Grab your sketch kit and come away with me
to breathtakingly beautiful Giverny!
Illustrated Watercolor Journaling
in Giverny, France
August 30 - September 6, 2025
(BOOK NOW – Save $150 when you register before Nov 30, 2024)
We’ve all marveled at Impressionist master Claude Monet’s incredible water lily paintings, but how would you like to see his inspiring garden in person?
Just imagine strolling down shady paths created by Monet himself, looking out at his iconic arched bridge framed by graceful willow trees.
Peek inside his delightful pink and green house, and hear echoes of the family, friends, and fellow painters who shared Monet’s life during the 40 years that he called Giverny home.
Take in all that the gardens have to offer as you meander, sketchbook in hand, down rose-covered walkways.
Enjoy an abundance of late summer flowers…
and absorb the colors, textures, sights, and sounds of this magical place.
Monet’s home and garden are one of the best parts of this workshop tour, but there’s so much more to see and experience in this part of Normandy.
In addition to Giverny, we’re also going to spend time in the historic town of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh spent the last two months of his life.
Some of his most famous paintings were created in Auvers-sur-Oise, and the village also played host to many other well-known artists of the 19th century. Cézanne, Pisarro, Daubigny, and Daumier all found inspiration in this pastoral area.
But it was van Gogh who left the most lasting impression.
All over the village, signs recall the works of the Impressionists who made their mark on the place. Happily, we can still enjoy their work today, and during the workshop, we’ll have a chance to draw and paint the exact same scenes that inspired the masters.
Auvers-sur-Oise feels like an outdoor museum with the added charm of cute stone cottages, turquoise shutters, and window boxes filled with flowers.
Another day we’ll visit a hidden gem of a town where we will have unlimited choices of picturesque scenes to paint – narrow streets lined with medieval buildings,
a castle,
a half-timbered mill built in the 16th century,
and unexpected delights around every corner.
This incredible painting tour is being organized by my friends, Jackie and Valerie, at French Escapade. This will be my sixth workshop with French Escapade. I love working with them because they do art workshops the way they should be done. Top notch hotels and meals, friendly, knowledgeable guides, and an itinerary that hits the sweet spot between touring, painting, and relaxing (with a little shopping thrown in for good measure!)
Jackie and Valerie have been leading art tours for more than twenty years, so they’ve seen it all, and all that experience enables them to plan and conduct the perfect painting vacation for their guests. They and their guides always go the extra mile to make the trip special for our participants, and they’re always available to handle the little glitches that pop up on any trip (so we don’t have to).
One thing that sets this company apart from many of the others is that they always have someone accompanying their painting groups. They never drop us off in a location without access to a guide or translator, and there’s always a tour leader available to help in an emergency. It’s a comfort knowing that, when you’re far from home, you have an ally on whom you can depend, someone who speaks the native language and has your back. I rely on them, and you can, too.
They are always there to advise, inform, educate, and care for us. I continue to partner with them because they take such good care of me and my students and provide exceptional service that goes above and beyond what’s expected. They make travel easy and fun!
Workshop participants on some of my earlier trips have told me that their French Escapade tour was the best they’ve ever taken. That’s high praise from people who have had a wide range of travel experiences with a lot of different companies.
Of course, you could travel to Giverny on your own, but then you’d have to deal with all the hassle of finding suitable lodging, figuring out transportation options, and deciding what to do about meals. It’s so much easier and more fun to join my painting tour, hosted by a company which has been doing this for decades.
As a bonus, you’ll travel with a great group of people who share your interests. The friendships that grow from our shared experiences and love of art are one of the best things about a French Escapade trip.
We paint together and laugh together.
We share meals, wine, art supplies, and encouragement.
We share our stories and our lives, and sometimes the sweetest of friendships come from these serendipitous encounters.
Being together on an art tour fosters a special kind of comaraderie. Maybe it’s the slower pace of this type of travel. Or the fact that we’re opening our hearts as well as our sketchbooks when we show someone our work. Whatever it is, it’s special, and I’d love for you to experience it firsthand.
The Tour: Giverny, Auvers-sur-Oise + a Secret Village!
Day 1
On Day 1 of the tour, we’ll be met by our guides at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris (CDG). Many of the participants opt to spend time in Paris before the workshop. It’s a good idea to have a few days to settle into a new time zone before the workshop begins.
We’ll be whisked away to our hotel where we’ll have a chance to settle in, unpack, and do a little exploring.
In the evening, there will be an orientation meeting where we’ll get to know each other a bit, and I’ll give you a preview of what you can expect from the workshop. Then we’re off to the first of many gourmet dinners we’ll enjoy during the tour.
Our home base for the week will be a wonderful old converted mill near Giverny. We’ll have the entire hotel to ourselves, so we can really make ourselves at home.
