Collin hosts a wine education dinner focused on Right Bank Bordeaux — specifically Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. A deliberate pre-trip primer so the Bordeaux leg has more meaning. When we stand in those vineyards in July, we'll know what we're looking at.
Confirmed
Mostly Confirmed
TBD / Needs Decision
Travel Day
Free / Flexible
🗺️ Full Route OverviewOpen in Google Maps →
Pre-Trip
Sat9May
Pre-Trip Event
Wine Education Dinner — Adults Only
Hosted by Collin · Right Bank Bordeaux tasting · Setting the stage
Adults OnlyConfirmed
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What's Happening
🍷Bordeaux Wine
🏰Saint-Émilion
Guests
- Chris, JC, Frank, Jennifer (core group)
- Kim and her husband
- Two additional friends (TBD)
- Venue / logistics not confirmed
Why This Matters
This isn't just a dinner — it's the beginning of the trip. Right Bank Bordeaux is Merlot-dominant (unlike Left Bank Cabernet). Pomerol is home to Pétrus and Le Pin — two of the rarest wines on Earth. Saint-Émilion is a UNESCO medieval wine town. Our hub house sits 30 miles north of Libourne, right in this territory. Arriving educated transforms the experience.
🇮🇹 Italy — Florence & Rome (All 11 Travelers)
Sat27June
USA → Rome
Departure — Overnight Flight
Fly out evening · Arrive Rome morning of June 28
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Travel Notes
Evening departure, overnight transatlantic. Arrive Rome ~10am June 28. This is where it all begins — 31 days across two countries, three generations, and a lifetime of memories ahead.
Sun28June
Rome → Florence
Arrive Rome · Train to Florence · Check into Villa
~10am arrival · Frecciarossa to Florence (~1.5 hrs) · Settle in
TravelConfirmed
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Travel Sequence
- Land Rome Fiumicino (FCO) ~10am
- Transfer to Roma Termini (~30–45 min)
- High-speed Frecciarossa to Florence: 1.5 hrs
- Arrive Florence Santa Maria Novella → Transfer to villa
Watch For
- Train must be pre-booked — Frecciarossa seats are reserved
- 11 seats on same departure with luggage needs advance coordination
- Jet lag day — keep dinner local and easy
Sun–Thu28 Jun–2 Jul
Florence Area Villa
Florence Leg — 4 Nights
Michelangelo's David · Uffizi · Duomo · Pending Mummerts' proposed plan
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Confirmed Highlights
🏛️Florence
🗿David
⛪Duomo
- Michelangelo's David — Galleria dell'Accademia. Book timed entry. 17 feet tall. Carved from a single marble block that two other sculptors had already abandoned. Michelangelo was 26.
- Florence — Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo for the panoramic view
- Uffizi Gallery — Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Raphael, Leonardo. Book tickets
Unknowns — Pending Group Review
- Italy daily agenda is being developed by the Mummerts. Once proposed, it needs to be reviewed with the full group and signed off by Collin before finalizing.
- Day trips not assigned: Siena, San Gimignano, Cinque Terre, Pisa
- Tuscany food: market meals, trattorias, Chianti wine country
Why Florence
Florence is where the modern world was born. The Renaissance — the explosion of art, science, architecture, and banking that ended the Middle Ages — started right here, funded by the Medici family. Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, Galileo all walked these streets. For the kids: this is where humanity decided to stop just surviving and start creating. Compact and walkable. Tuscany in late June: ~85°F, dry, busy — advance tickets essential.
Thu–Mon2–6 Jul
Rome Apartment
Rome Leg — 4 Nights
Colosseum · Vatican · Pantheon · Pompeii · Golf cart tour
Partial
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Confirmed Highlights
🏟️Colosseum
⛪Pantheon
🎨Vatican
- Colosseum — Timed entry + gladiator floor. Book tickets. 50,000–80,000 spectators. ~400 years of combat.
- Vatican + Sistine Chapel — Book first-entry 8am. Michelangelo painted the ceiling on his back over 4 years.
- Pantheon — Tickets required. Built 125 AD. Still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome — 1,900 years later.
- Pompeii — ~2.5 hrs south. Book in advance. Buried under 20 feet of volcanic ash in 79 AD. Frozen in time — bread still in ovens.
