I Prefer Paris

Eye Prefer Paris Tours: The Blalocks

Beth Blalock from Hilton Head, South Carolina, contacted me a few months ago, inquiring about a tour with her and her family in the end of May. We emailed each other back and forth about various details and I got a sense she was a warm person. In one of our communications the subject of the HBO series “In Treatment” came up, mainly because I had written on one of my blog posts that I was quoted in a N.Y. Times article about the show. Beth said it was her absolute favorite TV show and was obsessive about viewing it every night. I told her I felt the same way and we had a heated discussion of our favorite episodes and characters. I realized we had totally bonded over the show and was even more eager to finally meet her.

The first day of our tours, I met her husband Phillip, a true southern genteel gentleman with an authentic southern drawl and their son Jon, a big guy with a big heart, in the lobby of the Hotel de Louvre while waiting for the girls to finish dressing. After a few minutes, Beth and daughter Ashley came down to meet us and we hugged like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. Beth is a very attractive, elegant woman with fine features and delicate, porcelain white skin, and Ashley, tall and beautiful, was a total fashion plate. Of course we got on like a house on fire, and for the next four days we had a ball seeing Paris.

We toured the rue St. Honore with its luxurious fashion boutiques, the lavish Palais Royal, and the glorious food shops on the Madeleine. In the afternoon, we went to the Ile St. Louis and after we did an historic tour of the Marais. I could already see Beth and Ashley were champion thoroughbred shoppers, because the few shops we went into, they bought something. They were also was my favorite kind of shoppers: the decisive ones who buy without hesitation. However, they were holding back that day, as they didn’t want to bore the men who were history buffs and had booked a special shopping day on Friday.

Beth & Ashley
On Thursday night we were scheduled to go to a jazz club and had dinner before. When I arrived, Beth said she had some small gifts for me and hauled out a rather large canvas tote bag. I was touched by her thoughtfulness, and started to open what seemed like an endless array of the most beautifully wrapped gifts with lime green polka dotted and black and white striped ribbon I had ever seen. They ranged from local sea shell themed souvenirs to the little book of foreign swear words. But most special of all was the little gold wire crown decorated with red rosettes that Beth had specially made for me, and a pewter frame with a crown on top, and the insert saying:
Sir Richard Nahem
King of Tours
Awarded Best Tour Guide in Paris 2008

Not only was I touched, but now I was emotionally floored. I couldn’t believe someone would be so generous to give such extravagant and thoughtful gifts to someone they never met before.


I'm the King of Tours-my crown and certification to prove it

Our shopping tour on Friday was postponed till late afternoon, as the family was recovering from hangovers due to our night of going to jazz clubs and pubs. On Saturday morning we went to the Clingancourt flea market and later had a fabulous lunch outside at Fauchon, where we were met my New York friend and fashion expert Sharon Haver and her web designer Tinko, an authentic prince. Beth and Ashley had done enough shopping in those two days to give the local economy a much needed American spending boost. I said goodbye to them in front of Galeries Lafayette before their last spending spree and again we hugged and kissed each other as true friends. Beth said I was officially one of the family and insisted I come visit them in Hilton Head anytime. I won’t forget the crazy, fun and very special Blalocks and honored to be one of the family.

I forgot to mention that Jon is a very talented musician with a successful band that plays 70’s style rock music, with a sound reminiscent of the great John Fogarty and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Check out his Myspace page.

Phillip & Jon

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos: Scouts Honor

About three months ago I received an email with a most unusual request: A woman named Catherine Jones from High Point, North Carolina wanted to know if I would take her and her girl scout troop of seven girls aged 15-21 on a tour and also find out details on how I could I become their best friend in Paris. With such a charming and warm request, I enthusiastically said yes, and I knew this would be a fun and rewarding experience. Of course the first thing I said was that in order for a girl scout troop to be my best friend, they would have to bring me at least a few boxes of their amazing cookies.

Since then I told all my friends and even clients about how excited I was about this special tour and couldn’t wait to meet them. In the interim, I thought this would make a wonderful and endearing human-interest story for a magazine or newspaper. One of my former clients from Washington D.C., Gayle Osterberg, who has her own PR and marketing company, was so impressed with my tours, she kindly offered to help me market them whenever I wanted. I emailed her my idea and she agreed it would make a good story. She generously took the time from her busy schedule to write a media alert and even advised me on what publications to target. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any replies from them but I think I could now send it out.

