点评:I have been a Francophile since about the age of 10. (I’m 60 now). It was at my current age that I made my first trip to France. Since the first time I ever saw a photo of the Chateau at Chenonceau, I have been semi-obsessed. It was with this personal history that I booked a custom private tour of the chateaux in the Loire Valley. I had a months long back and forth correspondence with Andrea in the office. Not only was she very patient with my pestering but steered us away from my overly ambitious desires. We were very fortunate to have Jean-Georges as our guide for the 2 chateaux we toured. Before our tour, I wrote to him to make clear what we were interested in learning. He rose to the occasion and absolutely delivered what we wanted. We learned so much about French/European history, the history of the chateaux, the design and architecture, and the context behind the families who owned and lived in them. He held our interest the entire day. He also gave us recommendations and information on other chateaux that we then went to visit on our own.
It was definitely pricey but during our tour we were glad to have spent the money. Watching all the other tourists read from their pamphlets trying to understand what they were seeing only reinforced the fact we had made the right decision to book a private tour, custom designed for us. Our experience with the company, and our subsequent tour with Jean-Georges was the highlight of my 2 weeks in France.
翻译:我从 10 岁起就一直是亲法人士。(我现在 60 岁了)。在我现在这个年纪,我第一次去法国旅行。自从我第一次看到舍农索城堡的照片以来,我就有点着迷了。正是凭借这段个人历史,我预订了卢瓦尔河谷城堡的定制私人之旅。我在办公室与安德里亚进行了长达一个月的来回通信。她不仅对我的纠缠非常耐心,而且引导我们远离我过于雄心勃勃的欲望。我们很幸运有让·乔治作为我们参观的两座城堡的导游。在我们旅行之前,我写信给他,明确我们有兴趣学习什么。他挺身而出,绝对满足了我们的要求。我们了解了很多关于法国/欧洲历史、城堡的历史、设计和建筑,以及拥有和居住在其中的家庭背后的背景。他一整天都引起了我们的兴趣。他还向我们提供了有关其他城堡的建议和信息,然后我们就自己去参观了。
这绝对是昂贵的,但在我们的旅行中我们很高兴花了这笔钱。看着所有其他游客阅读他们的小册子,试图了解他们所看到的东西,只会强化我们做出了正确的决定,预订为我们定制的私人旅游。我们在该公司的经历以及随后与让·乔治一起的旅行是我在法国两周的亮点。