This is the part where the typical guide tells the average tourist how much he or she loves Paris and promises to show you why. But I’m not your typical guide and my clients are not average tourists.
What distinguishes my clients…
is their curiosity, their sense of discovery, and their willingness to enjoy tastes and experiences both on and off the must-see list. They’re not looking for my Paris dreams. They want guidance in living their own.
What distinguishes me…
is that I’m an upbeat French-American specialist on life in Paris and travel in France, a much-published travel writer, and the go-to guy for individuals, travel professionals and cultural and educational institutions seeking highly personalized tours and advice and tailor-made events in Paris and throughout France.
My route to expertise and experience
I grew up in the suburbs of Trenton, New Jersey. I received a B.A. from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. In my 20s I worked in a state institution for the mentally handicapped young adults, traveled in Europe, worked in a bar and in restaurants, received an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., and worked as a journalist for weekly newspapers in suburban New York.
I then settled in Paris, where I pursued my writing. My career as a France travel expert begin in my early thirties when I signed my first contract to write a guidebook to France. Fielding’s France, it was called, and its third edition (1995) received FrancePress’s Prix d’Excellence. Much other writing followed. I am dual citizen of France and the United States.
Travel writing and journalism
Over the past 25 years I’ve published five guidebooks, including Paris Revisited: The Guide for the Return Traveler, and hundreds of travel articles, along with essays, short stories, vignettes and op-ed pieces concerning travel, culture and cross-culture.
I’m the director of the travel and culture magazine France Revisited, www.francerevisited.com. You’re unlikely to meet an American who has visited and written about France from a wider variety of approaches than I have.
Check out France Revisited™ to see the scope of my travel writing as well as to obtain information about a wide variety of topics, approaches and destinations in France. You’ll see that my writing work leads me to meet chefs, winegrowers, artisans, elected officials, historians, curators, specialized tour guides, shop owners and many others throughout the year.
Travel writing and touring go hand in hand in the audio tour that I created entitled The Left Bank’s Most Elegant Park: Exploring the Luxembourg Garden.
Tours, Advice & More
Over the years, I discovered the pleasure of personally and directly sharing my knowledge and my contacts with visitors: family (I have eight brothers and sisters), relatives, friends, and, as time went, by friends of friends, curious readers, those who attend my lecture, and now you who are visiting this site. Creating insightful tours and experiences for first-time or return visitors to Paris or to France has become the perfect complement to my other travel writing activities.
Much of my highly personalized touring, tastings, workshops and activities related to organization, itineraries and consulting are conducted under the France Revisited® brand.
My clients come from throughout the United States, and well beyond. They contact me directly and via top-flight travel professionals. I’ve guided a U.S. Senator, a best-selling novelist, the director of a restaurant chain, men and women with success on Wall Street or on Main Street, an art journalist, a sculptor, numerous Texans and Georgians, doctors from Pennsylvania and lawyers from New Jersey (and vice versa), foodies from California, bon-vivants from Maryland and Kansas, engineers from West Virginia, teachers from New York, Massachusetts and Ohio (and sometimes their students), octogenarian lovebirds from Florida, grandparents with grandchildren, families of all shape and form, honeymooners and anniversary celebrators, war veterans, wine-lovers galore, and many curious travelers in between.
I’ve worked with travelers and travel professionals from Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Israel, Holland, Sweden, South Africa and Australia.
Charitable work
Though I personally conduct tours no more than 75 days per year due to my other activities, I’ve had the honor of assisting charitable organizations in the U.S. by enabling them to offer added-value tours in Paris and the regions of France for charity auctions and for exclusive donor trips relative to cancer, autism, education and the arts.
Lectures and appearances
I’ve lectured extensively in the United States, using stories and insights from my travel, touring and expatriate experiences to reveal how our most rewarding travel experiences are ones in which we find a personal connection with our route or destination.
I’ve lectured about travel beyond the clichés in Paris, travel writing, war touring in France (WWI and WWII), the history of the wines of Burgundy and Champagne, culinary explorations, biking in France and other subjects.
I’ve been interviewed on NBC and MSNBC, on radio programs and in the press.
Your man in Paris
If the above that sounds like a lot, you can simply think of me as your man in Paris, the guy with the know-how, experience and good cheer to help atypical travelers such as yourself enjoy an extraordinary trip to France.