- Golf Cart Tour — Fun, low-effort way for everyone (including Nana) to see hidden Rome
Unknowns — Pending Group Review
- Day-by-day assignments not yet made — part of the Mummerts' Italy proposal. Full group alignment + Collin sign-off needed before locking.
- Pompeii day: likely July 3, 4 or 5
- Trastevere: cobblestoned, authentic, lively — excellent for dinners
- Vatican requires its own full day
Why Rome
Rome is 2,800 years of continuous civilization stacked on top of itself. The Colosseum alone changes how you understand scale, power, and history — no screen can replicate standing inside it. Pompeii is a frozen moment in time: an entire city stopped mid-breath by Vesuvius. The Vatican is the spiritual center of 1.3 billion people. For the kids, understanding what happened in these places before walking in transforms everything.
🍷 France — Bordeaux / Dordogne Hub (All 11 Travelers)
Hub: Montlieu-la-Garde ("Mount Louie") — Right Bank wine country, ~1 hr NE of Bordeaux airport, ~30 mi N of Libourne. Deliberately chosen to be equidistant between Oradour, Sarlat, Le Pin, and Bordeaux city. Three rental cars.
🍷 Bordeaux Hub — Day Trip DistancesOpen in Google Maps →
Mon6July
Rome → Bordeaux → Hub
Fly to Bordeaux · Pick Up Cars · Drive to Hub
~1 hr airport to hub · Settle in · No agenda
TravelConfirmed
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Travel Sequence
- Morning flight: Rome → Bordeaux-Mérignac (BOD)
- Pick up 3 rental cars at BOD
- Drive ~1 hr to Montlieu-la-Garde
- Settle in — no agenda beyond arrival
Logistics
- Confirm car classes handle 11 people + luggage
- Reserve automatics explicitly — harder to find in Europe
- Download offline Google Maps for Bordeaux region before landing
Tue7July
Hub + Day Trip
Oradour-sur-Glane
Nazi massacre village · Permanently preserved since 1944 · ~1h35 from hub
Confirmed
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What Happened Here
🕊️Oradour Ruins
🚗Rusting Cars
June 10, 1944 — four days after D-Day — the SS Das Reich division marched into this quiet village and killed 642 inhabitants. Men were shot in barns. Women and children were locked in the church and burned alive. Six people survived by hiding under the dead.
De Gaulle ordered it preserved exactly as left — rusting cars, collapsed buildings, personal belongings still inside homes. It has been decomposing in place for 80 years as a permanent national memorial.
Visit Details
- ~1h35 from hub · ~1.5–2 hrs on site
- No timed entry — walk freely through the ruins
- Modern museum on site provides full context
- Standard French school field trip — deeply embedded in national memory
- Angoulême (comic book capital of France) en route — possible lunch stop
Why We're Going
This site has been on the bucket list for years. Without understanding the history, you're just looking at rubble. For the kids especially, this is a history lesson no classroom can replicate: real personal artifacts, real names, real lives interrupted mid-sentence. Sewing machines still on tables. Cars parked where they were that morning. Combined with Normandy later, this creates the trip's most powerful throughline: occupied France → Nazi atrocity → Allied liberation.
Wed8July
Sarlat-la-Canéda
Sarlat Market Day + Overnight
Wednesday market · Truffle & foie gras capital · Stay overnight
Confirmed
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The Plan
🏘️Sarlat
🧀Market
Drive ~2 hrs east into the Dordogne. Wednesday market is the whole point — one of France's great food markets, filling medieval streets. Morning exploring + eating. Lunch at an excellent local restaurant. Stay overnight — Sarlat is dramatically more beautiful at night when the honey-colored limestone glows under lamplight.
What to Buy & Try
- Black Périgord truffles — the world's most prized, hunted locally
- Foie gras — duck and goose. This is its homeland.
- Duck confit — slow-cooked, preserved in its own fat
- Walnut products — oils, cakes, liqueurs (Périgord is walnut country)
- Cabécou — tiny local goat cheese rounds
- Bergerac wine — excellent value, often overlooked
Why Sarlat
Best-preserved medieval town in France. UNESCO zone — honey limestone, narrow alleys, Renaissance architecture. The Dordogne is where French gastronomy reaches its soul: truffles, foie gras, duck, walnut everything. This is food at the source, not in a restaurant pretending. The market has run continuously for centuries.
