What is Art Trip?

Monet Les Nymphéas (L'Orangerie, Paris) Click here for the deluxe version of Art Trip Da Vinci Mona Lisa (Louvre, Paris)

Art Trip is a unique artistic experience to view and to visit the great art and architecture of France and Italy with icscis' director, Yves Larocque Doctor in Art History at the Ottawa School of Art. Since 1982, more than 200 persons have participated in this annual event. This art appreciation tour is open to everybody who is interested in visiting or simply re-visiting the museums and the historical sites of Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Avignon, and Peter Mayle’s beautiful Provence ; visit the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Vatican and much more in a most relaxed way. A typical day with Yves is as follows : after your continental breakfast, you visit the best galleries of the Louvres, in which you will at last see the finest in Greek Art (the Winged Victory or the Venus of Milo), Renaissance Art, (the Mona Lisa and the Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo), Romantic Art (The Raft of the Medusa by Géricault) to name only a few. After a few hours of visual delicacies, you leave the glass Pyramid of the New Louvre for lunch and discussion in a Café : baguette, saussissons secs, brie, red wine or beer and café is usually a excellent combination at 22FF. Then, you return to the hotel via a promenade along the Seine, and make stops at: Place Saint Michel and Notre-Dame Cathedral, a café on the Left Bank, the grocery store to buy a few bottles of Martini Rossi and peanuts for the apéritif. Back, to the 2 star hotel, you take a nap before the apéritif, and then supper in a small restaurant where the group assembles on Rue de la Tombe Issoire, away from the crowed areas. Then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep in order to be ready for the next day’s Musée d’Orsay visit where many of the Impressionist paintings are found. And it is the same for Florence, and Avignon, the cities from which Art Trip will be radiating. No more than 18 persons are accepted in the group in order to maintain familiarity. Two art history classes are given prior departure in order to orient the "arttrippers" to the great monuments they are about to visit ; conferences are given on site. For people living outside Ottawa (Canada), a reading list will be sent to them as well as notes. As soon as we arrive, a wine and cheese is also scheduled in order for each participant to get to know his or her fellow travellers better for a more pleasant trip. You may bring your charcoals, pastels, or your watercolors. You will have plenty of time on your "free" days to draw or to paint. In 1989, we came back with more than 150 drawings and paintings, so needless to say that we had to organise an exhibition, and we did. More than 200 persons attended opening night, or the vernissage. To sum it up, we stay in small hôtels and pensione, and sometime we eat "on the go" (sur le pouce in French). Art Trip makes us see, draw, paint and break bread together. On site we learn the history of art and architecture. We travel like Europeans : by subway, by train ; we also walk... A trip emphasising culture, experience, pleasure... but above all, a great artistic experience.