Day 1 - Arrive Paris (A)
Make your way from the airport to our hotel, get your bearings, have a nice meal, and then settle in for a good night's sleep. We're on the move tomorrow! (Paris, 5 nights, Pavillon Saint-Louis Bastille)
Day 2 - Paris Flea Markets
Sunday is the very best day for shopping at Les Puces Saint-Ouen. With a seemingly inexhaustible supply of venders – over 3,000 of them! – it is one of the largest antiques and collectibles markets in the world. The high quality of the items to be found here defies the term flea market
Day 3 - Marché Saint-Pierre
Located at the foot of the Montmarte, Paris' largest textile market never ceases to delight budding couturiers and quilters the world over. The market – quartier may be a more apt description – includes the largest and oldest department store Le Marché Saint-Pierre, from where the area takes its name, as well as several smaller specialty shops like Tissus Reine and Moline.
Day 4 - Paris
The diminutive Musée de la Poupée is tucked away in the Impasse Berthaud near the colorful Centre Pompidou. More than five hundred stunning French dolls, dating from 1800 to the present, are cleverly displayed in vignettes containing doll furniture, doll accessories, and toys.
Day 5 - Musée de la Mode et du Textile
The Musée de la Mode et du Textile exhibits themed collections that change each year: costumes, accessories from the 17th century to the 21st century, textiles, important works by grand couturiers of the 20th century, silk, cloth, lace, braid, and embroidery.
Day 6 - Travel Day
Our destination today is Luzern, Switzerland. The picturesque Old Town straddles the narrowed waters where the River Reuss flows out of Lake Luzern. There's plenty of sightseeing and shopping here! (Luzern, 4 nights, Hotel Seeburg)
Day 7 - Luzern (C)
Tiffany Antiquitäten may look like the ultimate doll museum, but it's an antiques shop, specializing in dolls, dolls' houses, and more. We have arranged for the shop to be open for you this morning so you can see these incredible dolls "up close and personal." The main producer of Swiss embroidery is Sturzenegger of St. Gallen, selling its own machine-made lace and embroidered goods in its Luzern shop.
Day 8 - Basel (B)
The four-story Puppenhausmuseum offers an especially unique exhibition of dolls, toys, teddy bears, and miniatures. Thousands of objects are cleverly arranged in themed displays that captivate, charm, and amuse.
Day 9 - Mt. Pilatus
Luzern's Mt. Pilatus has so many stunning aspects, and on the Golden Round Trip, you'll experience every single one: Lake Luzern by boat to the foot of the mountain, the world's steepest cogwheel railway to the Pilatus Kulm (altitude 2,132 meters), and the fantastic finale – a ride in a gondola by aerial cableway to Kriens. Awaiting you are alpine meadows, mountain streams, rugged cliffs, breathtaking panoramic views over the lakes of Central Switzerland – not to mention the Alps! You will see no fewer than 73 mountain peaks – you're welcome to count them!
Day 10 - Donauwörth (D)
What exactly is so special about a Käthe Kruse doll? What makes it different from all other dolls? The answer is to be found in the unique handcrafting methods that make each doll characteristically Käthe Kruse. Our tour of the Käthe Kruse Puppen factory includes the painting and stuffing departments, the hairdresser, the clothing design department, and the repair and shipping departments. (Coburg, 4 nights, Hotel Stadt)
Day 11 - Coburg & Sonneberg (E, F)
Several hundreds of dolls are beautifully exhibited with toys, miniature rooms, doll clothing, and doll accessories at the Coburger Puppenmuseum. The Deutsches Spielzeugmuseum contains a treasure trove of dolls, salesmen's samples, toys, and dioramas of 19th- and 20th-century doll manufacture.
Day 12 - Rödental (G)
Engel-Puppen operates in the oldest doll factory in Rödental, making dolls since 1896. We will see every aspect of vinyl-doll-making on our factory tour: the production of vinyl body parts, eye-setting, hair rooting, and costuming. At the Reinhold Lesch factory, see the processes of manufacturing glass and plastic eyes for dolls and plush toys.
Day 13 - Neustadt & Waltershausen (H, I)
Explore turn-of-the-century doll, teddy bear, and toy manufacture in the detailed exhibits and workshop displays of the Museum der Deutschen Spielzeugindustrie. Visit Peter Packert, the Puppendoktor, where you can find old store stock fabrics and trims. Deep in the Thüringer Wald, in a 12th-century hunting palace perched on a hill overlooking Waltershausen, is the Schloß Tenneberg Heimatmuseum. Among its other precious relics, the dolls, bodies, wigs, shoes, and stockings of well-known Waltershausen factories are exhibited. Most exceptional are the original master books of the J.D. Kestner firm. The neglect of a half-century of Soviet occupation has left standing many of the historic doll factory buildings in the area. Our driving tour of Waltershausen takes us to a dozen within a half-square-mile.
Day 14 - Nürnberg (J)
Nürnberg's Spielzeugmuseum Lydia Bayer contains the largest and most varied doll and toy collection in the world. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum's Toy Exhibit features a world-famous collection of 17th- and 18th-century dolls' houses. (Rothenburg odT, 2 nights, Hotel Glocke)
Day 15 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber (K)
More than 800 dolls produced by French and German makers over a span of 200 years reside in the enchanting Puppen- und Spielzeugmuseum. Browse the offerings in the museum's well-stocked gift shop. Spend the rest of the day exploring this walled city, a veritable shopper's paradise with two, year-round Christmas markets. You are the special guest at our "Auf Wiedersehen" Dinner Banquet this evening.
Day 16 - Frankfurt (L)
Transfer to Frankfurt am Main International Airport for flights homeward. (Note: Book flight to depart at 12:00 noon or later!)
