Continuing its practice of leading successful overseas art tours, the Bermuda National Gallery is planning a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago in November to take in the largest Claude Monet retrospective ever.

Incorporating special guided lectures by art historian Dr. Francis Broun, the tour package, through Meyer Agencies, will also include round-trip airfare, five nights' accommodation, shopping and sightseeing trips that will take in such landmarks in Chicago as the Sears Tower and the Shedd Aquarium, other museum excursions and a private Thanksgiving dinner at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel.

Scheduled for November 20 to 25, the National Gallery trip will catch the retrospective in its final few days at the Institute. Having opened on July 22, the show, which will travel nowhere else in the world, closes on November 26.

Claude Monet, a leader, with Pierre Auguste Renoir, of the French Impressionist movement, has enjoyed widespread popularity -- and become one of the most coveted modernist painters -- in recent years. The retrospective, which covers the period from 1840 to 1926 and includes some 159 pieces, was put on in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the first-ever Monet museum exhibition (also held at the Art Institute of Chicago).

Anyone who is consequently interested in taking part in the National Gallery tour should call the NG's Bonnie Dodwell at 295-9428 or Meyer Agencies' Ouida Bean at 295-4176 for further information.

The price of the Art Institute trip is $1,895 per person.

* * * Mr. Jamal Smith, the young Bermudian who was chosen by the Paget Lions Club to attend the parent organisation's International Youth Camp in Montgomery, Alabama this summer, gave a detailed account of his six-week experience to club members at a recent meeting of the group.

Having visited the camp from June 23 to July 31, Mr. Smith noted that the gathering brought together some 58 young men from 29 different countries, many of which were non-English speaking. Even so, Mr. Smith told the assembled members, they had all managed over time to communicate with one another, and grew as a result to understand the various cultures that were represented at the camp.

He then "sincerely thanked the club for having selected him, and suggested that the club give consideration to sponsoring two young men from Bermuda as he felt that they would each have something in common with one another and be able to support each other.'' The Paget Club meeting at which Mr. Smith spoke was held at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club on August 26.