Terms & Conditions

1. Who we are

Two Poppies Tours is the trading name of Heather Couthaud, a French sole trader (entrepreneur individuel, EI). SIRET: 805 260 940 00038. Business address: 62 chemin Fontrousse, 13540 Aix-en-Provence, France.

You can reach Heather directly by email at heather@two-poppies.com or by phone at +33 7 83 52 35 39. Our full legal details are in our Legal notice (legal notice).

In these terms, "we" and "us" mean Two Poppies Tours, and "you" means the person who makes the booking and every guest named on it.

2. Scope of these terms

These terms and conditions apply to every tour booked with Two Poppies Tours, whether by email, by phone or, once it opens, through our online booking page. They are available on this website before you book, they are attached to the written proposal we send you, and a copy is sent to you again with your booking confirmation.

Your contract is made up of these terms, the description of the tour on our website as it stood on the date of your proposal, and the written proposal you accepted. If they differ, the written proposal you accepted takes precedence over the general description on the website.

We may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to your booking is the one attached to the proposal you accepted (or, for an online booking, the one shown when you book); later changes do not affect your booking.

3. Tours booked one day at a time

Our tours are booked one day at a time: each day is a separate tour, priced individually, with no overnight stay. They are service contracts governed by the French Consumer Code (Code de la consommation).

Some tours, such as Roman Trade Routes, are presented over several days; each day is booked separately. We do not sell packages combining several days. If you would like to spend several days with us, please write to Heather and we will tell you what we can offer.

4. Your proposal and booking

Our tours run on request. Tell us the tour, the dates you have in mind and the number of guests, and Heather will personally check availability and answer your questions about pace, access or meals.

We then send you a written proposal by email, with these terms attached. It sets out the tour, the dates, the meeting or pick-up point, the number of guests, the language of the tour (English or French), what is and is not included, and the total price.

To accept, simply reply by email that you accept the proposal and these terms. Your booking is made when we have received your written acceptance and your deposit (article 6). We then confirm it by email, with a copy of these terms. Please check the confirmation and let us know right away if anything is wrong.

Once our online booking page opens, the summary it shows you before you pay, together with these terms, will take the place of the written proposal, and your booking will be made when your payment is accepted.

We keep your contract for ten years and will send you a copy whenever you ask.

5. Price and what it includes

We do not publish prices on this website: every tour is priced on request. The price of your tour is the total price stated in your written proposal and confirmation, in euros, including all applicable taxes.

The proposal states exactly what the price includes (for example private transport, entrance tickets, restaurant lunches, tips) and what it does not. Unless your proposal says otherwise, the price does not include your travel to and from the region, your accommodation, meals and drinks not listed, or personal expenses.

Once confirmed, the price is firm: it will not be revised.

Where tips are included, they cover the customary tips for the services in your tour. In France, tipping is not compulsory, so anything more is entirely up to you.

6. Payment

To reserve your place, we ask for a deposit per person. Each tour has its own deposit amount, stated in your written proposal. This deposit is non-refundable. Under French law, it is an "acompte" (not "arrhes"): a first payment toward the price, which makes your booking firm, for you and for us. We confirm your booking as soon as the deposit arrives.

The balance is due by the date stated on your invoice, usually 45 to 60 days before the tour begins. If you book within 60 days of the tour, full payment may be required at booking; if we then cannot confirm your booking, we refund everything you have paid.

Payment is by card only: we send you a secure payment link, or you can pay online once our booking page opens. We charge no fee for paying by card.

If the balance has not reached us by its due date, we will remind you in writing and give you eight days to pay. If it is still unpaid when those eight days end, we may cancel your booking. It is then treated as a cancellation by you on that date, and the cancellation charges in article 8 apply.

Advance payments do not earn interest.

7. No right of withdrawal

French law gives consumers a 14-day right of withdrawal for many contracts made at a distance. It does not apply to our tours: they are leisure services provided on a set date or for a set period, which article L221-28, 12° of the French Consumer Code excludes from that right. Once your booking is made, you cannot withdraw from it; if you change your mind, the cancellation terms in article 8 apply.