The magic day arrived last Wednesday. I decided to do two very different tours on Wednesday and Thursday, to give the girls a full experience. On Wednesday we met for my classic Marais tour in front of the St. Paul metro station, and when I arrived they were just finishing spelling out my name on individual pages of a Russian newspaper, with one letter on each page. I already knew I was in for a wonderful ride. It was a gorgeous, warm perfect sunny day. First, I wowed them with the two gorgeous hotel particuler's (former private mansions) and a charming private courtyard in a 17th century building. Next we visited the mid-east gourmet shop Izrael with its intoxicating aromas of exotic, dried & glazed fruit, fresh olives, spices, and large variety of smoked fish.

R-I-C-H-A-R-D

As always, there was a stop at a patisserie and I took them to my favorite one in the Marais and one of the best in Paris, Gerard Mulot. We all indulged a delish sweet treat. Speaking of treats, I ended the tour with a visit to the new Valentino retrospective, as I wanted to show them something about Paris fashion. A stellar show of his greatest creations, worn by Princess Grace, Julia Roberts, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the girls were enamored with the gorgeous gowns and fantasy dresses decorating two floors of the Musee de Decoratifs.

Afterwards they very quickly said goodbye, and I could see they were so inspired by the show that they were chomping at the bit to go clothes shopping. Catherine hauled out a black nylon bag with the cookies, and I said that it would be her fault if I didn’t show up for the tour tomorrow because I would probably be in a sugar coma from eating all five boxes.


Can't Get Enough of These Sweet Treats

Cookie Monster

Thursday morning we met at the Richard Lenoir food market by the Bastille. We were supposed to buy food for a picnic but the purses, scarves, soaps, and other no-food items for sale distracted the girls. At one point, I had to do a shopping intervention and in a stern husband/father like way, warned them that they only had five minutes left to wrap up the shopping. We bought a selection of cheeses, baguettes, country bread, salami, and prosciutto. I was concerned that we didn’t have a knife to cut the cheese, and Catherine gave me this are-you-kidding- me look and pulled out of her pocket an impressive portable knife, saying it’s one of the first things a girls scout is required to have.(I vaguely remembered their motto “Always be prepared”- especially with a knife to cut cheese with on a Parisian picnic).

Shopping Showoffs-Look What I Bought!

We brought our delicious goodies to the Promenade Plantee, a lush three-mile long park built on an abandoned railroad track behind the Bastille Opera house. We admired the beautiful summer blooms and ornate Haussmann style buildings up close. Parking ourselves on two benches, Catherine expertly cut the bread and cheese like a nourishing mother while Audrey doled out the salami and proscuitto. We laughed and carried on about the pleasures of Paris and I asked all the girls what they were doing the rest of the summer. They were leaving the next day after a week in Paris and Switzerland, and I warned them they would suffer the great Paris withdrawal blues when they returned home. I shared with them that even though I loved my life in Paris and had no intentions of moving back to the U.S., they were a supreme example of the unique openness and friendliness Americans have that I miss sometimes. We took our last group photo, one of many, and then I hugged everyone goodbye with a tinge of sadness, as I knew I would miss them.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart Catherine, Audrey, Madeline, Abby, Mary Rose, Stephanie, Kara, Megan, and Jamie for one of the most fun and memorable tours I’ve ever done. And yes, we are definitely BFF’s (their abbreviation for best friends forever).

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone has any leads or knows someone at magazine or newspaper I could pitch this inspiring story to. Catherine also sent me information on how the girls worked their bums off (her words) to raise the money for the trip with fundraising events like cookie sales, yard sales, car washes, spring flower/herb sale, etc., which adds to their heartwarming story.

Our Last Photo-Boo-hoo

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos: David & Nicole Lipkin

David Lipkin, a doctor specializing in rehabilitation medicine and his wife Nicole, his assistant, are from Weston, Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale. I did my classic Marais tour with them last month and one of the highlights was the paper and stationery shop Calligraine, where they splurged for a beautiful rice paper wall hanging. They loved the Marais tour so much that they asked to do a second one another day.

Wall Hanging at Calligraine

Izrael Gourmet Shop in the Marais

The second tour was of the 9th arrondissement, which included the colorful Passage Panorama and Verdun, with their stationery and engraving shops, and Galerie Vivienne, a covered shopping arcade with beautiful mosaic tile floors. I also took them to my favorite confiserie (sweet shop)A La Mere de la Famille and to the fantastic food street rue de Martyrs.

I usually do a café stop during my tours but David & Nicole were so energetic and eager to see as much as they could, said they didn’t want to miss a thing and their bottle of water was enough to carry them through. Nicole grew up in Belgium and David went to medical school there, so they spoke fluent French. I loved their spirit and boundless energy and look forward to showing them another area of Paris they have never seen before next time they visit.

