 pm Ballet performance: Les Sylphides (Fokine), MC14/22 Ceci est mon corps (Preljocaj)

Wednesday 5 July

Morning: check out of Toulouse hotel. Our private luxury coach departs Toulouse for Bordeaux.

TOURS EN L'AIR EXCLUSIVE!!

Arrive Château Mathias, Virazeil. 

 

Homemade buffet lunch of local specialities overlooking the Garonne valley.

1-hour Q&A with recently retired international ballet star ROBERT TEWSLEY

Bordeaux

Continue to Bordeaux, listed by the New York Times as its #2 top destination to travel in 2016. Check in to centrally located three-star hotel.

8 pm Ballet performance: Romeo and Juliet (Jude) in one of Europe's oldest opera houses, the magnificent Grand Theatre de Bordeaux, built in 1780 (and the venue for the first performance of La Fille mal gardée in 1789).

It was here that Marius Petipa finished his training, was a principal dancer, and mounted his first full-length productions, before embarking on his famous career in Russia.

Grand-Theatre, Bordeaux

Thursday 6 July

Notre-Dame Church, Bordeaux

Morning at leisure. Suggested activity: Bordeaux's brand new all-about-wine museum, La Cité du Vin. Afternooon: Private walking tour of Bordeaux's classical 18th-century old town,the world's largest urban UNESCO world heritage site. Dinner.

Friday 7 July

Vineyards, St-Emilion

Private day trip by luxury coach to some of the region's most famous vineyards in St-Emilion: visit and tasting at two wineries, lunch, private guided tour of the medieval town. Return to Bordeaux.

Saturday 8 July

Afternoon: Private guided tour of Grand Theatre.

Sunday 9 July

Day at leisure. Farewell dinner.

Monday 10 July

Check out of hotel and depart Bordeaux.

The Dordogne river

Interior of Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse

https://youtu.be/xxzeSpTWY9U

Typical early July weather: daytime highs 24-29 degrees Celsius (75-84 degrees Fahrenheit), mostly sunny.

If you love seeing beautiful places and things, and bingeing on ballet, please check out my other outstanding ballet trips by clicking here.

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National Ballet of Canada Winter's Tale Reviews

Performances at the Lincoln Center Festival, New York, July 2016.

Mary Cargill, DanceView Times:
http://www.danceviewtimes.com/2016/07/a-long-winters-night.html
"the Canadian dancers were subtle and imaginative actors and most were able to triumph over the somewhat repetitive and limited vocabulary...Despite the padding, the company looked very good, with beautifully formed feet, a natural carriage, and a crisp, unexaggerated style, combined with a fine dramatic presence.  They made the ballet look both interesting and significant. Evan McKie ...gave his descent into madness a dignified, reluctant inevitability. His quiet joy when he recognized Perdita was exceptionally moving, as was his deep, humbled bow to his wife as she came back to life. Svetlana Lunkina, ... gave a luminous and soulful performance"


Gia Kourlas, New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/arts/dance/review-in-the-winters-tale-the-silk-flows-better-than-the-steps.html 

"In ‘The Winter’s Tale,’ the Silk Flows Better Than the Steps"

The National Ballet of Canada Presents THE WINTER'S TALE

www.broadwayworld.com/.../Photo-Flash-The-National-Ballet-of-Canada-Presents-T...

6 days ago - For THE WINTER'S TALE, Wheeldon reunited with the creative team behind his popular 2011 story-ballet, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Joby Talbot's ...

Masterful Story-telling in Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale for NBC | by ...

https://bachtrack.com/review-winters-tale-wheeldon-national-ballet-canada-lincoln-center-new-york-city-july-2016

Rating: 3 - ‎Review by Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn - ‎Jul 28, 2016

"Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale is not a work of genius. It has too many flaws for that. On the other hand, it is a highly credible work that will find its place in the repertoire for years to come. All along the way, the choreographer included deft touches that related the story with refreshing clarity....The dancers of the National Ballet of Canada are a terrific group and they inhabited the characters of this challenging story ballet with admirable dedication."