The 7-acre property is nothing short of stunning. Jackie calls it a “mini Giverny”. The Eure River flows through the estate, offering a wonderful place for early morning or late-day walks. There are gardens, loads of flowers, and huge old trees. It’s a place to relax, meander, and stop to smell the roses.
The rooms are comfy and well-appointed, and each guest room has its own bath (yay!)
Chef Nicolas will prepare our meals each day (except for a few lunches when we’re out and about), and they will be as pretty as they are tasty.
We will have a dedicated studio where we can paint when we’re not on location, or in the event that the weather doesn’t cooperate one day. My students really like having a place where they can finish up plein air sketches begun earlier in the day, or work on lettering and other page design elements which are easier to do at a table. Thankfully, my French Escapade workshops all include a studio space.
Day 2
Day 2 will be spent painting at our gorgeous country location, both in the park and in the studio. I’ll introduce the class material and offer ideas for jumpstarting your travel journal.
Day 3
On Day 3, we’ll make the short drive to Giverny and spend the morning in Monet’s garden.
We’ll have plenty of time to take it all in and do some onsite sketches to paint later in the studio.
Day 4
The next day, we’ll head for Jackie’s charming secret village where we’ll sketch typical Normandy scenes like old stone buildings accented with climbing vines and pots of flowers…
Day 5
Day 5 will find us back in Giverny, but this time we’ll sketch in the garden of Hotel Baudy, a quaint little café and accommodation made famous as the hang-out spot for Monet and his pals, Renoir, Pissaro, Rodin, and Cezanne. How cool is that? We’ll be having lunch at the same café where those icons of art ate, drank, and debated the merits of Impressionism vs. Classicism.
The garden is a perfect place for our group painting session – it’s quiet and secluded but filled with interesting subject matter to fill our sketchbook pages.
Day 6
We’ll walk in the footsteps of van Gogh on Day 6 when we visit Auvers-sur-Oise, where the painter completed an astounding 80 paintings in a mere two months – more than one a day!
Who could help but be moved when we visit the very room where Vincent died? His brother, Theo, was there at his side on that fateful day, and the inn, which has continued to operate in all the years since, has preserved the room as a tribute to Van Gogh.
We’ll also take a walk to the cemetery where Vincent is buried next to Theo.
We’ll feel a connection to the artist as we sketch the Church of Auvers, and feel an emotional response to the simple beauty of the wheat fields he painted, stretching off to the horizon.
He was here. He painted these very same fields. He stood where I am standing and chose colors and brushes, just as I am doing. He poured himself into his work, just as I do. He was a master, but in many ways, we are the same.
Jackie tells me that this tour is a favorite for many of her participants because of the emotional connection they have with the artists who came before us.
I felt that same connection when I sketched in the olive groves where Van Gogh had painted in Provence. Sitting there, quietly drawing a gnarled old olive tree and the mountain beyond, I felt connected to Vincent and all the other artists who had come here before me to paint.
It was nothing short of a spiritual experience. I’ll never forget it.
That’s the kind of experience I hope to give you on this exceptional painting tour in Giverny and Auvers-sur-Oise.
Day 7
Day 7 of the tour will be our last day of painting. We’ll spend it close to home, sketching in our studio and in the gardens. It will be a good opportunity to finish up pages in our travel journals which were started earlier in the week, and it will also offer you a chance to relax and enjoy your last few hours in this amazing place.
On this tour, you will have time to breathe deep and take it all in. Time to meander and find what calls to you. Time to draw and paint and make memories that, like my time in the olive grove, will stay with you forever.
The Workshop: Drawing, Painting, & Designing
Now are you ready to hear about the art portion of the trip?
We’ll be keeping a travel journal during our time together in Giverny, creating colorful pages filled with ink and watercolor sketches that capture all the fun and excitement of traveling in France.
We’ll sketch outdoors on location each day, but don’t worry, I’ll give you lots of information about preparing your travel sketch kit before you leave home. You’ll have everything you need to paint comfortably outdoors, and French Escapade even provides folding chairs for us, so there’s no need to carry one in your luggage. (That leaves more room for the things you’ll buy while you’re there!)
My teaching will focus on illustrated watercolor journaling and how to create a colorful, varied, and personal record of your experiences on the trip.
But the fun starts weeks before you hop on that plane to fly to Europe – I’ll be emailing you pre-trip bonus sketching lessons to get the ball rolling and help you warm up for sketching on location in cute French villages.
During the workshop, you’ll learn how to design dynamic pages with unique layouts, borders, and hand-lettering styles, and I’ll offer daily demonstrations of techniques for painting the subject matter you’ll encounter each day, everything from an old stone building to a window box filled with flowers.