Logistics
- Book Sarlat hotel/gîte in advance — fills up on market day
- Leave hub early (market peaks morning through midday)
- Next morning: Lascaux is only ~20 min away
Thu9July
Lascaux → Hub
Lascaux IV Cave · Return to Hub
World's most famous prehistoric art · ~20 min from Sarlat
Confirmed
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What You're Seeing
🦬Lascaux IV
🐴Cave Art
Original cave discovered in 1940 by four teenagers following their dog. Over 600 paintings — horses, bison, aurochs, deer, a mammoth — approximately 17,000 years old. Not stick figures: perspective, motion, anatomical precision.
Original permanently sealed in 1963 (human breath was destroying the pigments). Lascaux IV (2016) is a government-commissioned full-scale replica with millimeter precision. Stunning modern building in the hillside.
The Detail That Changes Everything
The woolly mammoth survived on remote Arctic islands until about 2,500 years ago — meaning these paintings were made by people who actually saw these animals alive. Not mythological creatures. Real neighbors. These weren't primitive people fumbling in the dark — they were documenting their world with extraordinary skill, 15,000 years before writing was invented. For the kids: this is the oldest art gallery on Earth.
Logistics
- BOOK TIMED ENTRY — sells out in summer, do this early
- Montignac-Lascaux, ~20 min from Sarlat
- Allow 2–3 hours · Afternoon: drive to hub (~2 hrs)
Evening
Back at Mount Louie for a relaxed evening after two packed Dordogne days. Fire up the grill, open local wine, decompress.
Fri10July
Le Pin + Bordeaux City
Château Le Pin (Adults) · Tour de France Stage 7
Morning: world's rarest wine · Afternoon: 175km sprint into Bordeaux
Split DayConfirmed
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Morning — Le Pin (Adults Only)
🍇Pomerol
🚴Tour de France
Château Le Pin — tiny 5-acre estate, ~700 cases/year, $3,000–$6,000+/bottle. Not a tourist winery. One of the rarest wines on Earth. The pre-trip wine dinner makes this meaningful beyond "expensive wine."
Afternoon — Tour de France (All 11)
2026 Stage 7 finishes in Bordeaux July 10 — 175km flat sprint from Hagetmau. Finish at Place des Quinconces, one of Europe's largest public squares. Final 3km along the Garonne quays — spectacular viewing. Free to attend.
Publicity caravan first (~20 min of free swag), then 170+ riders at 40+ mph. Bordeaux has hosted a Tour finish 133 times, second only to Paris. letour.fr
Why This Day Is Special
Two once-in-a-lifetime experiences in one day. Le Pin is among the rarest wines on the planet — not a place tourists visit. The Tour de France is the biggest annual sporting event in the world by attendance (~12 million roadside spectators each year). We happen to be in Bordeaux on the exact day a stage finishes there. That's not coincidence — Collin planned for this.
Action Items
- Le Pin: Contact the estate directly — not bookable online. Do this now.
- Arrive Bordeaux mid-afternoon — explore waterfront before the sprint finish
- Kids need a plan during Le Pin — hub house or Saint-Émilion morning
- Cognac (45 min from hub) still under discussion for a separate day
🗼 France — Paris (All 11 Travelers)
Sat11July
Bordeaux → Paris
TGV to Paris · Check into Apartment
2h04 high-speed train · Luxury apartment · Settle + dinner
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Travel
The Apartment
Large luxury downtown apartment. Marble floors, king beds, central location. Home base for 5 nights.
Sun–Wed12–15July
Paris
Paris — 4 Full Days · Schedule TBD
~10 major attractions · July 14 = Bastille Day fireworks
Unassigned
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Day Assignments Still Needed
Paris daily schedule NOT yet built. Attractions confirmed as priorities but need assigned to specific days. Suggested groupings below.
Confirmed Attractions
🎨Louvre
🗼Eiffel Tower
⛪Notre Dame
- Louvre — Pre-studied paintings. Half-day minimum. Book timed entry. Family studies key works before the trip.
