Coming Up in 2025
We’ve got new trips for you to enjoy in 2025. You can’t register for these yet, but you can be put on a list for the earliest announcement. For that, simply email Sheila Campbell and tell her which trip(s) you’re interested in.
(scampbell@wildblueyonder.biz)
Politics & Prose/Wild Blue Yonder Trips are always made up of small (maximum 18 people) groups of congenial people. You’ll have two experienced trip leaders with you every day to make sure you’re having an experience of a lifetime. Come join us!
THIS TRIP IS SOLD OUT. PLEASE CONTACT SHEILA TO BE WAIT LISTED.
Escape winter this year with a visit Morocco with its cool temperatures and sunny days. We’ll begin our trip in Casablanca, where a gentle breeze tall palms greet you as you leave the airport. We’ll spend some time in Rabat, the country’s capital, and then in Fes, one of the Imperial cities. The souk there is thrilling, the food enticing, the mint tea is delicious, and – well, let’s just say you’ll probably want to buy something or other. On our drives from place to place you’ll see olive groves, cork farms, grazing sheep and bustling small villages. We’ll also skirt the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains.
From Fes we’ll visit the UNESCO World Heritage site of Volubilis, which began as a Roman capital and continued in habitation for ten centuries, ending as a Muslim center. The ruins are extensive and illustrate much of what we know about those ancient civilizations, their history and their architecture.
We’ll spend most of our time in Marrakech,where we’ll explore the old city’s palaces and public squares, markets and cafés – plus some of the most beautiful gardens on the planet.
Art, Light and Beauty on the French Côte d’Azur
April 22 - April 30, 2025
This trip is SOLD OUT. Please contact Sheila to be placed on the waiting list.
In the early years of the 20th century, many famous artists, including Matisse, Renoir, Picasso and Chagall, escaped to the small towns and cities along the Côte d’Azur (known to Americans as the French Riviera) and the hills that rose above the shoreline. They were attracted to the light and the stunning landscapes where sky met hills and hills met the sea.
On this trip, we’ll anchor ourselves on the tree-lined Boulevard Victor Hugo in Nice, just a few blocks from the famous Promenade Anglais along the beach. In Nice, we’ll visit the art museums dedicated to the works of Chagall and of Matisse, and we’ll enjoy sumptuous meals with an Italian influence and Mediterranean flavor (salade Niçoise, anyone?) and plenty of seafood.
On other days, we’ll journey to some of the most dramatic landscapes outside the city. One day, we’ll journey to St.Jean Cap Ferrat to visit the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, its lavish gardens suspended over a blue expanse dotted with white sailboats and yachts. Onanother, we’ll travel into the hills to visit Renoir’s home, surrounded by olive groves.
Of course we won’t miss the justly famous Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, one of the last creations by Matisse, beloved for its stained glass windows evoking the colors of the sea. In St. Paul de Vence, we’ll stroll through the Medieval streets, ducking into art galleries and shops selling tempting sweets.
In Grasse, famous for its perfumes, you might discover a new scent, or simply enjoy one of the several museums focused on scent, on local history, on the rich costumes of the past.
April is the perfect time for a visit to the Côte d’Azur. The summer heat hasn’t yet appeared, and the days are sunny and warm enough to eat outdoors for lunch and dinner.
The Périgord of “Bruno, Chief of Police”
with Author Martin Walker
June 4 - 11 , 2025
This trip is SOLD OUT. Please contact Sheila to be placed on the waiting list.
If you’re a fan of Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police mysteries set in France, you know that Bruno is only fictional. But his region, Périgord Nord in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is quite real, as are the foods and wines and markets and castles and characters that Bruno encounters in his adventures. As it happens, writer Martin Walker lives just outside of the town of Le Bugue, France, suspiciously similar to Bruno’s St. Denis.
Join Politics & Prose and Wild Blue Yonder Trips on an exploration of this unique part of France, well known for its food specialties (truffles, walnuts, foie gras) and wines (Bruno loves wine!). A highlight of the trip will be spending time with Martin Walker. We’ll spend one whole day in “St. Denis,” tasting wines at Bruno’s favorite wine shop, and then going on to Martin’s house, where we’ll enjoy a leisurely lunch while Martin pours us some of his favorite wines and regales us with stories about the region.
We’ll begin our stay in Bordeaux, a world-renowned center for wine and gastronomy. Its 18th century buildings of warm golden stone border the broad river Garonne. The city itself is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a historic trading center in the 1700s for wine, coffee, cocoa, sugar, cotton, indigo and – sadly – enslaved peoples from Africa.
Then we’ll move on to the medieval town of Sarlat-la-Canéda, with its beautiful yellow sandstone buildings housing restaurants and shops. Small and extremely walkable, Sarlat has more historic monuments than any other town in France.
Splendid Venice: Art and History with Eric Denker, Senior Lecturer Emeritus at the National Gallery of Art
October 20 – 27, 2025
This trip is SOLD OUT. Please contact Sheila to be placed on the waiting list.
Join Eric Denker, Ph.D., author, expert in Venetian art, and long a favorite lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, on this exploration of beautiful Venice. (Yay, Eric speaks Italian!) Among many other publications, he is co-author with his friend Judith Martin (better known as “Miss Manners”) of an etiquette guide to the city, No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice.
Eric will take us to his favorite sites, including the enormous and art-filed Palazzo Ducale, the Academia art museum, and the majestic Tintoretto’s at the Scuola Grande San Rocco (where Eric is the only American member).
We’ll wander to the Ca d’Oro historic house, and to Ca’ Rezzonico where Henry James stayed and John Singer Sargent painted. The views both inside and out of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are stunning. We’ll pursue glass at the island of Murano, and visit Burano and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon as well.
We’ll experience the grand Basilica San Marco in the sanctuary in the evening, as the lights are lowered and then suddenly rise to reveal the stunning mosaics surrounding us.
And of course we’ll visit some of the other most iconic places in Venice: Piazza San Marco, several of the art-studded cathedrals – the Frari, San Giorgio Maggiore -- with Eric to help us find what’s most spectacular, and the Rialto Market. We’ll even visit a gondola ship yard to learn how these dramatic black boats are made. Even if you’ve been to Venice before, you’ll love getting deeper into its art, architecture and history.
Politics and Prose invites you to join us for
Willa Cather's New Mexico and Santa Fe
April 4 – 10, 2025
A trip led by Politics and Prose instructor, Garrett Peck.
Willa Cather, one of America’s greatest novelists, found deep inspiration in New Mexico’s art, history, and landscapes. Politics and Prose is offering this unique opportunity to walk in Cather’s footsteps on a magical trip to Santa Fe and the surrounding pueblos. The itinerary includes expert-led walking tours, scenic drives, and day trips to the real places Cather described in many of her writings, including in Death Comes for the Archbishop.
This is a six-day tour with numerous options to explore Willa Cather and her fictional Archbishop Latour’s time in New Mexico in depth. New Mexico is stunningly beautiful, called the “Land of Enchantment” for a reason. The places that Cather wrote about in Death Comes for the Archbishop are real places, and she described them from her own experience.
CLICK HERE FOR DETAILED ITINERARY AND DESCRIPTION
