ISSUED: 1 July 2014
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The Shepherd University Celtic France travel study program early enrollment deadline is Tuesday, July 15.
Sponsored by the Appalachian Studies Program, the Celtic France program is associated with the Celtic Roots courses and travel practicum. Community members are invited to join the study tour, March 11-24, 2015. A $495 travel deposit is required for the discount.
The tour will begin at Normandy and Brittany and conclude in Paris. Tour highlights include Bayeux Tapestry, Normandy beaches, Musee du Debarquement, Mont St. Michel, Saint Malo, Renne, the Les Champ-Libres, the Museum of Brittany, the Paimpont forest and Trehorenteuc Church with its connection to Chertien de Troyes and Arthurian legend, Vannes with its half-timbered houses and Cathedrale Saint-Pierre, Carnac’s pre-Celtic standing stones, Nantes Castle, Chartres Cathedral, and finally Paris, where the program will explore the city of lights and Notre-Dame Cathedral.
The tour is coordinated with Passport Tours, and all hotels are three and four star with central locations for easy exploration during free time. Local guides will offer special insights on the Paimpont forest, Trehorenteuc Church, and Carnac’s standing stones. All land and air transportation and Paris metro passes are included in the tour. Celtic France is part of the Celtic Roots travel study in the Appalachian Studies Program. Participants will study the work of writers inspired by Celtic France, including Chretien de Troyes who wrote “Yvain: The Knight of the Lion,” Marion Zimmer Bradley, Henry James whose “Gabrielle de Bergerac”is influenced by a French connection, and such Modernist Paris devotees as James Joyce, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, William Butler Yeats, and Dylan Thomas. Appalachian writer Bobbie Ann Mason’s “The Girl in the Blue Beret,” with its French World War II setting, will be one of the course highlights.
For more information, contact Dr. Sylvia Shurbutt, coordinator of Appalachian Studies, at 304-876-3119 or sshurbutt@shepherd.edu or go to www.shepherd.edu/appalachian/.
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