When we’re in the studio, you’ll paint right along with me as I demonstrate, to gain the experience you’ll need to paint confidently when we’re on location.
My students tell me that one of the best things about my workshops is the fact that, for each workshop trip, I prepare a full-color handbook which contains all of the information I cover during our time together. The handbook is customized for each tour, so it is specific to the location and subjects you’ll be painting.
It’s packed with great ideas for designing beautiful journal pages, and it includes a section of helpful step-by-step tutorials showing how to paint the subjects we encounter during the workshop. It goes hand-in-hand with my daily lessons and painting demonstrations and provides a graphic reminder of what was taught and shown in class.
The handout ensures that you can relax during the workshop, knowing that, even if you can’t absorb everything during the week, you’ll have complete information you can refer to later on. With my enthusiastic support, encouragement, and assistance, even if you’re a beginning watercolorist, you’ll surprise yourself with what you can do!
Note: The handbook is provided in PDF format prior to the workshop to allow plenty of time for printing at a local shop or at home.
So please don’t worry about your skill level. If you are open to learning and excited about travel, sketching, and watercolor, you will do just fine on this tour. I’ll be there to help you every step of the way.
I am an encouraging and supportive instructor who wants only the best for my students. I love sharing my knowledge and the joy I’ve found in sketching. Nothing makes me happier than when someone tells me that I’ve made a difference in their life and helped them move forward on their creative journey.
Meet me in France next year, August 30 – September 6, 2025, and be prepared for a fantastic holiday with lots of built-in time to sketch and paint in your travel journal. We’ll walk together in the garden that inspired Monet, and I’ll help you create the most wonderful record of our time together. I promise you’ll find yourself feeling more confident, happy, and excited about your journaling practice when you return home.
Something magical happens on these painting tours. I’ve seen it time and time again. You’ll be changed by our time together, and you’ll never look at the world, or your sketchbook, in the same way again.
Get all the trip details in the section below or visit the French Escapade website for more information and to register for the workshop. I’d love to share this unforgettable experience with you!
PS – My workshops fill fast, so sign up soon!
Pricing
The price of the workshop/tour is $3,990 for a standard double + $550 single supplement.
Sign up before November 30, 2024, and save $150!
More info...
Read about Leslie here.
Read about the tour operator, French Escapade, here.
Helpful FAQs about traveling abroad with French Escapade
Testimonials for French Escapade
Questions? Contact Jackie or Valerie from French Escapade here or email Leslie.
Register here.
10 Comments
This sounds amazing. I am interested. Will tell hubby!
I’d love to have you join us. Hope it will work out for you.
What if I am a novice or someone who wants to learn water color?
I have beginners on every trip, and I try to give them lots of individual help. They often surprise themselves with what they accomplish in their travel journals. That being said, you would get more out of the workshop if you already had some experience with watercolor. There’s plenty of time between now and next year for you to take a couple of classes and learn the basics. That way, you could relax and enjoy the experience of sketching in France much more.
Leslie. This trip sounds fantastic. I’m going to see if any of my students are interested in coming with me. I have been doing a Masters Series at studiosofcocoabeach.org and doing many of Monets!!
That would be great. I’d love to have you and your friends come along. I think it will be a really nice painting trip. My organizer says that many of the participants over the years have said that it was their favorite of all the trips they’ve taken. There’s an almost spiritual connection with those artists who came before us. I’m really looking forward to it.
Hi Leslie,
How strenuous are your trips? At that time, I will be almost 80 years old but in pretty good shape.
For the Giverny trip, French Escapade’s guidelines say that you should be able to walk two miles. We rarely walk that far at one time, but you do have to be mobile and able to walk around a village for touring on foot. I find that I often walk 5 miles a day on these trips without even realizing it. It’s just strolling from one place to another throughout the day. I routinely have people in their 80s on my trips, but they’re people who are in “pretty good shape”, as you say. Our days are not strenuous, but you will do a bit of walking.
Hi Leslie, is there a link or a pdf of the workbook I can take a look at before making the decision to book please?
Thanks.
I’m afraid not, Hilary. It is proprietary content that is only given out to the workshop participants. I’d be happy to give you the names of some people who have been on other trips with me in the past. They could testify as to how helpful they have found the handbook to be. Many of them have a “Leslie shelf” in their studios, where they keep all the books from our various trips together. They refer to them time and time again when they need a refresher on certain techniques they learned during the workshops.The lessons are so helpful.
I’ve shown a few of the pages from the workshop handbook in this post (above) to give you an idea of what the content is like.
I would be happy to answer more questions by email or phone. You can find my email in the post above or by clicking on the Contact tab at the top of the page.
I hope you’ll decide to join us. The tour is almost full, so let me know if I can help in any way as you make your decision.