THE PROGRAM 

Join us during one of the most beautiful times of the year in one of the world’s most beautiful cities for thought-provoking discussions, exciting tours, fine dining, and great fun focused on an important period in the political and personal development of Thomas Jefferson.

The program will be based in the heart of Paris at the historic Four Star Hotel Ambassador.  From this central location, near the Opéra and steps from Jefferson’s first house in Paris, you will find all the attractions and amenities of the City of Light near at hand.

Together with a talented faculty and an attentive staff, in seminar sessions, on special walking tours, and during private visits to important sites, you will explore Jefferson’s Paris years (1784-89) as a pivotal moment in his political career as well as a period of prolonged sensual stimulation.

We will examine Jefferson, fresh from the revolution that gave birth to modern democracy, watching with deep interest as the events leading to the French Revolution unfold. Tracing his thoughts and steps, we will see how he came to a clearer and deeper understanding of what the American Revolution meant for world history and explore how he developed convictions that were important in his subsequent career in American national politics. 

Studying the sentimental Jefferson, exposed in Paris as never before or after, we will examine how he relished the sophistication of this most cosmopolitan city, how he refined his aesthetic sensibility, and how he cultivated affectionate friendships with a wide range of men and women.  Friendships that included the enchanting Maria Cosway, the subject of Jefferson’s famous dialogue between his Head and his Heart.

By program’s end you will have experienced Jefferson’s Paris and developed a rich understanding of a pivotal period in the public and private lives of Thomas Jefferson.

Paris in October.  A time for the heart as well as the head.  Join us and discover that, as a past participant wrote, “This is education raised to an art form!”

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Program Features 
 

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DURING A PROGRAM DESIGNED FOR INSTRUCTION AND DELIGHT, YOU WILL:

• Join a gifted international faculty for seminar sessions on Jefferson's Paris, the American and the French Revolutions, the personal and political legacies of Jefferson's time in Paris, and much more.

• Spend a day exploring Versailles, including a private visit to the Bibliotheque Municipale (the Foreign Affairs building in the 1780s); guided tours of the Petits Apartments, the Petit Trianon, and Marie Antoinette's Garden & Hamlet; and a walk through the gardens to lunch at La Flotille.

• Take two guided walking tours of Jefferson's Paris and enjoy a special guided evening bus tour tracing the history of Paris.

• Experience Revolutionary Paris during a walking tour of Le Marais.

• Dine, as Jefferson did, at Le Procope, the oldest café in Paris, enjoy a special lunch at a private Paris club, and more . . .

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Program Location  

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Check the Paris Weather

The program will be based at the beautiful, recently renovated Hotel Ambassador.  This late 20's style, very centrally located hotel on boulevard Haussmann, near the Opéra, is a first class, Four Star historic hotel featuring a truly Parisian atmosphere.  Near the site where Jefferson lived for a year, the Hotel Ambassador is where Charles Lindbergh was feted after he made the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927.  Our seminar sessions will be held in the hotel.

Along with the well known traditional grands magasins (department stores) Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps, there are also a number of early 19th century Passages/Galeries (arcades), including the extensive Passage des Panoramas, near the hotel.  As the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Paris says: "At the time of their construction, the Galeries represented a new traffic-free area for commerce, workshops and apartments.  They fell into disuse but were dramitically revamped in the 1970s and now house an eclectic mixture of small shops selling anything from designer jewelry to rare books.  They have high, vaulted roofs of iron and glass."

The Louvre Museum is a 15-20 minutes walk south and the charming Montmartre area is a 10 minute walk north (the view of Montmartre's monumental Sacré Coeur from the corner of Rue Laffitte and Boulevard Haussmann, just east of the hotel, is breathtaking).

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Program Faculty
 

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• James Horn, Saunders Director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation

• Simon Newman, member of the Department of Modern History and Director, American Studies, University of Glasgow

• Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History, Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia

• U.Va. Program Director: Tom Dowd, Senior Director of Program Development, School of Continuing & Professional Studies

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Program Schedule 
 

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Sunday, October 21

• Individual Arrivals, (rooms available by 3:00 pm)

• 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm: Program Check In, Hotel Ambassador Lobby

