Turkey " cultural tour: Istanbul-Cappadoce-Pumukkale-Ephese-Izmir-Istanbul " from May 21 to May 28, 2025

It was early in the morning when the 22 trip participants met up for boarding to Istanbul. Some were reunited, while others made new acquaintances.

On arrival in Istanbul, we take the bus to Taksim Square for a three-hour pedestrian stroll to the bridge over the Golden Horn at the foot of the Galata Tower. We follow a street that was "the local Champs Elysées" when Istanbul was Turkey's capital. This avenue is lined with embassy buildings and a host of stores. In a beautiful tearoom, we sample delicious pastries accompanied by an excellent cup of tea. Other discoveries along the way include a tramway very similar to San Francisco's cable car, and an underground funicular railway dating from 1875 and still in service. The rest and night that follow are well deserved.
Day 2: visits to major sites and detailed commentary by our guide: the area that was the "hippodrome" under the Byzantine Empire, followed by a visit to the Blue Mosque, then the Basilica of Saint Sophia: a basilica built between 532 and 548, which became a museum from 1934 until 2020, when the Turkish president decided that it should become a mosque. The tour continues with the Topkapi Palace, the sumptuous residence of the Ottoman sultans, its immense gardens and luxurious salons. To round off the day, a stroll along the Bosphorus provides a welcome respite from the crowds of visitors to the magnificent sites we've just left behind.
Day 3: Departure for a visit to the Grand Bazaard and its thousands of stores, filled with counterfeit luxury goods from the great French brands. After lunch, departure by bus for Ankara, approx. 450km. During the journey, our guide provides us with a wealth of information on Turkey's geographical environment, history and other subjects, including the great secular Turkish figure: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the city of Ankara in a non-Muslim region and who imposed important reforms such as the ban on veils and the use of the alphabet to replace Arabic overnight.
Day 4: Before setting off for Cappadocia, our next destination, we visit the huge mausoleum dedicated to Atatürk, where a dense crowd of people file past the tomb. En route, our guide tells us about the history of this region, who its inhabitants were, their way of life, the sites and underground churches. In the afternoon and on Day 5, we discover the marvellous troglodyte sites, the Goreme open-air museum, the Avcilar and Guvercinlik valleys.
Day 6: long bus journey to Pamukkale: 625km. The route takes us along the ancient Silk Road to Ephesus, along which ancient caravanserais still stand: rest stops for caravan men and animals.
New comments from the guide on various subjects such as weddings and the skilful negotiations between the families of the future spouses. With the development of tourism, a thorny issue was that of toilets. A working group has created a label, "les cabinets fleuris", awarded to places worthy of welcoming tourists' honourable selves in satisfactory sanitary conditions.
Arriving in Pamukkale, we visit the "cotton castle", where there is neither castle nor cotton, but a site covered with limestone deposited centuries ago by the flow of calcium carbonate-laden water, considered miraculous for many health problems.
Day 7: 270 km by bus, we arrive in Ephesus, home of the apostle Paul and terminal of the Silk Road. We visit this grandiose site, with its temples, theater and fountains.
Along the way, we'll have had the opportunity to visit a carpet, jewelry and leather garment factory, and fill up our suitcases.
Day 8: end of the trip; we fly from Izmir to Istanbul to Paris CDG, with our heads full of images and memories.

Georges Dennebouy

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