Accommodations

Students will reside in a centrally-located hotel in Paris.

UCLA Summer Sessions reserves the right to change housing location. Should this be necessary, we will arrange comparable accommodations elsewhere.

Meals  

Daily breakfast is included. A few lunches and dinners will be provided. Accommodations include small kitchens to prepare meals.

Please let us know when you apply for this program if you have special dietary needs as well as any physical or medical conditions. We will advise you accordingly.

Excursions

Planned excursions include Chartres, the site of the most impressive cathedral in western Europe and a town that came under the control of the French monarchy early on. In addition, the program will visit Vaux-le-Vicomte on a Saturday afternoon and early evening. This is a beautiful castle (served as a model for Versailles), and on Saturdays during the summer it is lit only by candles. This is an unforgettable experience. The group will also visit the abbey church of St. Denis on the outskirts of Paris.

Also planned are the following walks in Paris:
a) Roman Paris (the arenes de Lutetia) 6th arrondisement
b) Medieval Paris. The Ile de la cité, Notre Dame, the St. Severin quarter
c) Early Modern Paris (Louis XIV and Revolutionary Paris). The Marais, Place des Vosges, Louvre, Place de la Greve, the Palais Royal, the gardens, the Sorbonne, the Latin Quarter, Beaux Arts, Academie
d) Nineteenth Century (Bohemian) Paris. Montmartre, Montparnasse, the great boulevards, the Opera quarter, la Butte aux Cailles
e) Modern Paris. La Defense, new and old neighborhoods (Belleville, Cité Universitaire, rue de Rosiers
f) Monumental Paris. Champs Elysees, Eiffel Tower, Invalides
g) Parks. Luxemburg, Butte Chaumont, Tuilleries
h) The canal de St Martin and the basin de la Vilette (one of Professor Ruiz's favorite places)
i) La rue Mouffetard and Pantheon (the stomach and heart of Paris)
j) Selected museums. For those sites that cannot accommodate large groups, students must pay entrance fees individually.
k) Cemeteries (Pere Lachaise, Montparnasse)
l) Teo’s tours (a series of additional tours Professor Ruiz has designed over the years). The first one will be on the first Saturday the group is in Paris, followed by a picnic on the Pont des Arts to see the sun set on the Seine river.

Optional Excursions

Limited free time is built into this program for independent sightseeing. If you plan to sightsee independently, we recommend that you budget additional spending money.

One feature of the program is that, besides some scheduled dinners and picnics, the faculty would be delighted to take small groups of students (each person paying for her/his tab) to experience intimate gourmet dinners. This is part of the Parisian experience: to visit small bistros and to see how Parisians really eat and are served in French restaurants.

On Location

For more information about the city of Paris, visit http://www.paris.fr/.