• 4:30 pm: Session 1: Opening Session: Introduction & Jefferson in Paris Panel

• Free Time

• 7:30 pm: Opening Reception and Dinner

Monday, October 22

• 9:00 am: Session 2: America & France Before the Revolution

• 10:45 am: Session 3: Best of Times, Worst of Times: Tales of Two Revolutions

• 12:00 noon: An Introduction to Thomas Jefferson’s Paris

• 12:30 pm: Lunch

• 2:00 pm: Session 4: A “Furnace of Politics”: Jefferson, Paris, & the Coming of the French Revolution

• 3:15 pm: Session 5: Thomas Jefferson’s Paris Walking Tours #1

• Free Evening

Tuesday, October 23

• 8:15 am: Session 6: Jefferson’s Versailles. Private visit to the Bibliotheque Municipale (Foreign Affairs building under Louis XVI) where Jefferson met with Foreign Minister Montmorin.  Introduction to exterior of Versailles followed by visit to the Petits Apartments inside Versailles (view Louis XV and Louis XVI furnishings and the "Chambre" where Louis XVI received Jefferson) and the Hall of Mirrors and Louis XVI period Opera house.  Walk through the Palace gardens to lunch at La Flotille by the Bassin d'Apollon. Visit Petit Trianon (Louis XVI furnishings) and see Marie Antoinette's Garden and Hamlet.

• 5:30 pm: Arrive back in Paris

• Free Time

• 9:30 pm: Session 7: Special Guided Bus Tour Tracing the History of Paris

Wednesday, October 24

• 9:00 am: Session 8: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Revolutionary Violence

• 11:00 am: Session 9: Small Group Discussion Sessions with Faculty

• 12:30 pm: Lunch

• 2:00 pm: Session 10: The Role of the Crowd and the Street in the American and French Revolutions

• 3:15 pm: Session 11: Thomas Jefferson’s Paris Walking Tours #2

• Free Evening 

Thursday, October 25

• 9:00 am: Session 12: Exploring Revolutionary Paris – Le Marais.  Filled with prerevolutionary lanes and classic 17th and 18th century archi-tecture, Le Marais is one of Paris’s oldest and most colorful districts.  With guides, visit the Place de la Bastille, walk along rue St. Antoine, a 14th century thoroughfare, enjoy the beautiful Place des Vosges, Paris’s oldest square, and enjoy special tours of Le Musée Carnavalet – The Museum of the City of Paris.

• 12:00 noon: Special private lunch at Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature, Hôtel de Guénégaud

• 1:30 pm: Session 13: The Age of Revolutions

• Free Time or optional stroll into the revolutionary Faubourg St-Antoine

• 6:30 pm: Closing Reception

• 8:00 pm: Closing Dinner. We will dine, as Jefferson did, at Le Procope, the oldest café in Paris

Friday, October 26

• Enjoy A Free Morning

• Hotel check-out time is Noon 

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Fees & Refunds

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Your participant program fee includes five nights lodging in the Four StarHotel Ambassador, specially prepared program materials, a guide to Paris, guided tours and trips, and most meals. 

• $2,995 per participant in a single room

• $2,895 per participant in a double room (only mutual requests can be honored)

• $2,195 Program Only Fee (no lodging or breakfast)

• $1,995 Companion Fee – covering lodging in shared double room, five breakfasts, two receptions and dinners, and two afternoon walking tours of Paris.

 In the event withdrawal is necessary, there will be no refund but you may substitute another person to attend the program in your place.

To recover nonrefundable costs incurred if travel must be postponed on short notice we strongly encourage you to purchase travel cancellation insurance as soon as you register (to cover pre-existing conditions).  For travel insurance assistance contact your travel or insurance agent, or our preferred travel provider, Peace Frogs Travel/Outfitters, at 888-737-6472.

The University of Virginia and Monticello reserve the right to require any participant to withdraw from the program at any time if such action would best serve the health, safety, or general welfare of the individual participant and/or the other participants in the program.  Once this right has been exercised, our responsibility for that participant will cease immediately and no compensation will be paid for any loss.

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Useful Links

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• Fodors: Create your own guide to Paris

• Bradmans: Concise, useful, practical Paris information

• Lonely Planet: No hotels or restaurants, but lots of useful Paris information

• Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Online: Whew! Lots of valuable Paris tips here

• Ronald Kenyon's Francophilia page - A very useful collection of links

• CNN's Paris City Guide:  wide-ranging and useful

• The Paris Pages:  a "collection of everything regarding the City of Light."

Translate English-French/French-English - works on text and Web sites

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