I am not a guide, I'm Parisian (LOL)
(or: "The way we travel...or don't)
IT’S NOT THE TRAVEL THAT TRANSFORMS US, IT’S WE WHO TRANSFORM the TRAVEL (My own quote ! lol)
What sparked my reflections (well before I even created Anne Jeanne in Paris) was a certain idea I’ve always had about travel, as well as a “kind” (or deep!!) reluctance when it comes to guided tours.
(That, along with a strong desire to create my own business, something that would reflect who I am and bring together everything I love most.)
- Who we are, our personality, will shape how we see and experience the journey, not the other way around.
- In my life, I’ve met many people (friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances) in different social fields and different contexts, and I’ve noticed that the ones who had traveled the most were not always the most open-minded, thoughtful, curious, or tolerant.
- And I’ve also met people who shared my vision of travel
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. M. Proust
I’ve often been surprised to notice a few recurring things:
- Many people travel thousands of kilometers… only to stay surrounded by people who speak their language and share their culture—whether during guided tours, meals with friends from back home, or other familiar settings.
- Some say they’re fascinated by or in love with a country—its architecture, its way of life…—but they’re not so fond of its people. They seem to forget that it’s the people who created that culture they admire. (This happens with France more often than you’d think.)
- There are countless books about Paris (guidebooks, novels, essays), yet the most popular and recommended ones tend to be written by authors who share the reader’s language and culture.
- French cookbooks written by foreign authors seem to attract the most attention.
- On social media, whether it’s Facebook or Instagram, travelers frequently ask for recommendations, from people in their home country or from expatriates. Yet my answers, as a Parisian, would often be quite different.
- Guided group tours are incredibly popular… but I find them full of constraints: walking in a line, standing still while listening, stopping when everyone else does, and, above all, spending your time with people who bring you right back to where you came from
Don’t get me wrong, there are brilliant, certified guides out there, bursting with knowledge and charisma. This is just not my cup of tea.
In my view:
- It’s like seeing the country in 2D instead of 3D.
- Or like looking at a city through a close window, with the shutters wide open.
- It’s traveling far… only to go nowhere. (And still wondering if you’ve truly been )
……………….All right… just a bit exaggerated (lol)
In my opinion:
- There’s nothing like reading authors from the country you’re visiting to really begin to understand its culture, literature is part of that culture, too.
- There’s nothing like reading recipes written by chefs and cooks from the place those recipes come from.
- Group tours, which offer a structured, instructional experience, can make you miss what I see as the most important: the atmosphere of the city, its rhythm, its sensory world.
Anne Jeanne in Paris is all about sharing my Paris and French culture in a personal and genuine way.
Sharing, breathing instead of box-ticking
Paris with less filters
Nowadays, My range of services has now expanded, but “I still offer half days with Anne Jeanne” (a very limited number of clients every month so that each of you gets my full attention.