8. If you cancel

You can cancel at any time by writing to us at heather@two-poppies.com. The number of days is counted from the date we receive your message to the first day of the tour.

60 days or more before the tour: the deposit is retained, and we refund anything else you have paid.

From 59 to 46 days before the tour: the cancellation charge is 50% of the tour price. We refund anything you have paid above that amount; if you have paid less, the difference is due.

45 days or less before the tour: the cancellation charge is 100% of the tour price.

These charges apply per guest: if only one guest on a booking cancels, they apply to that guest's share of the price.

We refund you to the card you used, within 14 days of your cancellation.

No refund is made if you leave a tour after it has begun, or for any part of the tour you do not use.

On request, we will explain how the cancellation charge corresponds to the costs of your cancellation. Depending on the reason for your cancellation, these charges may be recoverable under a travel insurance policy, which is why we warmly recommend one with cancellation cover (article 13).

9. If we cancel or must change the tour

We may cancel a tour only in the following cases: the minimum of three guests is not reached; dangerous weather or the closure of natural areas means the tour cannot be run safely (article 10); Heather is ill; or exceptional and unavoidable circumstances arise, meaning events beyond our control (for example a strike, an epidemic, or a closure ordered by the authorities).

Unless your confirmation states otherwise, a tour runs with a minimum of three guests. If the minimum is not reached, we tell you no later than 45 days before departure, so your travel plans are never left in suspense. Once that date has passed, the tour goes ahead as confirmed even if other guests cancel, and your price does not change.

In the other cases, we tell you as soon as we know.

Whenever we cancel, you choose between a full refund of everything you have paid, within 14 days, or free rebooking to other dates.

If, before the tour, we must change an essential part of it (such as the dates or a main visit), we tell you promptly; you may then accept the change or cancel free of charge with a full refund.

10. Weather, itinerary changes and the sites we visit

Our tours run in ordinary rain or heat. Please dress for the forecast: comfortable, sturdy shoes, a hat, sun protection, water, and rain gear if needed.

If, for the day of the tour, Météo-France has issued an orange or red alert for the area (including for heatwave, violent wind or storms), an equivalent official alert has been issued outside France, or the authorities have closed the natural areas on the itinerary because of wildfire risk, we may adapt the program or, if that is not possible, cancel under article 9. In the same circumstances, you may also cancel free of charge, with a full refund.

The order or content of visits may also need to change for safety, traffic, or the closure of a museum, monument, site or restaurant (a strike, an exceptional closure, or the venue's own rules). We then offer an equivalent visit wherever possible. If an essential part of the tour cannot be provided and no equivalent can be offered, we refund the corresponding part of the price. This is without prejudice to your other rights, including under article 14.

The museums, monuments and restaurants we visit have their own rules (timed entry, bag checks, photography, dress), and we ask every guest to follow them.

11. Health, pace and accessibility

Our tours involve walking, sometimes for several hours, on uneven ground, cobblestones and stairs, and some sites have no elevator. Each tour page describes what to expect; some tours include more demanding stretches, such as the climb to the fort of Buoux on the Buoux variation of the Roman Trade Routes tour.

Please tell us before you book about any mobility limits, health conditions, allergies or dietary needs. We will tell you honestly whether the tour suits you, adapt what we can, and note it in your proposal. Whether a tour can suit a wheelchair user or a person with reduced mobility depends on the tour, so please ask us.

We pass dietary requirements on to the restaurants, but they cannot guarantee a meal free of every allergen.

On the day, your host may adjust the pace or the route for everyone's safety.

Any health information you share with us is used only, with your explicit consent, to prepare and run your tour (see our Privacy policy, /privacy).

12. On the day: punctuality, conduct and children

Please be at the meeting or pick-up point on time. We wait for 15 minutes; after that, the tour may have to go on without you. We will do our best to help you rejoin the group, but missed parts of the tour cannot be refunded.