David is an avid photographer and took these colorful photos during our tour. David, like me, enjoys taking photos of quirky signs and storefronts.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos: Kari Raaen and Jodi & Chelsea

Kari Raaen is a professional photographer specializing in child and family portraits. She was referred to me by a good friend in New York who told me Kari was one of her best friends and was coming to Paris.Kari specifically wanted a tour with good photo ops and I promised her my tours were full of them. Along the way, Kari fell in love much like I did with all the beautiful doors we passed. She started to shoot them and inadvertently choose mostly blue ones. I told her it would be great to do a blue door series for my blog. Most of the doors are located in the Marais and Ile St. Louis. Take a look at Kari’s wonderful portraits on her site.
www.kariodellphotography.com

I had a fun afternoon with former New Yorker Jodi and her daughter Chelsea, on spring break from college, who now live in Boca Raton, Florida. It was one of those typical schizophrenic weather days in Paris where the sun was shining one minute and the next it was pouring rain. So in between the cloudbursts we ducked into the Marais’s high fashion shops and Jodi and Chelsea did some major damage. One of the stops was Lobato, the top shoe boutique in the Marais with labels Pierre Hardy, Marc Jacobs, Lanvin, and Martin Margiela among others. Jodi tried on a stunning pair of Easter egg blue and dark brown shoes with a large gold buckle. Being the classic shopping enabler, I told her that there was no question about it: she must buy them. Here’s a photo. Wear them well Jodi.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Best of EPP:Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos

I'm taking a blogging siesta for a few weeks and posting some of my favorite and your favorite former posts. Enjoy, and will have all new posts starting again on Monday, April 14.

Dear Readers,
I am happy to announce a new regular feature, Eye Prefer Paris Tours Photos. These are photos my tour clients have taken of special places I have taken them to. Many of them are very serious amateur but borderline professional photographers. I have been impressed with their sophisticated, state of the art cameras and fancy lenses, along with their passion for photography, but most of all their beautiful and sometimes funny photos.

Duke Ferguson from the Chicago area, along with his father Dan and his father’s friend Ron, did a Marais & Ile St. Louis tour before they left for Africa on a safari. They were as nice as can be and we had a joyful time exploring historic buildings, literally smelling the roses in parks & gardens, and eating our way through food shops.

The top photo is of Duke digging the pastries at Gerard Mulot.

I look forward to your comments about these wonderful photos.

Jazz Musicians in the Place de Vosges

Fruit Stand on Ile St. Louis

Garden at Hotel de Sens

Dan, Duke, & Ron at Hotel de Sens

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

 

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos

This month I celebrated the one-year anniversary of my Eye Prefer Paris Tours. I remember my first client, Dave McCarty, posted some wonderful black & white photos on his website, and I asked his permission to post them on my blog.

It was Dave’s first time in Paris and he only had two days here. He was easygoing and open-minded and wanted to see the interesting and the offbeat. We did a Marais tour, but did the more unknown part, the narrow winding streets in between rue St. Antoine, and the Seine. Dave works in advertising and lives near Cape May, New Jersey and I shared stories about spending my childhood summers in Wildwood, a nearby boardwalk resort.

I love the nostalgic quality of the black & white photos and they have the feel of Doisneau, especially the one of the couple on the bridge by the Eiffel Tower.

You always remember your first, so here’s to you Dave.

If you want to see more photos go to http://web.mac.com/dmccarty13/NotesFromGoshen/Paris.html
There is also a link on the site if you want to purchase photos.

Back view of St. Paul Church

Hotel de Soubise

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos

John Haycraft and his lovely daughter Sasha, from Sydney, did a tour right before Christmas. John is an architectural illustrator, and artistic talent runs in the family, as Sasha is at university studying graphic design. I showed them the architectural wonders of the Marais and some art galleries. Sasha is a fashion buff and loved the chic clothing boutiques I took her to. John always brings his watercolors and sketchbook with him, and he showed me beautiful watercolors he did of Venice and some he started to paint of Paris.

A few days after the tour I received a phone call from John, saying he wanted to meet me again because he wanted to give me something. I met him a few hours later and I was floored and touched when he gave me this gorgeous coffee table book of his paintings and drawings, titled Where was I? Perusing John’s book, I discovered his wonderful world of meticulous, color saturated architectural drawings, and beautifully, detailed landscapes in pencil & watercolors of his travels to China, Australia, and Kenya. John also tells his inspiring story of starting from the bottom, by sweeping floors at a prestigious architectural and rendering firm in Sydney, and eventually taking over the company.

Multiplex-Perth, Australia

Maria della Salute,from Academia Bridge Venice

John was truly delighted by Paris and next time he visits I hope he brings some of his Paris watercolors to show me.

For more information on John Hay craft, click here.

