Guided Trips, Garden Tour, & The Euro

LOIRE GARDEN TOUR - June 2009: ANY and all garden enthusiasts may be very interested to know about a unique and privileged tour to discover the Gardens of the Loire Valley. This program has been organized by Jane Holahan who has been a tour leader/organizer with Discover France for many years. She spent last summer working in the Loire Valley and helping to organize a marketing effort to promote these masterpieces.

For full details, visit this page of our website: http://www.discoverfrance.com/garden_theme.html

Suggestion: for those couples where one is a very strong cyclist and the other isn’t so much; here is a way to both go to France for a week and do separate activities! Meet up in Paris afterward to compare stories!

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The Guided Trips: Yes, guided! We have been operating tours for other companies for some years now, and many of them are guided trips. As our guides are most content when we can keep them busy all season long, we want to bring expand this for 2009. When we say guided, it won’t be in the style of some of the competition and their extraordinary pricing! When we say guided, it will be in our usual “VALUE’ minded philosophy.

We would expect to offer guided tours in quality 3 and 4 star hotels for under 2000 euros per week!

Private Guided Trips: Want to have your own tour with a guide or 2 to handle all the details? Any group of 4 or more can get a guide added along with support vehicle. The best way to economize in this is to go with at least 6 and max 8 per 1 guide. We have our own vans with roof mounted racks that can legally carry up to 8 persons. 6 is most comfortable, but that is only when transfers or SAG are required. See photos of our equipment online: http://www.cyclingclassics.com/tour_operators.php

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THE EURO: Fluctuating in the range between 1.28 and 1.35 ($US) lately; this is a solid 20% drop from peak values seen last summer by the Euro. Our guess for 2009 – the Euro will continue to lose value. If history is any guide, we will have some severe bounces based on jittery markets and conflicting economic news that will continue to spoil all year. If at any time you see a bounce in the right direction, we encourage you to lock in your tour costs and pay down. Anything below 1.32 $US to 1 euro is a good buy.

For $CAD, $AUS, $NZD and others, we recommend you look back to what the values were last July. You should see an important change. The $AUS was valued quite high last July, but with corresponding drops in the Euro you may see as good an exchange rate. The point is to lock in when rates dip in your favor; and to know what ranges your currency trades in to be aware when a good buy is possible.

To find out more, contact us: contact@discoverfrance.com