- Musée d'Orsay — Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir. Book tickets
- Centre Pompidou / Modern Art — ⚠️ Verify open vs renovation. Collin's personal priority — his favorite stop of the entire trip.
- Eiffel Tower — Lunch at the tower. Book summit tickets well in advance
- Versailles — Half/full day, 45 min RER. Book entry. Hall of Mirrors, gardens.
- Notre Dame + Sainte-Chapelle — Notre Dame freshly restored after 2019 fire. Sainte-Chapelle — most stunning stained glass in existence. Same island.
- Champs-Élysées + Arc de Triomphe — Arc rooftop for panoramic view
- Père Lachaise — Morrison, Chopin, Wilde, Piaf. 1–2 hrs. Free.
- Seine Cruise — Bateaux Mouches evening. Paris lit up from the water.
- Hermès / Perfume — Shopping stop
Suggested Groupings
Day 1 (Jul 12, Sun): Louvre (full morning, pre-studied paintings) + Tuileries + Eiffel Tower lunch
Day 2 (Jul 13, Mon): Versailles full-day trip
Day 3 (Jul 14, Tue — Bastille Day 🇫🇷): d'Orsay + Pompidou/Modern Art + Notre Dame + Sainte-Chapelle · Eiffel Tower fireworks at night
Day 4 (Jul 15, Wed): Champs-Élysées + Arc + shopping + Père Lachaise + Seine evening cruise
Day 2 (Jul 13, Mon): Versailles full-day trip
Day 3 (Jul 14, Tue — Bastille Day 🇫🇷): d'Orsay + Pompidou/Modern Art + Notre Dame + Sainte-Chapelle · Eiffel Tower fireworks at night
Day 4 (Jul 15, Wed): Champs-Élysées + Arc + shopping + Père Lachaise + Seine evening cruise
⚠️ July 14 = Bastille Day. Fireworks launched from the Eiffel Tower are one of the greatest fireworks shows in the world — and we're there on exactly the right day. Some museums offer free admission.
Why Paris Matters for This Trip
Paris is the culmination. After the ancient world in Italy, the medieval and prehistoric in the Dordogne, and WWII at Oradour — Paris ties it all together. The Louvre alone spans 9,000 years. Collin's modern art museum visit is his personal highlight of the whole trip. Being there for Bastille Day is extraordinary timing — the fireworks off the Eiffel Tower are watched by millions. We arrive educated from three weeks of context.
⚓ France — Normandy & Chartres (11 → Mummerts + Nana depart)
Thu16July
Paris → Carnac → Normandy
Early Train to Rennes · Carnac Standing Stones · Drive to Normandy
Pre-7am train · 3,000+ megalithic stones · Big travel day
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Travel Sequence
- Train from Paris before 7am → Rennes (~2 hrs TGV)
- Pick up rental cars in Rennes
- Drive Rennes → Carnac (~1.5 hrs south through Brittany)
- ~3 hours at Carnac
- Drive Carnac → Normandy rental house (~3 hrs)
- Arrive late afternoon/evening
Carnac — The Standing Stones
🪨Carnac Stones
🌄Alignments
Over 3,000 prehistoric stones in parallel rows stretching 4 kilometers across the Brittany countryside. Erected ~3300 BC — predating Stonehenge by centuries. Three main fields: Ménec, Kermario, Kerlescan. Purpose debated: astronomical, ceremonial, territorial.
Why Carnac
The connection to ley lines — proposed alignments between ancient sacred sites across vast distances — is part of what makes Carnac significant. Most tourists have never heard of this place. This is exactly the kind of off-the-beaten-path, deeply meaningful stop that defines this trip. We're not just going to the obvious tourist sites — we're going to the ones that stay with you.
Logistics
- Book early Paris → Rennes TGV for 11 — before 7am
- Reserve rental cars at Rennes station
- Long day — early start, significant driving
- Mummerts + Nana depart during Normandy leg (Frankie's camp). Exact date TBD.
