CAPAVENTURE

Itinerary

 NOTE

The program may be subject to reversals or changes in the order independent visits our control. Nevertheless the content of the proposed program will be fully respected.

  

DAY 1: Thursday, 8/10/2015

From Montreal to Moscow via Paris with Air France

 

DAY 02: Friday, 10/09/2015

8:40 p.m. Arrival scheduled flight with Air France from Paris

Airport-hotel transfer with guide.

Installation at the hotel

Overnight at hotel

 

DAY 03: Saturday, 10/10/2015

Breakfast at the hotel

9:00: Meeting with your guide and departure from the hotel on foot

09h30-11h00: Metro Tour

The Moscow Metro is famous worldwide. Its stations, which are true "underground palace" was decorated with over twenty varieties of marble from the mountains of Urals, Altai, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine and granite, porphyry, onyx ... Stations, solemn and jubilant, decorated with statues and reliefs, monumental compositions

11.00-12.30: A walk on Red Square and in the neighborhood Zamoskvorechje

13H00-14H00: Dinner

14.30-16.30: Visit the Kremlin

Flanked by 19 towers, the huge wall of bricks 2230 m long, towers forty meters high and about belt an area of ​​28 ha. This enclosure houses three great cathedrals and several palaces. Visit the Cathedral Square.

Visit the Cathedral of the Annunciation, for baptisms and weddings of the Tsars. It was the personal cathedral of the great princes and tsars. Built in 1485-1489, it was part of all the princely palace. It was in this cathedral that is the royal children baptized and where the marriage ceremony took place. It is here also that the tsars were simply praying. Inside, the cathedral is richly decorated. The iconostasis in several rows, carved and gilded wood consists of icons painted by famous artists Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek.

Visit the Cathedral of the Dormition, the most sumptuous of the Kremlin churches. It was the largest cathedral in Russia. Along the southern walls, north and west line up the graves of metropolitans and patriarchs. The cathedral was the tomb of the high clergy until 1721 when Peter the Great abolished the Patriarchate and put himself at the head of the Church. It was in this cathedral that were happening the biggest ceremonies introduction of metropolitans and patriarchs, coronation of the tsars and emperors of Russia, the most important readings ukazes ...

Visit the Cathedral of the Archangel

It was in this cathedral are the tombs of princes and Russian tsars before Peter the Great. It was built where once stood at the beginning of the fourteenth, an old church dedicated to Saint Michel, head of heavenly forces and head of the princes of Moscow.

Free time with guide on Red Square

4:30 p.m.: Transfer to hotel

7:00 p.m.: Dinner at the hotel

Overnight at hotel

 

DAY 4: Sunday, 11/10/2015

Breakfast at the hotel

10:00: Meeting with your guide and departure from the hotel

10h30-12h30: Tour of the Tretyakov Gallery

The Gallery collections include a thousand years of history of Russia. It was founded by the merchant and industrialist Pavel Tretyakov, a great art lover and known philanthropist who devoted his life to collecting works of art. Today it contains nearly 100,000 works divided into five departments: Icon Painting (XII-XVII centuries), paintings, graphics, sculptures (XVIII-beginning of XX century), the twentieth century art.

13H00-14H00: Dinner. Free afternoon

Dinner at the hotel

20H30-23H20: City tour "Moscow by night"

Discover the Red Square, the most beautiful, the largest (7.3 ha) and most famous square in Moscow. Outdoor Discovery of Basil the Blessed Cathedral, unique architectural work of rare beauty. It was built to glorify the conquest of Kazan during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. So that such a wonder could no longer be rebuilt elsewhere, the Tsar gave the order to put out the eyes of its architects. Outdoor Discovery of Lenin's Mausoleum. The mausoleum is now closed and the guard of honor, lifted once every hour to ensure that the entry was deleted. Outdoor Discovery of the Historical Museum and the world-famous GUM Shopping Centre. Overnight at the hotel.

