Greeters show new side of Paris
Capital leads the world in volunteer tourist guides who make visitors feel like Parisians
PARIS is this week hosting the world congress of “greeters”, the volunteers who aim to show tourists a different side of their home city.
With 29million visitors a year, the five thousand or so who were shown the capital last year by greeters is a very small number but the concept is growing each year – with France leading the way.
Of the 51 world destinations in 18 countries which have greeters more than a third of them are in France, with volunteers greeting tourists in the Aisne in Picardy down to the Tarn in Midi-Pyrénées.
And Paris is defying its reputation for being rude and stand-offish to visitors by holding global first place with 360 volunteer guides, ahead of New York, which pioneered the concept 20 years ago, which has 297.
Ms Claude d'Aura, head of the Paris greeters group Parisien d'un jour, Parisien toujours, shows visitors round Ménilmontant in the 20th arrondissement and said: “I welcome them like friends and show them the city I love and as it lives.”
She added that they were not looking for anything spectacular, but just to enjoy the atmosphere of Paris, to feel Parisian.
Volunteers agree to lead at least six trips a year – with one even managing 80 in 2012 – and each trip lasts for a minimum of two hours. They can be booked through www.parisgreeters.fr with English-speaking guides available.
Photo: fanfan - Fotolia.com