Guests follow their host's safety instructions and the rules of the places we visit. Some restaurant lunches may include wine, which is not served to guests under 18: please enjoy it responsibly.

We may ask a guest to leave the tour, without a refund, if their behavior puts others at risk or seriously disrupts the tour (for example intoxication, harassment, or damage to property).

Each guest is responsible for any damage they cause to others.

Children are welcome when a parent or a responsible adult accompanies and looks after them throughout the tour; please ask us first whether the tour suits their age.

13. Travel insurance

Two Poppies Tours does not sell or include any insurance. Adequate and valid travel insurance is compulsory for all Two Poppies Tours travelers. Your travel insurance must cover accidents, injury, illness and death, medical expenses (including any related to pre-existing medical conditions), emergency repatriation (including helicopter rescue and air ambulance where applicable) and personal liability. Two Poppies Tours also recommends that your insurance cover cancellation, curtailment and loss of luggage and personal effects.

You must carry proof of insurance with you and produce it if reasonably requested by your host or our suppliers. Two Poppies Tours reserves the right to cancel or suspend your participation in a tour, or in certain activities that are part of it, at any time, including after the tour has begun, with no right of refund, if you are unable to provide proof of insurance when requested.

For guests from the United States joining a tour in France, please note that Medicare generally does not cover medical care abroad.

14. Our responsibility

We are responsible for the proper performance of the services included in your contract, whether we provide them ourselves or through the partners we have chosen (transport providers, restaurants, sites).

We are not responsible where a failure is due to you, to the unforeseeable and unavoidable act of a third party unconnected with the services, or to force majeure (summarized below), meaning an event beyond our control that could not reasonably have been foreseen and whose effects could not be avoided. Where a service could not be provided because of force majeure or the act of such a third party, we refund the amount paid for it.

We are not responsible for services you book yourself outside our contract, such as your hotel, trains or flights, nor for the loss of belongings you keep with you, unless it results from our own fault.

Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for bodily injury or for our own fault.

If you encounter a problem during the tour, tell your host straight away so it can be put right on the spot. We also help any guest in difficulty, for example by contacting medical services or making other arrangements; you can reach us during the tour at +33 7 83 52 35 39.

Force majeure includes any event which Two Poppies Tours or its suppliers could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid: for example advice against travel from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs or the US Department of State, war, threat of war, riot, civil strife, industrial dispute, epidemics, pandemics, health risks, terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, or weather severe enough for an official alert as described in article 10.

15. Photos and personal data

You are welcome to take photos for your own use, subject to the rules of each venue.

We publish a photo in which you can be recognized (on our website, on Instagram or in our newsletter) only with your prior consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

The personal data you give us when booking is used to prepare and run your tour and to meet our legal obligations, as explained in our Privacy policy (privacy). We will not add you to our newsletter or contact you for marketing without your separate consent.

16. Complaints

If something is not right, please tell your host on the spot. You can then write to us at heather@two-poppies.com or by post to the address in article 1. We aim to reply within 30 days.

There is no deadline for writing to us, but it is easier for everyone to put things right when you let us know soon after the tour.

17. Mediation

If a dispute cannot be settled directly with us, you may refer it, free of charge, to the consumer mediator: Société de la Médiation Professionnelle – Médiateurs Associés, Alteritae, 5 rue Salvaing, 12000 Rodez, France, mediateur-consommation-smp.fr.

You must first have sent us a written complaint (article 16). If our answer does not satisfy you, or if you have had no answer within two months, you may refer the matter to the mediator, no later than one year after your written complaint.

18. Governing law, courts and language

These terms are governed by French law. If you live outside France, this choice does not deprive you of the protection given to you by the mandatory consumer protection rules of your country of residence, where they apply.

If a dispute cannot be settled amicably, you may bring it before the French courts or before any other court that has jurisdiction under the rules that apply to you, including the courts where you live.

These terms exist in French and in English. Both versions have equal value; if they ever differ, the reading most favorable to you applies.