Young Parisians passionate about their city volunteer to be your exclusive guide and show you the most secret outlandish districts…for free.

Paris – It’s a warm august day, Parisian streets bathe in sunlight. While traffic is still, terraces are packed with people desperate for some refreshment, sipping on long drinks, watching tourists pass by. On the Camp-de-Mars, the Eiffel Tower park, several groups of youngsters enjoy their pick nick, sagged on their blankets between the opened bottles of rosé and bags of crisps. Quite an ordinary Parisian scene, until you hear the nearest group’s conversation.
“Hello!” “Holà!” “Salut!”. The conversation goes on in English.

Welcome to ‘Enjoy your Paris’, an association that puts tourists - bored by predefined guided tours - in touch with Parisians who happen to be completely passionate about their city. This new form of tourism, where official tourist sites are avoided, is rapidly expanding in the French capital. It started a year ago with visits to Eastern Paris districts, like Belleville and Ménilmontant, and keeps on gaining in popularity. Members of several associations, like ‘Enjoy your Paris’ and ‘Parisiens d’un jour’ (‘Parisians for a day’, editor’s note) propose to be your free guides to the Parisian way of life.
 

At the beginning, they were no more than a handful. Today, they are more than 130. The association ‘Parisiens d’un jour – Parisiens toujours’ (‘Once a Parisian, always a Parisian’, editors note) invites Parisians to show off their sizzling districts to tourists. Urban history, monuments, the best addresses to have drinks or where to eat, anecdotes of famous people who lived in the neighbourhood, all is part of the information tourists get during these tours. And inhabitants keep enrolling! But before becoming an official guide of the unofficial tours, a brief interview with the founders takes place, to be sure you share the association’s values. The project works only on a voluntary basis; guides are not allowed to accept any money, even tips or restaurant invitations.

Back to the pick nick. Today’s ‘Enjoy your Paris’ guests’ names are, amongst others, Charlotte, Till and Hugo. Between the different nationalities, you can find Spaniards, English, Germans and Hungarians. Their hosts’ names: Rémi, Guillaume or Alexandra. All ‘Pure’ Parisians that want to help tourists break out of the routine, everyday tourist visits. Alexandra (25) explains: “As a Parisian girl, I know lot’s of good places that are not mentioned in one single tourist brochure. I feel like I’m doing something good and useful by making people of our age discover the other side of Paris”.

 

Created by a group of young computer engineers, ‘Enjoy your Paris’ looks like a classical social website, to which you van inscribe for free. Want to become a member? All you have to do is fill in a profile and your main interest fields; thereafter you can inscribe yourself to different activities like rap concerts, pétanque sessions (jeu de boules games, editor’s note) football matches, and more. And get to meet people!

With 400 inscribed members (of which 75% are foreigners), the concept is still working it’s way up. But the association has managed to spark the interest of local media. In an interview with the newspaper ‘Le Parisien’ Guillaume, one of the websites’ founders, explains the difficulties of organisation. “It’s not always easy to organize events with people that don’t speak the language”, he says. “But by classifying the events according to themes, at least all the people who inscribe themselves share a common ground.”
But in the newspaper’s article, most participants already refer to the association with satisfaction: “I think this concept is great” Mary says to Le Parisien, “I’ve just moved to Paris, and at the moment I still feel a little lost. By participating, I might finally unravel the mystery of Parisians and their lifestyle”.

More info:
www.parisiendunjour.fr
http://fr.enjoyourparis.com