Fri–Sun17–19July
Normandy
D-Day Sites · American Cemetery · Omaha Beach
WWII Normandy · Day-by-day agenda still TBD
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Key Sites (Not Yet Assigned to Days)
✝️American Cemetery
🏰Mont St-Michel
🏖️Omaha Beach
- American Cemetery — 9,388 white crosses over Omaha Beach. ABMC. Free. 2 hrs. One of the most powerful American sites in the world.
- Omaha Beach — Walk the actual beach. The cliffs, the terrain, the impossible scale — it becomes real in a way no movie prepares you for.
- Pointe du Hoc — Rangers scaled 100-ft cliffs under fire. Bomb craters still there, 80 years later.
- Utah Beach Museum — WWII artifacts, Sherman tank
- Mont Saint-Michel — ~1.5 hrs from Caen. Medieval abbey on a tidal island.
- Bayeux — 900-year-old tapestry. First French city liberated on D-Day.
Why Normandy Completes the Story
June 6, 1944 — the largest seaborne invasion in history. 10,000+ Allied casualties on D-Day alone. The kids will have already walked through Oradour and seen what occupation and atrocity looked like. Now they see the liberation — and the cost. The American Cemetery is the emotional core: 9,388 crosses, perfectly aligned, overlooking the beach where those men fell. That throughline (occupied France → atrocity → liberation → sacrifice) isn't a textbook sequence. We're walking through it across 10 days.
Sun19July
Chartres
Chartres — Light Show · Boutique Hotel Overnight
Permanent projections on buildings · Gothic cathedral · Stunning at night
Confirmed
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What to Expect
✨Chartres Cathedral
🌟Light Show
Permanent nighttime projections mapped onto historic buildings. Chartres en Lumières covers 26 monuments nightly from dusk. Not seasonal — every night.
Chartres Cathedral (12th c.) — finest French Gothic. Best-preserved medieval stained glass in the world — even better than Sainte-Chapelle in completeness. Famous floor labyrinth.
Why Chartres
The permanent artistic light installations — projected onto buildings and into the sky at night — are what put Chartres on this itinerary. Fun fact: The Lumineers (the band) are named after these installations. For the kids, a medieval city that transforms into an open-air light art gallery after dark is unforgettable. The cathedral — 800 years old, surviving wars and revolutions — is a masterpiece of human ambition.
Logistics
- Boutique hotel booked for overnight
- Arrive afternoon — cathedral in daylight first
- Evening: light show route (~10pm dusk in July France)
- Confirm hotel booking
- Next morning: drive south toward the Riviera
☀️ French Riviera — Konecny Family Only (7 Nights)
Intentionally unstructured. Decompression after 3 intensive weeks. No major agenda. Base: Saint-Raphaël. Mummerts + Nana have departed — Frankie has camp.
Mon–Mon20–27July
Saint-Raphaël · French Riviera
Riviera — Decompression Week
Cannes · Saint-Tropez · Celebrity beaches · No agenda by design
FlexibleConfirmed
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Base: Saint-Raphaël
⛵Saint-Raphaël
🏔️Gorges du Verdon
🏖️Côte d'Azur
Relaxed Côte d'Azur town. Cannes 45 min west, Saint-Tropez 1 hr east. Beautiful beaches, marina, restaurants. Less crowded and more authentic than the famous neighbors.
Day-Trip Options (All Optional)
- Cannes — The Croisette, Film Festival palais, Île Sainte-Honorat
- Saint-Tropez — Port, old town, Pampelonne Beach (celebrity beach clubs)
- Antibes — Picasso Museum, ramparts, provençal market
- Nice — 1 hr. Promenade des Anglais, Vieux-Nice, Matisse Museum
- Monaco — 1.5 hrs. Monte Carlo Casino, palace, F1 circuit
- Gorges du Verdon — 1.5 hrs north. Europe's Grand Canyon. Turquoise water, kayaking.
- Île de Porquerolles — Ferry from Hyères. Car-free island, crystal water.
Why the Riviera Closes the Trip
After three weeks of history, culture, logistics, and 11 people — this week is the exhale. No agenda by design. Sleep in, find a beach, eat well, be lazy. The Konecny family earned this. Some days might be day trips. Some days will be doing absolutely nothing. That's the point.
Post-July 27
TBD. Nothing planned after July 27. Return flights and any extension need to be resolved.