Our trip will have 4 "hub" cities where we'll stay for 4-5 days, making day trips to some smaller towns.
Class sessions will often involve cultural activities and projects that put students directly into contact with the people, practices and products of the diverse regions we will be visiting.
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First we will stay in Bilbao, the largest city in Spain's Basque Country, known for the impressive Guggenheim art museum and for its restaurants serving typical Basque cuisine.
Day trips from Bilbao include Guernica, made famous by Picasso's iconic painting of the same name, and
Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital of the País Vasco and a city known for its innovative urban planning. |
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Next we head to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a small but vibrant coastal city near the Spanish border where we will explore the French side of Basque culture.
Days trips from Saint-Jean-de-Luz include the traditional Basque towns of Sare and Ainhoa and the famed seaside resort town of Biarritz. |
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We continue on to the town of Bagnères de Luchon, in the heart of the Pyrenees mountains.
From here we will explore Pyrenean valleys both on foot and by bus. We will visit the once-isolated Val d'Aran, a region of Spain where the local language is more closely related to French Occitan, and its capital city of Vielha.
En route from Luchon back to Spain we will stop for a night in Carcassone, a famed walled city and UNESCO World Heritage Site. |
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In Spanish Catalunya (Catalonia) we will first visit Figueres, birthplace of Salvador Dalí and home to a museum he himself designed.
Our program ends in Barcelona, one of the grand cities of Europe and the political and cultural capital of Catalunya. Here we will visit the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and other buildings designed by architect Antoni Gaudi, known for his whimsical designs, and will sample the innovative cuisine that has made Barcelona a mecca for foodies worldwide.
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