Haglund's Heel

http://haglundsheel.typepad.com/haglunds_heel/2016/07/lincoln-center-festivalnational-ballet-of-canadathe-winters-tale-730-matinee.html

"a rare and wonderful performance in which the pent up energies from last winter exploded into dance drama that was unexpectedly rich and riveting....The drama of this ballet is so deep and rewarding that it seems almost frivolous to discuss the technical dancing. It was of a very high standard and there was no marginalizing of technical requirements. ... The Winter’s Tale isn’t just Wheeldon’s best work. It is also his most important, most cerebral, most inventive, most skilled, and most adventurous narrative dance effort to date. ..
what we couldn’t anticipate was how seasoned artists like Côté and Rodriguez along with Svetlana Lunkina as Paulina would speak with their steps, how they would shade the tones of their movements, how they would react to and feed off each other’s individual artistry in the ultra high performance environment that is the New York stage. Collectively on Saturday, they delivered a Shakespearean range of emotions so fluently and persuasively that the viewer might have forgotten that The Winter’s Tale was originally a famous written play rather than a ballet."

Lauren Gallagher, DanceTabs
http://dancetabs.com/2016/08/national-ballet-of-canada-the-winters-tale-new-york/

Wendy Perron, Dance Magazine
http://dancemagazine.com/views/10-reasons-wheeldons-winters-tale-will-last/  

Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale is that rare accomplishment: a brand new story ballet that speaks to today’s audience. I saw two excellent casts with National Ballet of Canada , and wish I could see it many more times.

Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal
http://www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat/2016/08/a-wintry-tale-of-love-and-jealousy/ 

"Wheeldon, his collaborators, and the splendid performers kept me engrossed most of the time in the somewhat preposterous and messy story. I admire how sensitively and economically his play was translated into ballet, how imaginatively it was mounted, and how beautifully it was presented. "

Robert Greskovic, Wall Street Journal 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-winters-tale-review-shakespeare-on-pointe-1470257144
"This piece of ballet theater comes down on the side of theater, leaving ballet in its wake."

Joan Acocella, New Yorker
(http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/christopher-wheeldons-winters-tale)
 

"With brutal choreography and dramatic intelligence, Christopher Wheeldon has turned Shakespeare’s problem play into a mind-snagging ballet."

Do you love ballet but have a travelling companion who would like something less ballet-intensive? Check out our "Wine-Food-Sightseeing-and-a-bit-of-ballet" trip to the south of France in July 2017. Booking very soon! More info here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/08/food-wine-sightseeingand-ballet-trip.html

If you love seeing beautiful places and things, and bingeing on ballet, please check out my other outstanding ballet trips by clicking here.
Use the buttons below to share this post on facebook, twitter, by email, or other social media.

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Sue Jin Kang's farewell at the Stuttgart Ballet

Last night, after 30 years with the Stuttgart Ballet, Sue Jin Kang had her farewell performance in Onegin. 

No one knows how to celebrate better than the Stuttgart Ballet. On every seat in the sold out house there was a sign with a big red heart and "Danke Sue Jin". After every member of the company had come on stage and presented her with a rose, and balloons had cascaded from the flies, we were given the signal to hold up our signs, and this was the result.



I would like to add my thanks to Sue Jin for many many incredibly moving performances over the years and wish her all the best in her new position as artistic director of the National Ballet of Korea.

If you want to enjoy inimitable ballet experiences like  this, why not join a Tours en l'air trip!

Do you love ballet but have a travelling companion who would like something less ballet-intensive? Check out our "Wine-Food-Sightseeing-and-a-bit-of-ballet" trip to the south of France in July 2017. More info here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/08/food-wine-sightseeingand-ballet-trip.html

If you love seeing beautiful places and things, and bingeing on ballet, please check out my other outstanding ballet trips by clicking here.
Use the buttons below to share this post on facebook, twitter, by email, or other social media.

You can sign up to have my ballet updates delivered directly to your inbox here

Inside Bordeaux's Beautiful Grand Theatre

Come and see this magnificent opera house for yourself on my exciting Bordeaux-Toulouse trip in July 2017.  A seat is already on hold for you in the orchestra level for a performance of Romeo and Juliet!

