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Discovering unexpected France – an alternative tourism

"I want to leave the path that has been trodden again and again!" - visitor
  • Imagination makes Paris even more fascinating

 

 

 •Version française: CLIQUEZ en haut de page.

•Blog: http://unexpectedparis.blogspot.com/

•Brochure: for Pdf, please CLICK

This company went far beyond the ordinary. In our way, so do we.

We wish you to say of our highly personalized visits, "That experience was memorable."

 

 

  • We help you understand what you discover (as opposed to inflicting usually meaningless data)

 

 

Versailles’ perspective melts into the horizon, symbol of endless power.

 

For example, we explain that Paris's glorious perspectives originate with Versailles and that they emphasize the State's grandeur.

 

We prefer questioning to lecturing. Do the avenues lead to all châteaux have a meaning? Do those of the perspectives that we discover?

 

 

 

  • Enlightened history lies behind our walks and visits. It brings order out of chaos and

    one can't understand France without it.

 

 

The favorite who gave the Sun KIng six children and his court its glamour... until poison and a governess took over.

And we love its stories. They are like movies – except that they are true.

     

     

    • As well – we emphasize the exceptional yet little known 


     

    This milliner's workshop nestles in a neighborhood where craftspeople have clustered since the Middle Ages. Yet Parisians as well as visitors ignore both the crafts and the area.

    For a description of this typical visit, please CLICK.

     

     

    • We can open doors that are inaccessible to outsiders ...
    Concert organized in a member's salon

     

     

    • ... through a personal network that has developed over many years

     

     

     

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

    We began in 1985 as the "Club culturel Franco-Américain". It organized over 800 excursions, visits, weekends and soirées, and morphed into "Privileged entries into France", or "PEF",  in 2002. Those events are at the origin of most of the proposals here.

     

     

     

    • These activities were created for Parisians, many of whom had demanding professions...

     

    and standards to match. As well, because Paris produces planet-known exhibits and performances, is a magnet for the whole country's creativity and is home to artists of all kinds from everywhere, we had to attract and retain members who were solicited by about 270 plays, 140 concerts, and 200 movies each week...  not counting what took place through networks or outside the city proper. We were obliged to be exceptional.

     

    French people opened private doors the original "privileged entries". We came to produce several exclusive events a month... for almost 20 years.

     

    Today our local members, many of whom we have known for years, are our guides, our specialists and the people with whom we go on exploring.

     

    • That background explains why we can now 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 little-known places.

     

    ° Personal receptions in galleries, private collections and artists' studios.

     

    ° Discoveries of the dynamism that minorities bring.

     

    ° 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.

     

     

    • "Privileged Entries into France", or PEF, is a non-profit organization...

     

    • We present French culture in a way that is very different from what commercial mass tourism usually offers. Besides what has already been mentioned, the breath of our network lets us create tours that are genuinely personalized.

     

    • Our fees are lower than those of commercial organizations. We propose an excellent price-quality ratio.

     

     

    • For specific information on...

     

    Our approach, please click HERE.

    • Group events, HERE.

    (Most activities work for private visitors and groups both.)

    • How we began and why we're a non-profit, HERE...

     

     

     

    • How we differ from agencies (and work with them), HERE...

    • Our network, HERE, HERE and HERE...

    • Our fees HERE, with price examples HERE.

    • Exploring Paris continues

     

    For the moment (in summer 2010) I'm "your man". As a guide, I've written these pages to give you an idea of what to expect or let you glimpse an authentic France via your screen.

     

    These suggestions are only a beginning. We are interviewing and training other guides, to propose tours in languages other than French and English, and to enrich our proposals with their own interests and experience. 

     

    As well, our blog, http://unexpectedparis.blogspot.com, gives notes from my – our – ongoing explorations. These can be for pleasure, or to prepare for particular visits or create new proposals, as well as to follow the evolution of our artists or discover new ones. When I think a possibility merits looking into, I invite our local members to join me, for the interest, for photos and for feedback. 

     

    I'd love to have you read the blog and will be happy to reply to your questions.

    A la prochaine fois (till next time),


     

     

     

                                 Catherine Loveland Aubin
                                   Founder & president

                              Trip designer & historical guide

    Vassar  B.A., Harvard M.A., Columbia PhD, all in History

     

     

     

    • Member, Paris Office of Tourisme

     

         

         

        • "Privileged entries" can take place anywhere...

         

        when personal contacts permit them. That's the case for some of France's regions, for Geneva and for New York (please CLICK).

         

        We look forward to suggesting possibilities elsewhere when we have the contacts to do so.

         

        Credits: webmaster / David Worms; banner / Julien Debure; lead photo (automobile centennial) / Claude Abron; painting  / "The palace of Versailles in 1668", by Patel; milliner's window / Camilla Macfarlane ; salon / Claude Abron; drawing / Harald Wolff

         

        Most photos and drawings are copyrighted, but we may give you permission to use them if you ask.

         

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