PONANT has launched four new themed collections for 2022 and 2023.
The themes are Planet, Culture, Geopolitics, Wellbeing, Lifestyle and Gastronomy and will feature scientists, explorers, naturalists, artists, diplomats, journalists, historians and more.
These personalities will be sharing their experiences and knowledge, helping to create those extra special ‘PONANT moments’ during the voyage, said the cruise line in a statement.
Inaugurating the new Geopolitics collection will be Christian Makarian, a former journalist of the French news magazine L’Express.
His guests include Dorothée Schmid, a French Institute of International Relations researcher.
Laurence de la Ferrière, the only woman to have crossed the entire Antarctic alone, will embark on Le Commandant Charcot to talk about the environment and the complex geopolitics that impact this continent.
Meanwhile, the m/s Paul Gauguin will be hosting sailor and artist Titouan Lamazou in 2022.
A Napoleon cruise will take guests to St Helena to explore iconic sites with insights from several experts.
They include writer and historian Frank Ferrand, Jean Tulard of the Napoleon Institute, Thierry Lentz, Director of the Napoleon Foundation and Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, curator of French properties on St Helena.
Two exclusive cruises are also programmed in partnership with the French TV show Secrets d’Histoire.
A 100% Jazz sailing, in partnership with the festival Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents, will host musicians playing live every evening at concerts and jam sessions.
A loyal fan of the company, novelist and director Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, also makes a welcome return.
Also on the programme is the first Yoga & Wellbeing sailing with Elodie Garamond, founder of the Tigre Yoga Club.
Elodie will be running daily classes aboard and on the beach in the West Indies, and naturopath Leila Nasri.
In the summer, Le Bougainville will host three dancers-in-residence, including Eugénie Drion from Opéra de Paris.
Together they will be creating a new choreographic work captured on video in an original NFT (Non-Fungible Token) format.
Every year PONANT schedules six musical cruises in collaboration with French broadcaster Radio Classique and Alain Duault.
Cultural cruises in partnership with the Mediterranean museum of civilisations (Mucem) in Marseille and the Quai Branly Museum in Paris are also being renewed, as are the gastronomic cruises with Château Latour and Cuisine & Vins de France foodie magazine.
For more information, please visit Ponant.com.
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