For more info, please click here:  http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/08/food-wine-sightseeingand-ballet-trip.html

Photos courtesy of Thomas Gallus

July 2016 Newsletter

Dear Balletomane,

In this newsletter:

1. Why you really want to go to the South of France next July
2. Paris-Amsterdam trip April 30 – May 10
3. All 2016-17 trips
4. National Ballet of Canada Winter's Tale in New York: casting
5. Ballet in US Cinemas this summer
6. Discount on events at T-buds Tea Lounge in Toronto
7. Videos

PLEASE READ YOUR NEWSLETTER! I saw a lot of you at Frankenstein who could have entered my contest to win free tickets but apparently didn't know about it.

Why you really want to go to the South of France next July

Wine. Gourmet meals. Art. Beautiful medieval villages and impressive castles. Farmers' markets. Striking landscapes. Gardens. Prehistoric cave paintings. UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A magnificent opera house. And, for aviation buffs, the possibility to visit a brand new aviation museum and the Airbus assembly line to see a super jumbo A380 under construction. Did I mention wine?

Oh, and ballet TOO!! This is a fabulous trip if you love ballet, but it's also the ideal trip if you have a travelling companion who is less keen on ballet (I don't understand it myself, but I gather such people do exist).

It's less of an all-ballet-all-the-time trip, and more a “Food-Wine-Sightseeing-and-a-bit-of Ballet” trip to the incomparably beautiful Southwest of France, centred on Bordeaux and Toulouse. More info here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/08/food-wine-sightseeingand-ballet-trip.html

As usual, let me know if you want to be kept updated about this trip. It will likely be booking this summer, and the signup deadline may be very short indeed because of ticketing policies in Toulouse.

Paris-Amsterdam trip April 30 – May 10

This will be booking in August and there are already over 30 people on the priority mailing list. You need to be on this if you have any interest at all in this trip, as otherwise it may be completely booked up before you even get the newsletter. NO COMMITMENT REQUIRED AT THIS POINT. Draft itinerary is here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/07/amsterdam-and-paris-ballet-trip-may-2017.html

All 2016-17 trips

If you haven't done so yet, please look at all my proposed 2016-17 trips and let me know which ones you would like to be on the priority mailing list for. Click here for the details: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/p/upcoming-ballet-trips.html

National Ballet of Canada Winter's Tale in New York: casting

Please click here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/07/winters-tale-new-york-casting-national.html

Ballet in US Cinemas this summer

In case you missed them the first time around, three performances from the Lincoln Center at the Movies series are returning to U.S. cinemas this summer:

1.  the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on Tuesday, July 26
2.  Ballet Hispanico on Tuesday, August 2
3. San Francisco Ballet's Romeo & Juliet starring Maria Kochetkova on Tuesday, August 9 all starting at 7:00 pm local time. A list of cinemas for each showing can be found by clicking on the grey "more info" button and then on the "Theater Locations" tab once you click on the link above for each performance.
   

Discount on Events at T-Buds Tea Lounge

Looking for somewhere nice to host a family birthday party, wedding or baby shower or other event? Or do you need catering? T-Buds in North Toronto is happy to offer Tours en l'air subscribers up to 20% off catering or special events. I can recommend the food highly and their prices are already very reasonable even without the discount. Please contact me for details.

Videos

The exquisite pas de deux from Jerome Robbins' In G (which you can see on our Amsterdam-Paris trip!)

https://youtu.be/0g6qXHp22GE

Vienna State Ballet's Davide Dato in Don Quixote

https://youtu.be/zgwgu9pIV9k

Running late for work ... at Paris Opera Ballet (yes, it's your obligatory Mathieu Ganio video)

https://youtu.be/LI1-UcDgLoo

Two pas de deux to Duke Ellington by Birmingham Royal Ballet

https://vimeo.com/171604650

https://vimeo.com/171770858

Dutch National Ballet in their latest program:

https://youtu.be/_sJrn2pqA4s

Jurgita Dronina, now of National Ballet of Canada, and Mathias Heymann of Paris Opera Ballet in Grand Pas Classique (those relevés on one foot in her solo make my ankles hurt just watching them!)

https://youtu.be/M8XJJ6SStd0

The Royal Danish Ballet's Alban Lendorf doing that Bournonville thing:

https://youtu.be/XukDlpEMjkI

Visit www.toursenlair.blogspot.com

for more fabulous

ballet-themed escorted vacations,

ballet appreciation courses, and more

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Katherine Barber

Tours en l'air Ballet Holidays

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