Some of the accusations here are a bit bizarre. I assume no one seriously thinks I'm trying to shoo away business from this man so I can have him free for myself, or that I'm trying to lure his potential clients over to friends who are competing guides. I never hire city guides. Maybe I should, but it just never occurred to me to do so. In addition, I don't know where my next trip will be, and therefore have no specific plans for Paris. I also have no special "connections" or friends in France, and certainly no friends who are Paris guides. I really don't care who does/doesn't use this person as a guide, but I have very definite opinions about the importance of tour guides, plumbers, doctors, lawyers, elctricians returning messages from continuing or prospective clients.

I had a very nice, competent plumber whom I liked very much. He was friendly, smart, trustworthy, generous, helpful, and did good work when he came. But when I referred some friends to him, he never called them back. Then last year, when I had a problem that became worse and worse until it became an emergency, he never called ME back over the weeks when I was leaving messages. Now I have a new plumber. He calls me back. That's a wonderful trait in a plumber, and without that threshold trait, all his potentially great work on my house would simply never have a chance to happen.

Two years ago, I bought cheap roundtrip flights on Orbitz and scrambled to plan a trip to Umbria on less than two weeks' notice. Somewhere--maybe on Fodors, or maybe just through Google searches--I heard of a tour company, called Anne's Italy, which seemed to offer very interesting tours to small towns in Umbria that would be hard to fit in via public transportation. I wrote to the "Anne" of the business name at the e-mail address I found on her site. She wrote back fairly promptly, telling me that she was on vacation in the US and accessing her e-mail while traveling. She gave me her schedule in the US and some phone numbers where she might be reached on various dates. I was very impressed. Her tours turned out to be way beyond my budget, but they looked like excellent tours, and if I could afford them, I'd plan on taking them some day, partly because I liked the itineraries, but also because Anne made such a good impression on me by replying to my e-mail even though she was not going to be in Italy during my scheduled visit.

Carol, my remarks or others also were not directed at you. Why think that?
I know you are not promoting anything but your love for Italy.
My plumber calls us back. He's better, his prices are so high!

Only two of us here said anything critical, and that concerned only the issue of his not responding to inquiries. I'm not aware of any other threads on this issue. I thought it would be pretty bizarre to accuse me of anything, but considering I was the first to comment on that....

Have you ever known anyone that had an "artist's mentality"? I have. They see things a little differently, are obviously creative, perceptive, etc. They are not always known for their puntuality, reliablity, astute business capabilities, etc. After meeting Michael last summer, I thought he was wonderfully creative, communicative, and artistic. AND I think he fits in that "category" of having an "artistic mentality". (After all, he is an artist before a tour guide) I can easily forgive him for not being that great at the business side of his job (responding, writing back etc., because, as a guide, he is incredible at the "artistic" side of his job. I guess I am trying to tell everyone to put up with his flakiness...he's worth it!!

and he also runs a forum: destinationparis on msn

Michael is a wonderful,gentle,cring " artistic" person as wren points out. He may not be the world's best businessman, but if his email doesn't fail...and AOL often does!.. he'll get back to you. He is worth the wait.

I took the liberty of cutting this review of his services from another board...Slow trav..maybe I shouldn't have but this personifies Michael to me.

<My sisters and I had a different experience than most in Paris. We had arranged for Michael Osman of Parisfind to act as our guide when we went to Paris last September and were delighted with his services, anecdotes, and his particular frame of reference based on our interests. Since Michael is an artist, he has a particular perspective and eye for things many may miss. Besides, he is a warm, friendly and very caring and considerate man.



What was different about our experience is that a few weeks after returning from our trip, one of my sisters and myself decided to go back to Paris in October. Because of our wonderful experience with Michael, we hired him for the return trip as well. After four days in Paris, and much fun with Michael looking at many sites tourists don't normally see, my sister suffered two brain aneurysms and almost died. She was hospitalized for over 5 weeks there, and I stayed with her. Michael was shocked when he heard and said he would do things with me to help keep my spirits up - and told me that he doesn't charge "refugees" and would accept payment. Each day Michael called to check on my sister and me, and took me by Metro to the hospital so I could get there quickly and economically. He and his friends befriended me and other family members that came to be with my sister, and even invited us to his home for Thanksgiving. He is extremely trustworthy, kind, dependable and knowledgeable.



Because of red tape, my sister had to leave expensive jewelry at the hospital which had to be retrieved after we left by air ambulance last December. Michael and his friend Scott went through all the hoops and got her jewelry back and got it shipped safely into my sister's hands. We will be forever friends, of that I am sure.



As far more comments on his services are concerned, he took us to the big Cligancourt flea market on a Saturday - and was very protective of us. He took us down all sorts of little streets in Paris and Mont Martre and out of the way places and showed us some fascinating shops, architecture, art, restaurants - and was amenable to doing whatever we wanted, and had a wealth of suggestions. His fee is reasonable (I told him the correct word was "cheap"), and he will take tourists everywhere by Metro or by foot around Paris - best way to see everything.



Review by Nancy S.>

and anyone whose dogs name is Lucy is great!

d'accord :)

Maybe the accusations are not to you, cmt; maybe they're directed to me because my name wasn't cleared with her.
Like you I really don't care who or who doesn't hire this tour guide. I'm not trying to take away his business and I've got no interest in any other tour guide as I've stated before.
If the accusations aren't towards you for sure nor me then it's probably directed at other posters who have tried to malign this person. But I'm not sure if that's the case. All I know is I was only referring to his not responding to his emails. I feel like you that a prompt response makes a good first impression. Maybe this guy is artistic but I still don't think that's a valid excuse to ignore inquiries from prospective clients.

Francophile, nothing directed at you . I don't why you take it personally when no one made any postings except things about Michael. We all like your postings and like Carol, give youur own opinions.

WOW !
I really want to know who this Michael is now. And what kind of questions could be directed to him about traveling to France ... but I am affraid to ask :)

From what I can understand, Michael is a very busy man, a great Paris tour guide, and he doesn't answer his e-mails. OK, time to move on. ((a)) ((b))

I'll drink to that, Budman!

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure for his prices? Thanks!

Under S100.00 for any size group for all day..bu that was last year.

Have you noticed though how strange it is that even if the slightest negative (the truth) is said about him (Osman), as I wrote in a previous thread based on what my mom heard from AOL people - not just one, but several - it's not tolerated? To read these boards, and considering that Paris, France is a huge city with something like 100,000 U.S. citizens living there, you'd think Osman is the only private tour guide in town. I don't buy it.

He is negligent in answering his email by what I have read here. As far as AOL, my sister says several there run their own tours or have friends who are Paris guides and they tend to post negatives things about the competition. work2fly, did he contact you? Did you use his services?

That's interesting. What I heard was quite the opposite: that AOL people who are trying to run tour businesses have been getting hateful comments from someone who does not want competition under any circumstances, and Michael Osman's name came up as the AOL poster who has the most to lose should newcomers invade his "territory." Again, funny how this guy comes off as being the only show in town.

We spent yesterday with Michael and had a great experience with him. He tailored the day to exactly what we wanted to see and spent from 9:30-7:30 pm with us. By having him as a guide, we wasted no time getting lost. Our day was filled completely. Don't believe anything negative that you read about him. All the positive things are true!

Those who have NEVER used this guide or any other should not say negative things. He seems to have alot of fans but let's hear from those who use other guides, they never seem to Post. I know St Cinq has a friend and I must ask, is She the same Veronique Gain who is a singer? And Someone mentioned a Virginia Dea.Let's hear nice things for other guides if you have used one.