The Geographic North Pole and the East Coast of Greenland

Flight Paris/Longyearbyen.
Approximate flight duration: 4 h 30

We suggest you to be at the check-in counter 2 hours before departure.
We highly recommend you arrive in Paris the day before this flight.

Meet & greet at the airport by a local English-speaking representative.
According to the arrival time at Longyearbyen, services or activities will be adapted before your transfer to the pier for embarkation.

Nestling in north western Spitsbergen, Magdalena Bay is one of Svalbard’s unmissable sites. In a spectacular landscape of snow-topped Alpine mountains, deep fjords, beaches and majestic glaciers, it offers multiple opportunities for wonderment. We will not be surprised to observe whales, walruses, seals, common eiders, terns, polar bears and Arctic foxes there. The site of Gravneset, located in Magdalenafjorden, is home to the remnants of a former whaling station used during the 17th century, as well as the graves of many sailors buried here up until the end of the 18th century. Not far from here, the Gully Glacier offers a magnificent view, a delight for photographers.

Spend exceptional moments sailing aboard a state-of-the-art polar exploration vessel, designed to navigate deep into the heart of the ice, reaching areas inaccessible to ordinary ships. Equipped with advanced oceanographic and scientific instruments selected by leading experts, the ship offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the polar regions. Enjoy onboard lectures and engaging discussions with specialists, and take part in contributing to ongoing scientific research while discovering these fascinating and remote environments.

Defined by a 90° North latitude, the Geographic North Pole lies on the Earth’s rotational axis, at the intersection of all meridians. Plunged into darkness for six months of the year, then lit by the sun for the following six months, this mythical site, permanently covered in ice and remote from any land, has fascinated generations of explorers. So far, only a very few people have ever reached it.

Spend exceptional moments sailing aboard a state-of-the-art polar exploration vessel, designed to navigate deep into the heart of the ice, reaching areas inaccessible to ordinary ships. Equipped with advanced oceanographic and scientific instruments selected by leading experts, the ship offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the polar regions. Enjoy onboard lectures and engaging discussions with specialists, and take part in contributing to ongoing scientific research while discovering these fascinating and remote environments.

The north-east of Greenland is renowned for being home to one of the oldest and thickest layers of ice on the planet. Aboard your ship, you will have the unique opportunity of sailing to the heart of this icy wilderness, many thousands of years old, and will travel along one of the world’s most isolated coasts, between drifting ice and blue icebergs.

On the East coast of Greenland, in the Ittoqqortoormiit region that is covered with snow and ice for nine months of the year, you will have the rare opportunity of immersing yourself in the heart of an isolated territory and exploring the beauty of its infinite polar whiteness. The high alpine mountains punctuate the sky and gradually reveal their dark rock edges beneath a coat of snow. Located at the entrance to the longest system of fjords in the world, sits the village of Ittoqqortoormiit, one of the northernmost inhabited places on the East coast. Its name means ‘great house’ in Greenlandic and it is home to the last hunters of the polar region, whose ancestral way of life you will encounter. As soon as the thickness of the ice floe allows it, the hunters set out on the trail of walruses, seals, narwhals, musk oxen and polar bears, travelling by traditional dog sleds. On these expanses of immaculate snow, the silence is broken only by the sounds of the dogs, the grating of a sled coming back from a run or of footsteps on the ice. You will discover Inuit traditions through privileged and festive moments on the ice floe and in the village.

Aboard your ship, follow in the footsteps of Jules Poret de Blosseville, a French explorer and sailor. In 1833, he set off to discover this isolated and unexplored part of eastern Greenland aboard La Lilloise, an adventure with a fatal outcome. The uninhabited territory that bears his name lies to the south of Scoresby Sound. Surrounded by ice, icebergs and pack ice – thin or thick, flat or pronounced – as far as the eye can see, Blosseville Coast is a wild and distant place to which very few people have access. Exploring it means a slow immersion into the heart of a frozen, almost unreal desert, where the variations in light transform one’s perception of the landscape.

Take advantage of the on-board lectures and opportunities for discussion with specialists to learn more about the poles. Participate in furthering scientific research and let us discover together what these fascinating destinations have yet to reveal to us.

Iceland’s capital stretches along the edge of a vast bay in the west of the country. Perlan, the “Pearl of Reykjavík”, a museum located on ’Oskjuhlið hill, offers a panoramic view of the lush, green landscapes. A little further, one can easily spot the signpost showing the way to the evangelical Hallgrímskirkja church, and to the historical centre where one can stroll along the Skólavördustígur and the Laugavegur, two lively streets with charming small shops. For some relaxation just outside of the city, visitors have the opportunity to visit the Reykjanes peninsula and its famous thermal lagoons of the Blue Lagoon.