The artists tours take you to places where artists found their inspiration.

The literary work, like other artistic works, has the power to convey an imaginary of places,
 and when shared, to become an element of collective memory; in the region where it was born,
 it is then a testimony of the past for the traveler as well as for the inhabitant. 
Literature can be appropriated in its material aspects (books, writer's house, etc.) 
as immaterial (the imaginary places developed in the works, the traces of the author, the routes 
linked to the work or the author, …) by actors for whom it constitutes a resource that can 
contribute to the social, cultural and touristic development of the territories. 
Sometimes considered as a thematic variation of generic cultural tourism,
 literary tourism refers to the visit of places that the author has visited 
or those mentioned in his books.

Whether by inventing a new place or by "reinventing" an existing place, 
the creation of a "writer's house" attests to a desire to build a 
symbolic place in order to highlight the literary heritage. 
The creation of the place is understood in the sense that 
a private residence is converted into a museum space intended 
to welcome the public. It can also, in a context of loss of 
attractiveness of rural areas, testify to a desire to develop a 
rewarding territorial identity around an element of heritage, 
an “identifying image” for the territory. 
In France, there are 185 writers' houses 
(Fédération des maisons d’écrivain & des patrimoines littéraires, 2012). 
Diversity of places, of stories: there are as many as
there have been authors to write works, 
to register and inscribe them in space. 
Diversity is also found in the expectations 
of those who walk through the door of a writer's house. Testimony of the past, 
an illustrious home but also a home of the intimate, 
in an atmosphere imbued with meditation and nostalgia, 
imaginations meet personal memories, times intersect, 
and spaces come together. A writer's house constitutes a heterotopia,
 as the reading levels of the same place are multiple and can coexist,
 including for a single individual.

In France, writers' houses are characterized by great heterogeneity. 
A writer's house is a house where an author was born, where he lived, 
where he wrote; it is not necessarily his birthplace, nor the one where
 he spent most of his life. This definition gives rise to a great
 diversity in the places thus named, in their form as well as in their
 real and symbolic contents. There are house-mausoleums to the glory of
 the author, house-museums retracing a way of life of yesteryear, 
house-monuments, prestigious buildings surrounded by remarkable gardens, 
house-libraries overflowing with works from the author's private collection. 
Michel Melot notes that the houses in question can correspond to one or/and 
the other category, or escape it completely.

The missions of these places have long been limited to conservation and 
preservation for memorial and heritage purposes. But as early as the 1990s, 
local authorities in particular saw in writers' houses ways of enhancing
 the image of the territory and developing cultural tourism. Since 1997, 
most writers' houses have been brought together in a Federation, the National 
Federation of Writers' Houses & Literary Heritage. This federation was created 
to compensate for the lack of administrative recognition of these hybrid places, 
but also to ensure their preservation, promotion and cultural influence. 
A “Maison des Illustres” label awarded by the Ministry of Culture and 
Communication adds additional recognition to nearly half of them. 
In 2013, 171 houses of statesmen or artists had the label “House of the Illustrious”,
 including 75 houses of writers. If writers are the “illustrious” characters 
best endowed with houses, it is perhaps because of the immateriality of their 
literary work that justifies this need to locate them. Their house would be
 “the obligatory intermediary between inspiration and writing” 
(Poisson, 1997, p. 3), a place that would make it possible to establish 
contact with the author and his imaginary world (Fabre, 2001; Melot, 2005).

These places of memory sometimes go so far as to metamorphose into spaces 
for the promotion of literature: centers for studies, pedagogy, artists' residences, 
places for cultural meetings, festivals, etc. This deployment of activities raises 
logistical and ethical difficulties for the planners, in terms of reconciling, 
on the one hand, the requirements of respect and authenticity inherent 
in the place of memory and, on the other, the desire to make it a lively 
and attractive space for ever-increasing numbers of visitors. Whether or 
not he is a reader of the work, the visitor forges a series of expectations.

Whether it is a birthplace or a house sheltering childhood memories, 
these writers have developed a unique relationship with this place and its environment; 
their writings constitute the trace, their literature contributes to qualify a region 
by a real or imaginary geography. These rural houses, all three labeled 
“Maisons des Illustres”, are located in the center of France, in Berry and Bourbonnais, 
and are a few dozen kilometers apart from each other. They are located in comparable 
areas in terms of tourist attractiveness. These are the house of George Sand located 
in Nohant (Indre), the house of Charles-Louis Philippe in Cérilly (Allier), 
and the house of Alain-Fournier called “du Grand Meaulnes”, in Epineuil- le-Fleuriel (Cher).