Pastries at Gerard Mulot

Hotel DeVille

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Marais Meringue

Barbara Major and Paul Kaehler from the San Francisco area were an interesting tour challenge. They have an apartment in Paris and come twice yearly, so they have seen all the tourists things and more. Barbara, who has a great sense of humor, made no bones about not wanting to see anything cultural: she had seen all that “stuff” and wanted me to take her shopping. No problem- I love spending other people’s money. The challenge was to take her to stores she had not been to before and I wanted to prove I was up to the task. Paul, on the other hand, had no interest in shopping and wanted to see some galleries. So off we went to the Marais, the perfect place for both. Barbara loved everything at Adolfo Dominguez, a chic clothing emporium from Spain. She tried to buy a ring at Rene Talmon l'Armee, who handcrafts his own jewelry at his atelier behind Art et Metiers, and Paul, surprisingly, bought some organic moisturizer from my friend Stephane at his shop Canzi. Paul enjoyed the gallery’s I showed him and was so inspired, he later emailed me to help him with a personal art project of his. We had a nice long lunch at Café Charlot on rue Bretagne, and they both told me some very funny and fascinating stories about their lives. Barbara & Paul were so open and friendly and have now become friends. I love when this happens.

Above is a dreamy, creamy photo Paul shot of the legendary lemon meringue pie at Le Loir dans la Theiere.

Press News
Eye Prefer Paris Tours have been written about in French Magazine, an excellent glossy travel magazine out of England. Here's the link and click where it says Secret Paris, to blow it up.

January Special:All tours are 160 euros instead of 175 euros

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos

The Boggs family, Laura & Marcus and their daughter’s Julie,20 & Lydia,7 did a Marais and Bastille tour the week in between Christmas & New Years. We smelled and tasted our way through the food market on Ave. Richard Lenoir and walked through the off the beaten part of the Marais looking at historic buildings, parks & gardens, and going into patisseries, chocolate and gelato shops.

At the end of the tour when I left them at St. Paul square, a swarm of pigeons surrounded adorable Lydia, and she swooped at them trying to catch one. She finally did, as you can see in the top picture.


The Boggs are warm & friendly and have a very interesting life. Marcus is an engineer and travels all over and when he is not working, Laura and he run their 40 acre organic farm in Northern California near Sacramento., where they live.

I booked them a table at Bofinger restaurant in the Bastille for dinner that night and they were so kind to invite me. They wouldn’t take no for an answer, so we wined, dined and had stimulating conversation for over two hours. Such a tough job I have walking the streets of Paris and being wined & dined by kind and fun people, but someone’s got to do it.

Note about Quirky Street Art post from Jan. 14
The photo by the Niki Saint Phalle sculpture pond across from the Pompidou Center is not of an “average French Joe”. The photos are a series of oversized portraits of Palestinians & Israeli’s called Face to Face, a project to promote a better understanding between the two countries.

January Special:All tours are 160 euros instead of 175 euros

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Eye Prefer Paris Tour Photos

Patricia Staton Thomas and her husband Noel were very special tour clients. Patricia had emailed many months ago and booked two tours for mid-November. We became email friends in between and by the time I met them for their tours, I felt I already knew Patricia so well. In the process, I learned she and Noel had a fascinating background.

For over 30 years Noel & Patricia have built beautiful miniature houses. The houses are magnificent works of art with the most amazing detailing and they have received publicity in magazines such as Architectural Digest & Elle Décor and been seen on the Today’s show. Living in a small progressive town in Oregon about two hours from Portland, they are semi-retired and now teach master classes in building miniature houses. Nowadays Noel is an accomplished watercolor painter, having shows at galleries in his hometown and Patricia is a published poet & writer.

Utilities cover

rue St. Antoine

Confiserie

Our first tour was of the Marais, and our second was a new one of the 9th arr., an area most tourists really don’t know or ever see. Unfortunately Noel was ill for our second tour, so Patricia and I explored the 9th arr. on our own, talking passionately about art, life, food, Paris, and all the other great life topics. During our passionate conversation we visited  the Gustave Moreau Museum, the residence of the symbolist painter, Square d'Orleans, an historic building from the 1850’s where George Sand & Chopin had their mad love affair& Gustave Eiffel had his studio, the great food shop street rue de Matyrs , which has a boulangerie that has the best baguettes in Paris, the most beautiful confiserie with an incredible selection of the finest chocolates & candies and two very special shopping passages, Verdeau & Jouffrey.

I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with Patricia & Noel and can’t wait to see them again soon. I was so touched when Patricia gave me a gift of 3 tins of local northwestern canned fish that included white sturgeon, Chinook salmon, & smoked tuna.

Checkout Patricia & Noel’s website

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com