Unexpected France

Original visits, excursions & soirées, for private visitors & professionals

PRIVILEGED ENTRIES INTO FRANCE is a non-profit organization whose local members are specialists, artists and other residents, delighted to show you our country. "Privileged entries" into French culture are our personal contributions. They let PEF's visitors perceive the country in fresh ways and open doors that are often unknown to Parisians themselves.

•Version française : voir haut de page

•Special service: interpreters, troubleshooters & facilitators

: Member, Office of Tourism

We take you beyond the "official versions"...

: Celebration (Aubomobile Centennial)

... by presenting Paris thoughtfully and with imagination.

As well, we reveal the little-known

: Guidebooks mention this poetic place, omitting to state that one needs an entry code to go in. We have it - and have promised to guard it as jealously as the inhabitants do.

Our activities are unusual because...

they were created for a small group of Parisians, many of whom had highly demanding professions... and standards to match. As well, Paris is both an international Mecca for the arts and cultural capital of an exceptionally centralized State. Our members were solicited by dozens of cultural events each night - we were obliged to be exceptional.

We succeeded because Parisians helped. Members, or people who simply liked what we were doing, suggested leads and opened private doors: "priviliged entries". That's how we came to produce several completely original events a month... for 20 years.

We take the most interesting to propose:

•Inside access to the worlds of elegance, cuisine and wines, art history, châteaux, landscaping... •New ways of viewing world-known monuments and legendary neighborhoods... or explorations of little-known places •Personal receptions in galleries, private collections and artists' studios •Discoveries of religious, ethnic and national minorities •Excursions that combine the publicized and the private •After dark... •For groups, soirées that feature almost any kind of music or original performances in which artists look back to their heritage and renew it.

A personal network is at "privileged entries' " heart

•Performer

: Private concert in a Parisian salon

Hosts lend us their homes because they are members. Specialists lend their talents for the same reason. Most do so for us only.

Another strength, presenting France's planet-shaking history - which draws in almost everything

and explains so much

: Nine Parisian revolutions suceeded in seizing power and riots have been innumerable.

We decode it as might a detective.

The excellent cost-quality ratio comes from our origins and experience

: Our events for Parisian members were elegant yet convivial. We promote that combination.

We go back to 1985, via the group mentioned earlier. It organized over 800 excursions, visits, excursions, week-ends and soirées, and morphed into "PEF" in 2002.

This site presents a choice of those events. We keep it up to date by following our artists' evolution and pursuing new leads.