Liz,
As one of the group "of 9 to 68" you mention, I vote for the "hop on, hop off" method. I believe I sent you an itinerary for this a few weeks ago.

I can't recommend any private guides, but a week ago while there I took a walking tour of Montmartre with Paris Walks, and it was excellent. A bargain at 10 Euro per person for a 2 hour tour. You don't have to reserve in advance for most of their tours; you just show up at the appointed place (see their website). For the Montmartre tour, for example, this was just outside the Abbesses metro station. About 25 people showed up, so it wasn't an unreasonably large group. Paris Walks gives tours all over the city, and based on the one I took, I'd guess the others are terrific too.

I'm sorry that Michael canceled on you. I know it's put you in the lurch but I do want to say that when I did 2 tours with him this past February he mentioned that his family was pressing him to visit them here in the US. I asked if they might come to visit him and he stated they'd never do that. I guess he didn't think they would!

I'm not trying to excuse his behavior, just thought I'd shed a small bit of light on the situation. Again, I'm sorry he canceled on you.

Liz,
I highly recommend Lexie at

http://www.yourfrancetours.com

I emailed her in Paris today and she has your dates available.

Carla

I don't really think you need a guide, either, but if you email me at [email protected] I can give you the contact information for two excellent, seasoned guides.

We used Michael last month and he arrived right on time, just as agreed to. We had a great time.

It is important to remember, though, that the arrangement to use him is casual at best. We had not obligation to be at our meeting point any more than he had an obligation to be there. It was a genteleman's agreement, sort of, if you know what I mean. Unlike tour companies that have your credit card number and process it in advance, the situation with Michael is much more casual. I did ask him how many times he had been stood up, and he said only once in all his hundreds of tours.

I do agree with many other posters that Paris was a very easy city to tour and to get around. I would not be worried that you are on your own. It will all work out and you will be delighted with the city!

Thank you all for the great references. I really appreciate the trouble that some of you incurred to provide information.

Cheers, Liz

Hope you will be well soon, Tuscanlifeedit.
Liz, if I can do it alone, you can.:)

Cigalechanta, thank you for the kind wishes. They are appreciated.

In a city like Paris you have lots of options.

If you decide to do it all yourself, you have 100% control of your time, and you can spend it any way you wish. You also keep trip costs lower overall. However, you also limit "bang for the buck," in that you're almost certain to miss a lot on your own, and you'll spend a lot of time just figuring out logistics.

If you hire a guide, you gain a great deal of time and you're more certain to see what you want to see. However, this also imposes a bit more structure (or constraint) on your stay, even if you still have a lot of control over what you do. It's also expensive.

If you go on organized tours, everything is taken care of for you, and you don't have to make too many decisions about what to see. However, your time is tightly controlled. It's less expensive than a private guide, but it doesn't last as long—often only a few hours at most, making it impractical to fill any but the shortest visits with organize tours.

People who have limited time, or who are uncomfortable in a foreign city on their own, or who simply want to maximize the efficient use of their time, may profit from a guide or tour. Guides are midway between nothing and a heavily structured tour.

If you have plenty of time, a tour or guide for a day or two can be useful, and you can spend the rest of your time seeing the city on your own.

Also, if you are in a group of more than three people or so, guides and tours can impose discipline on your visit. Groups tend to spend a huge amount of time fumbling around and trying to decide what to do if there's nobody to corral them and point them in a specific direction. Large groups require assigned tour leaders within the group as well, or chaos ensues.

My first trip to Paris was on my own and without any guide or tours. I loved it, and spent the time just walking around the city (the layout of which I knew a bit from maps and books). However, in retrospect, I missed a great deal during that first stay. For example, I didn't see the Louvre simply because I couldn't find the entrance! Still, it was enjoyable at the time, and I was so clueless at the time that I would not have known how to hire a guide or tour, anyway; it never even occurred to me. I got lightheaded on the second day in the city until I realized that I had forgotten to eat (yes, really), and then I had to figure out where (and how) to eat. Quite a voyage of discovery, but a lot of time wasted trying to figure things out.

Like Beatchick, my experience with Michael Osman was terrific and, as one poster said, although he does not demand prepayment or credit card details to secure an appointment, he arrived as arranged and we had a great time. He also mentioned to me that he found it too expensive to go home very often and they rarely visited and he missed seeing his family so I suspect the emotional tug was too strong. I am sure he felt very badly about it as I know he is very concerned about how he is perceived and strikes up genuine friendships with the people he takes around Paris. He struggles to find time for his art - he is an artist living in Paris, not a student - and I think that is one reason he doesn't check his emails religiously, he is painting and too absorbed to look it up. That said I can really empathise with lizkn and her disappointment and I hope you do have a great time using l'Opentour and Paris Walks, or find another guide to replace Michael.

I would agree with considering context.paris

TOTALLY reliable and with a group of Paris experts second to none IMO.

Maybe airline employees should take up painting. That way passengers will sympathize them when they cancel flights and ruin vacations.

Well, at least Michael Osman's not bitchy like airline employees.

Or like Anthony.
Linda Mathieu or her business partner would be very good. I think their website is parisphototours.com .
Michael is a really nice guy and I am sure he regrets this as much as anyone.

First, lizkn, I am so sorry that your tour was cancelled. It is VERY disappointing, I am sure.

Our family has the day before you, and after reading this post I emailed Michael last night to confirm ours. I also sent a copy of this link. I received his reply this morning - his family is indeed coming to see him at the last minute. I won't answer for him, but I wil say he said that he was distressed when he had to make a difficult choice between his family and his business.

Perhaps he will reply himself.

Anthony, I was not suggesting that his painting was the reason Michael cancelled the tours, just the reason he can be a bit slow to answer emails. While I sympathise very much with lizkn, there is no need to be unfair like that.

To clarify, I meant Anthony was being unfair, not Lizkn. As I said, I do understand Liz's predicament and hope she finds a decent alternative itinerary for those 2 days.

btw, we used someone from parisphototours. (Barbara James) she was awesome! I would definitely recommend her if she has availability.

I don't get where the claim that MO does this as "a hobby" lets him off the hook for dumping you. Doesn't he get paid for these tours? If so, then he IS guiding people as a business (perhaps a small business, but a business nevertheless) and you deserve more than an "oops...I've got other things to do" brush-off.

At the very least, HE should be suggesting tour guide alternatives, not leaving you to fill the gap. HE should be checking around to see who's available and if their services meet your needs.

Not doing something full time is no excuse for treating customers shoddily. There are some magazines I write for only occasionally, but that doesn't mean I have the right to blow off the assignment just before deadline if a better assignment or something personal comes along--unless it's a genuine emergency and even then I would try to do more than just say sorry and move on.