Today is a day for Paris’ fabulous cemeteries. In the morning, Père Lachaise, the most visited cemetery in the world—famous for its astonishing list of residents, including some straight people like Maris Callas and Jim Morrison, but also a many LGBTQ+ people, starting with the famous tombs of Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein (and her wife Alice B Toklas), as well as Proust, Colette, and a host of others, including great gay icons like Edith Piaf. We will learn about France’s elimination of sodomy laws—at the tomb of the man who may be responsible—the first modern novel with a gay character, Chopin’s love letters to a young man, and many other fascinating stories. We have lunch at one of the great 19th century Paris brasseries—a place that has hosted people like Picasso, Modigliani, Henry Miller, and Anaïs Nin, and appears in a whole series of Vuillard paintings, as well as Truffaut’s The 400 Blows. Then it is off to another, shorter cemetery walk in the less known but equally charming Montmartre Cemetery, where we see the tomb of the woman who inspired The Lady of the Camellias, La Traviata, Cuckor’s Camille, and Pretty Woman, as well as LGBTQ+ people like the great dancer and choreographer Nijinsky. Then we take a quick stroll to one of Paris’ most charming and least known museums, the Musée de la Vie Romantique, full of memories of the great queer woman author George Sand and her fragile, tubercular, gay or bisexual lover Chopin. We can end our afternoon at the museum’s lovely garden café or (if you like) go around the corner to a harem-themed bar in what was a 19th century brothel….  

This morning, we go on a “gay secrets” tour of the Louvre. The Louvre has many of the greatest LGBTQ+ artworks in the world, from the ancient Roman Hermaphrodite (reclining on the mattress made for them by Bernini in the 17th century!) to Michelangelo’s highly erotic “Dying Slave” and Leonardo’s St John the Baptist (or is it Bacchus?)—almost certainly a portrait of his life-long crush, GianGiacomo Caprotti, whom Leonardo nicknamed Salaì, Florentine dialect for “devil.” We have lunch as a Classic Parisian bistro nearby and then visit the gardens of the Palais Royal—the palace of Louis XIV’s gay/queer brother Philippe (known as the time simply as “Monsieur”) with its fascinating history as an 18th century fashion mall, a den of Revolutionary intrigue—and later the home of Colette, whose tomb we saw yesterday—a woman whose writing and life story are both full of varied LGBTQ+ loves.  

 Thursday May 8. We start today with a tour of Paris’ great opera house, the center of Paris society in the 19th century—both high society and the so-called demi-monde of courtesans and mistresses. The opera is also the setting of the enduring story of The Phantom of the Opera. And it has a long history of great gay dancers, including Nureyev (who defected in Paris in 1961 and directed the Paris Opera Ballet in the 1980s) and the great (and showy) star of Nureyev’s directorship, Patrick Dupond. After lunch, we change themes: from dancers to designers, with a fashion history tour around the Place Vendôme and the rue St-Honoré. See today’s boutiques, and learn about the history of this quintessential Parisian industry, from Marie Antoinette to Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. We end the afternoon at another less known museum, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent, in the house where Saint Laurent’s studio was for almost 30 years, and where one can see exhibits on this fascinating designer’s work—preserved by a foundation created by and named for his life partner, Pierre Bergé. 

This morning we visit the Marais, long Paris’ gayborhood—set in the most aristocratic neighborhood of 17th-18th century Paris, which slid downhill in the 19th and 20th until (as with so many neighborhoods in other cities) the gays started to renovate. We will see a mix of things—18th century palaces, gay bars, Paris’ most beautiful square, and also the traditional Jewish neighborhood. We end our morning at the Musée Carnavelet, Paris’ city museum, set in a beautiful 17th century palace—and full of fascinating stuff, including the famous cork-lined bedroom in which Marcel Proust wrote In Remembrance of Things Past, and a portrait of the greatest lesbian salonnière of Paris history, the American heiress and novelist Natalie Barney, by the great lesbian painter (and her lover) Romaine Brooks—though note that Barney was also the lover of Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly! After the museum, you can join us for lunch at Paris’ oldest covered market (with among other things probably the world’s great sandwich stand) and in the afternoon, we offer an optional tour of the Orsay Museum. But you are free, to explore more museums, or neighborhoods, or shops, and of course restaurants (feel free to ask us for advice)! 

Today we take the train down to the Loire Valley, to the charming city of Blois. We start our exploration of the Loire’s gastronomic specialties and visit the castle of Blois, one of the fabulous series of castles and palaces that the French royal family built through this loveliest of French regions in the Renaissance. We see Catherine de Médicis’ medicine (or poison?) cabinet and learn about her son, King Henri III—certainly a dandy and possibly bisexual—who with his courtiers murdered the Duke of Guise in this very castle (and executed his brother the Cardinal the next morning). In short, this will be an exciting start to our visit to the Loire! 

This morning we drive the short distance to Amboise, another lovely river town dominated by a castle, where we visit the Clos Lucé, the manor house given by François I to the great gay artist and all-round genius Leonardo da Vinci. It is here that Da Vinci died, leaving the Mona Lisa and the St John the Baptist (which we saw at the Louvre) to his love GianGiacomo Caprotti (who almost certainly modeled for one of them—possibly both!). The manor is now a museum of Leonardo’s inventions and designs, with models scattered through the gardens. After a visit to Amboise’s wonderful farmer’s market, we have lunch at another fantastic Loire restaurant (often our guests’ favorite restaurant on the tour) and then set off for the most beautiful of all the Loire castles, Chenonceau—the famous castle with the Cher river flowing beneath it, fought over by Catherine de Médicis and her husband’s mistress, Diane de Poitiers. And you can easily see why! We return to Blois for a free evening. 

Our tour ends this morning, and those who want can return to Paris by train.

Those who can take another day can join us for a short extension. We take the train to Chartres, eat one more fabulous Loire lunch, and then visit the Cathedral of Chartres, the masterpiece of the Gothic—and above all the paradise of beautiful stained glass. We stay in Chartres for the evening, which gives us the chance to see the fantastic Sound and Light show, bathing the cathedral in light and telling the story of Chartres, including the story of the great hero of the French resistance, Jean Moulin, who started his resistance as prefect of Chartres, when he refused under torture to sign a declaration blaming France’s black African soldiers for the deaths of civilians caused by German bombing. 

This morning we take a short ½ hour train ride to the village of Illiers, called Combray in Proust’s masterpiece, In Remembrance of Things Past (and now officially Illiers-Combray in his honor). We tour the village, with many sights from Proust’s novel, have a lovely country lunch (at a restaurant called La Madeleine!) and visit the house which is the setting for the beginning of Proust’s novel, the Proust Museum and House of “Aunt Léonie” (really Proust’s uncle and aunt Jules and Elisabeth Amiot)—a beautifully preserved 19th century bourgeois French home which, like the village, brings Proust’s world to life. Among other things, you will learn why the little cakes called Madeleines were popular in Illiers! In the late afternoon, we take the train back to Chartres and thence to Paris, only an hour away.