 

DAY 05: Monday, 10/12/2015

Breakfast

Free morning

12:00: check-out

Transfer to railway station

1:30 p.m.: Departure fast train to St. Petersburg

5:40 p.m. Arrival in St. Petersburg, transfer to hotel

7:30 p.m.: Dinner at the hotel

 

DAY 06: Tuesday, 13/10/2015

Breakfast at the hotel

9:00: Meeting with your guide, departure from the hotel.

09h00-11h00: Tour of St. Petersburg

During this walk you will have the opportunity to admire one of the most beautiful cities in the world, capital of New Russia, founded by the will of Peter the Great. The city built on a hundred islands, crossed by 68 rivers and canals, has rightly received the name Northern Venice. St. Petersburg, built according to a regular plan is a city comprised of architectural ensembles. You will see the Palace Square with the magnificent Winter Palace and Alexander Column, the golden spire of the Admiralty and the Decembrists Square with the monument of Peter the Great - the famous "Bronze Horseman". You will follow the beautiful banks of the Neva admiring the old St. Petersburg of the time of Peter the Great but also the island of Basil with all classic of the Exchange.Stop near the architectural ensemble of Smolny.

11h00-12h00: Visit the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Built in 1703 on the island of Hares, the Peter and Paul Fortress was built long time the only part of St. Petersburg. Scheduled to counter any attack by Swedish and protect upstream areas of the Neva, this citadel, however, never had to sustain seat. The stunning position of the citadel and its walls were perfect to transform it into a political prison. The cathedral was built to house the tombs of the Tsars.

12H30-13H30: Dinner

14h00-16h00: Visit the Hermitage

The Hermitage is undoubtedly one of the greatest museums of paintings in the world: 3,000,000 works !!! ...

Begun under Peter I, the Hermitage collections were seriously enriched by Catherine II, who arranged them, as she liked to say "for herself and mice," in theaters called the Hermitage, located in the palace Winter.

The collections taking ever more important, they had to add to this palace and the Small Hermitage, in 1787, the Grand Hermitage, also called Old Hermitage. Following the 1837 fire, the New Hermitage, overlooking Palace Square, was built there and a museum was opened to the public in 1852. The Winter Palace - the only one of four buildings whose second floor visit - became accessible to all by 1922. The name of Hermitage let evil presage of reality: in fact, it's four palaces linked by a series of successions, where the interior is at the height of the exposed wonders .

Magical and majestic city of the arts at the heart of the city, away from the urban bustle, the Hermitage often leaves the impression of being one of the fabulous palaces described in the "Thousand and One Nights", where we walk for hours

finally no longer really know what we saw, overview and glimpsed! Of the 400 rooms of the museum, some are devoted to Greek and Roman antiquity, others to Egyptian antiquities and the arts and civilizations of Central Asia, the Middle East, the Middle East and the Caucasus. There still has rooms dedicated to Spanish painting, Flemish painting, French painting, sculpture by Rodin ...

16h15-17h00: Visit the treasures of the Empress.

Initially composed of the crown jewels of Russia, the collection was considerably enriched lives by Empress Catherine II and numerous orders placed with Russian and European jewelers, as well as diplomatic gifts.

17h30-18h30: Walk along the canals by boat reservered for the group.

This walk is particularly interesting because one can admire the churches, palaces and bridges from an unusual angle. During this walk, you pass through the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg, the "Venice of the North". You will discover the famous palace of the northern capital of Russia - the Winter Palace, the Anichkov Palace, the Palace of the Counts Sheremetev, the Marble Palace, the castle Michel, the spire of the Admiralty and Peter and the fortress -Paul, sphinxes and winged lions bridges that form the original ornament of the city.

Dinner at the hotel. Overnight at hotel

 

DAY 07: Wednesday, 14/10/2015

Breakfast

9:30: departure from the hotel on foot or by bus depending on the hotel location

10:00: Hydrofoil to go to Peterhof (depending on time, if not by private bus.)

