Springfling - I did hear back from him, he was having a hard time finding an address ending in 9, but it sounds like he found it! If you do Pere Lachaise on your own beware of scammers who offer free tours (or just start to walk around with you)... when you leave they will demand money - so blow them off quickly ....

What is your deep interest in this, rice cooker!! LOL

There is no requirement that guides be licensed by law.



There is no licensing for guides in Paris. Specific venues may have special requirements for guides, such as requiring that they buy special passes or have specific qualifications, but there's no such thing as a general licensing scheme—if there were, it would be impossible for out-of-town guides to work in the city. As a result, there are no guides (as far as I know) who can walk into any museum or monument without paying. There may be some who spend the money to get a regular pass into certain very popular venues, but this is by no means universal, as it isn't usually cost-effective.




Likewise, they cannot get you in for free. You still have to pay admission. In some cases they may include admission prices in their fees.

"There is no licensing for guides in Paris".

Oh yes there is, and there is a general licensing scheme :
http://pro.parisinfo.com/fr/subventi...-tourisme-2009
They must have a 'carte professionnelle" and a university degree.

"if there were, it would be impossible for out-of-town guides to work in the city".
If they are "guides nationaux" they can work anywhere.
If they are "guides régionaux" they can only work in their administrative region.
They get free entrance to all national museums.

Whatever. There are plenty of unlicensed guides available on the internet. You're talking about a "business" license. Some are licensed guides and some not.

Thanks seafox!! My wife emailed him back yesterday. We actually asked him about taking us to Pere Lachaise, so that will be a lot of fun. It's too big, I think, to navigate on our own. And, because of my interest in it, I'd prefer to have a guide as opposed to wandering around with my nose in a guidebook. We want to have 2 days with him. A day geared for me: cemeteries, art history, etc. and second day geared for the wife: Louvre, music, wine, bakeries, cheese, markets, etc.

Can any of you tell me what he likes to eat/drink? We'd love to have something nice when he meets us at the apartment on the morning of the tours. Coffee, juice, croissants, cheese, pastries?


PS - Cookingrice, have a glass of wine and relax.

LOL.... Michael does not eat meat as I recall.... I've seen lots of pics with pastries so I'm pretty sure he's good with that... and wine later in the day of course!

Cookingrice, you just joined Fodor's and this is the only post you have commented on... seems curious to me.....

Why don't you just report him to whatever French agency deals with it?

We've called you out. Just report him. Be done with it, and stop being such a kvetch.

Still no word from him, so I have given up. I thought maybe since springfling heard from him, I would too. Maybe he saw my thread here, and in that case, I guess I can't blame him for not emailing me. I may have jumped the gun a bit.

Can Fodor's delete that thread? (The one I started that springfling linked to in this thread on March 6) I feel kind of bad now. Especially since others jumped in.

cookingrice - is it a requirement in France to put your SIRET number on your website or any of the promotional items of a business? In the US a business is not required to publish it's tax identification number to anyone except the Internal Revenue Service or a state revenue department. In fact it is discouraged to publish such a personal piece of information due to identity theft. Also, a business may have a legal name of XYZ Business but hold itself out to the public as Susie's Flowers. The legal name and the name the business is doing business under do not have to have anything in common. Perhaps this is how Mr. Osman has his business registered. Therefore it is very irresponsible to suggest that he is not reporting his income. That is a fact that you simply do not know.

I've followed the various threads, and I'd love to have Michael as a guide when we visit Paris in May, hopefully with a French history focus and a little art thrown in. I emailed Michael about a week ago, no reply yet, so I just sent a note to his Facebook page. Crossing fingers to hear back.

Any chance someone could put in a good word for me??

Thanks,
Les Lapins

Still no reply. Curious how he picks and chooses who he answers.

Why did he get back to springfling, yet has ignored me?

Jinky - I can tell you that Michael has told me he does not read this forum. So I remain stumped as to why you have not heard from him - some disconnect I can not explain - it seems he's up to date with e-mails, or close to it... I remain stumped... We see him end of May, I will ask, and talk through technology with him....

Oh, I forgot to follow up on my earlier post in this thread. I emailed Michael, and a few days later followed up with a Facebook message. Michael did reply - it took a few days, maybe a week. He apologized profusely for the delay and was very nice. I was soooo happy to hear from him. I'm really excited for my personal tour, and if someone by chance put in a good word for me, then MERCI BEAUCOUP!

Jinky, my guess is that Michael may have somehow missed your email. It happens, and we are all human beings. Did you try sending him a follow-up email? Do you have a funky email server that might cause your emails to get re-directed to his junkmail?

Just a quick follow-up to say I was in Paris last week of May, and my family and I had a great day with Michael. He was super-nice and super knowledgeable, I learned a lot about art from him, and it felt like we were being shown around the city by an old friend. The only bummer was the lousy weather! Michael has his own unlimited museum and bus/train passes, so I didn't have to pay his entrance fees or transportation, only the 130 Euro fee plus lunch, plus a cup of coffee at breakfast (I tried to get him to order a real breakfast but he insisted he only wanted coffee).

Les Lapins

Also, after our tour day, he sent me two long, detailed emails with shopping & restaurant recommendations - we tried several and they were all excellent. He really didn't have to do that, but I appreciated it very much. Worth every Euro!

you can contact him also on twitter as well as face book.
He's worth the wait!

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