The Domaine de Nohant opened its doors to the public in 1961 and is one of the ten
 most frequented writers' houses in France. Property of the State 
(Centre des Monuments Nationaux), its status allows it in particular 
to open its doors 360 days a year. After inheriting it from her grandmother, 
George Sand had to buy it back following her divorce. She was very attached to it1, 
just like to the land of Nohant and to this Black Valley which will constitute 
the setting of many of her novels. This estate has welcomed his circle of 
Parisian friends, renowned writers and artists: Flaubert, Chopin, Balzac, 
Delacroix,…; it also housed some of his famous love affairs. 
The practically unchanged setting of Nohant, its remarkable park with trees several 
hundred years old with, a little away, the tombs of the author and her 
relatives, are all elements that make this romantic site an exceptional 
testimony to her life as a woman of letters in the 19th century.

This tourism between places and letters does not only consist for the visitor to 
interfere in the idiosyncratic couple of an author and his work. The words of the writer 
offer an unprecedented way to visit the memory of a region and to travel through space 
through a fictional story. It is therefore an experience of immersion in the universe 
of the author, the work and the places, the places being made up of the writer's house 
but also places of inspiration of the author. If the term “literary tourism” is used by 
local authorities - it is found on brochures, on the websites of tourist offices, tour 
operators - it is not, however, identified or studied in French academic research, 
contrary to what can be observed in Anglo-Saxon countries (Squire, 1994; Herbert, 2001; 
Robinson and Andersen, 2002; MacLeod et al., 2009). For Robinson and Andersen, the tourist's
 approach revolves around a tripartite relationship between an author, his writings, and the 
concept of places or landscapes: “the tri-partite relationship between authors, their writings, 
and the concepts of place/landscape” (Robinson, Andersen, 2002, p. 3). The term “concept of 
places/landscapes” refers to the field of representations and imagination, first of the author and then of the reader when he receives the work. This approach by the triptych author/work/places makes it possible to “break” the idiosyncratic couple of the author and the work. Because the experience of the place resituates the perception of the tourist on the same level as that of the author, when the reading placed him only as a receiver. The tourist approach is authentic: indeed, even if the places derive their meaning from an imaginary world, they arouse in the visitor meanings and emotions which are very real (Herbert, 2001, p. 318).

France gastronomy tours offers you the exclusive opportunity to visit places where Jules Verne,
George Sand, Alain Fournier, Georges Simenon, Émile zola, Frances Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, 
Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Stendhal,Jean Giono and Marcel Pagnol
 were inspired.

Imagine....Your flight just landed at Charles de Gaulle airport...you step out of the airport and feel the excitement of a vibrant city  filled with history, art, beauty and modern energy, your chauffeur and your tour guide are right there waiting for you with a warming welcome and about a few minutes after you stepped out of the airplane  you are comfortably seated ina luxury comfortable car and enjoying the city vibes through the car window.

The car just stopped in front of your luxury 5 stars hotel you just have to get down the car straight to your suite as your chauffeur took care of your luggage and your tour guide is taking care of checkin you in at reception desk. After that long flight maybe you’ll want to enjoy a spa or a massage, your tour guide just went ahead of your potential needs and has planned everything for you!

Now that you relaxed, it’s time for serious things, you’ll now be able to enjoy your first high-end cuisine dinner in France under Paris night lights.

After dinner, you can enjoy the hotel fancy bar and just get a good night of sleep in your luxury 5 stars hotel located in the Capital Golden triangle.

In the morning, you are awakened by this sweet smell of hot butter croissants and fresh coffee… you have time for yourself in the morning, maybe you’ll want to take a walk around your hotel or enjoy your time there. At noon, your car with your chauffeur and your tour guide will be ready, waiting for you outside your hotel and you will hit the road for the program of the day : Each and every day during our tour we stop at a location where a famous writer got inspired, lived or had its fiction take place, and before, during or after that cultural visit, we planned a basket full of regional specialities for you to  enjoy at lunch time. After the cultural visit in the city you spent the night in, we hit the road for the next city. In this writers’ inspiration tour the next stop is Illiers-Combray

If you are curious to know more about this tour taking you to Paris, Illiers-Combray, Nohant-Vic, Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, Paray le Frésil, Grenoble, Avignon, Aubagne, Marseille, Nice, Manosque, Chambéry, Vichy, Tours, Le port-Marly, Amiens and back to Paris. you can request our brochure for the writers inspirationTOUR reference #TOUR83 by filling out this form :