Visit Peterhof, the 'Russian Versailles "

Located to the west of St. Petersburg, on the shores of the Baltic, Peterhof was originally a farm where Peter I halted when returning from Kronstadt. In 1771 began the construction of ceremonial residences

10h30-12h00: Walk in the Park of Peterhof.

The reputation of Peterhof surely comes from its gardens facing the sea and its extravagant 144 waterfalls and fountains where the water came from a source 20 km away, springs simply by gravity.According to the painter Alexandre Benois, "In Peterhof, the water jets are not a mere appendage, but the essentials. They are the symbolic expression of the aquatic realm, the clouds made of spray that sea pounding on the shore of Peterhof. "

12H00-13H00: Lunch in the Park

13h30-15h00: The visit of Peterhof Grand Palace.

The Grand Palace was enlarged in the mid-eighteenth century by Rastrelli. Bulbous domes surmounting the chapel and the flag of the Imperial Eagle, completing the two wings added by the architect, are characteristic of the exuberant style of the latter. Also inside the palace, though modified under Catherine II, reflects with its rows of rooms and lounges taste the splendor of the Italian architect.

3:30 p.m.: Transfer to the hotel by bus. Dinner at the hotel. Overnight at hotel

DAY 08: Thursday, 15/10/2015

Breakfast. Free morning

12:00: Drive to Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo)

The village of the Tsars, 27km south of St Petersburg (named Pushkin 1937-1991 in honor of the poet who attended high school), houses two palaces: the Great Catherine Palace and the Alexander Palace (closed to the public ), where were imprisoned from March to August 1917 last Tsar and his family before being sent to Yekaterinburg, where they were executed.

13h00-14h30: Visit the splendid baroque Catherine Palace and its Amber Room.

Tsarskoye Selo was originally a farm surrounded by forests. In 1710, Peter the Great gave it to his wife, Catherine I the future. While her husband is busy fight, this one it built a palace of modest dimensions that Elizabeth, his daughter, is quick to metamorphose into a magnificent palace, thanks to the architect Rastrelli. Completed in 1756, the palace will be called Catherine Palace in honor of the mother of the Empress. The famous and sumptuous amber room is completely covered with amber panels offered by Frederick I of Prussia to Peter the Great.

The charm of Tsarskoye Selo, these are also the two large parks: Catherine's park with a regular French park, including two works by Rastrelli, and the English park with monuments commemorating Russian victories against the Turks, thus evoking the transience of everything and inviting to melancholy. The park surrounds Alexander, meanwhile, the palace of the same name.

14.30-15.00: A walk in the park with pavilions overlooking small lakes

15h30-17h00: A Pavlovsk, visit the majestic classical style palace Paul first started in 1782 by Cameron, the palace of Paul I perfectly illustrates the antagonism that existed between mother and son. If the Catherine Palace is straight with a facade of a brilliant turquoise, the palace of Pavlovsk pale yellow has rounded lines. In the center of the palace courtyard, a statue of Paul I. If he had neither the pace nor the qualifications to be sovereign, it was however a taste for the arts: the exhibits in the halls of the palace testify. These were mostly acquired in the fabulous journey of 428 days that the future Paul I and his wife Maria Fiédorovna, effectuèrent through the European courts, under the pseudonyms of Prince and Princess of the North. Unfortunately, some of these treasures were sold under Stalin. Pavlovsk is also renowned for its garden, park and forest. Known in the eighteenth century to be the largest English park in the world, it was, however, undermined during the Second World War during which more than 10,000 trees were felled.

17h00-17h30: walk in the park. Folklore dinner at restaurant Podvorie. Overnight at the hotel.

 

Day 08 - Friday, 16.10.2015

6:30: Transfer to the airport with guide.   9:15: Flight to Montreal via Paris with Air France.

  

 Important Notes

• The ride on the canals is to confirm the approach of the departure date, as this will depend on     weather conditions. If the trip on the canals is not done, it will be replaced by another visit.

• The hydrofoil will be confirmed beforethe departure date, as this will depend on weather conditions. If the hydrofoil does not occur, the ride to Peterhof will be by coach.