Dear Reader,

My favorite Paris photo workshop was the year a friend of mine in the business offered me and our attendees three nights stay in his chateau in Normandy (photos below).

After spending time in Paris, we took a train to the chateau in the French countryside.  We hired a chef to come give us a special cooking class. We took a private bus to Mont Saint-Michel to photograph the monastery. Made crepes one afternoon in the kitchen and laughed so hard you’d have thought we’d been drinking. We spent the evening eating the French meal we prepared with our chef, toasting the day with more than enough wine, and snuggling into bed in this 19-room chateau fit for a king.

I’m not telling you this to brag. I just got an email from my friend that his chateau is available again this year. I’m telling you this in hopes that you’ll join me.

It’s completely last minute, I know, but would you be interested in such a trip as part of the Paris photo workshop?

We’ll get in a few days in Paris, too -- visiting all the best spots and getting incredible photographs from little-known vantage points (we’ve been scouting out the best ones for the last five years). Eating amazing meals at hidden-gem restaurants. Drinking lots of wine and kir. And enjoying the good life, à la Parisien.

It’ll be a whirlwind trip, for sure. Paris... Normandy... a French countryside chateau... Mont Saint Michel... and all of the rolling, flowering fields in between.

It’d take some crazy planning on my part to pull it off on such short notice. But everything happens for a reason, right? This opportunity to stay in the chateau has just fallen into my lap today. And I often think these last-minute adventures turn out to be the best trips.

And if you feel that way too -- like you can list at least a hundred reasons why you shouldn’t go to France next month but you’re reading this note and thinking you really don’t care about a one of them -- then maybe I should reply to my friend and say we’ll take it. And maybe you should meet me there.

The dates of the Paris photo workshop are May 9-13, 2010.  I don’t have the final prices with this addition of the chateau -- I just got the email, so I still need to crunch the numbers. But I can tell you that the chateau portion of the trip should come in at less than $900 -- and that includes everything: your food at the chateau, your transport, your overnight stays, photo sessions with professional photographer Shelly Perry -- geared toward helping you not only take better pictures but learn to sell them so that you can defray your travel costs.

I’ve started an alert list for those who’d like to hear more about this as I solidify the details. Join the alert list here. 

Put your name on that list and I’ll work on crunching the numbers and coming up with a plan. If we get enough interested people, we’ll move forward with the trip.

More details about the Paris photo workshop are here, but keep in mind the price will change by $500 to $700 once I include this very special chateau trip.

And click here to put yourself on the alert list for details about combining this Paris trip with a chateau stay in Normandy. Scroll down for pictures of the chateau.

-- Lori

Lori Allen
Director, AWAI Travel Division