Paris Walks vs. London Walks
 

Is it just me or is the Paris Walks company that is associated with London Walks much lower in quality?

I live in London and still find london walks interesting, humourous, and insightful, and stimulating. After going on a couple Paris walks given by the same company, I cannot say the same about them. The guides weren't even Parisians!

London Walks are generally given by Londoners who are truly interesting people who are highly qualified tour guides and most importantly, usually accomplished in other ways as well. Needless to say, I was very disappointed in Paris Walks and would not recommend them.

I understand that Paris Walking Tours- if that is the same company tries to cater to Americans. I have heard that their guides are British and American. I was planning on using them when I go to Paris next year. What specifically did you think was lacking? Were you jaded because you expected Parisians? Just curious.

Walkinaround - have you considered saving your money, and purchasing some of the great walking books for London?
Books like "Secret London" or "Walking London", it details the walks & sights in great detail, even lets you know eating places along the way.
If your out in the countryside, and want to do some walks, try the "Pub Walk" Books by Nigel Vile, around 6GBP, he has a number of Pub Walk Books, eg. Pub Walks near Bristol & Bath, Pub Walks in the Cotswolds", etc.
I have quite a few of these books, and take them with me, each time I visit Britain. The Pub Walks, start from quaint English Village Pubs, then follow rivers/streams, open country, high country, etc, and return to the original pub, where you can partake of an ale or lunch/dinner. The maps for each walk is easily understood.

We have done both London Walks and Paris Walks and have been equally pleased. While the guides of the Paris Walks were not natives of Paris, they had lived and studied there and were very well prepared and interesting. We were not disappointed in Paris Walks at all. In fact, David, the owner of London Walks, was a tourist with us on our last Paris Walk.

I have taken many of the London Walks, and they have all been good, with great guides. I took 2 Paris Walking Tours, and especially liked the one to St. Denis. The other one (around the Latin Quarter) was good, but too crowded to really enjoy. I would recommend both companies, however.

I haven't done Paris Walks yet, so I cannont comment on them. But, I have done nearly 4 dozen walks with London Walks and have enjoyed every one. I also have several self guided walks books such as Secret London that tropo mentions. I enjoy using those as well.

The difference, though, is the stories you hear on London Walks. I have found out information that a friend of mine who is a native Londoner didn't know.
One of my favorites concerns the statue of George Washington in Trafalgar Square. He swore he would never set foot on British soil so before they put the statue in they dug a hole, removed the dirt and replaced it with dirt brought over from Virginia.

We went on one ParisWalks. They are "associated" with LondonWalks? What is the association?

Our guide, Peter (who I believe is the "master") was a HUGE snooze. At the start, he waited 15-20 minutes beyond departure time for late arrivals, yet the walk ended right on time. This included bargaining with a group of 16 with a few no-shows for which the leader was insisting on a refund. I thought that groups should have been scheduled as an independent tour, as it made our group much too large. And, it was more standing around all over than walking. He mentioned "expressing your appreciation" too many times. We had planned to go on a few more ParisWalks but changed our minds.

LondonWalks, however, were fantastic - each and every one we took! The guides were knowledgeable and also very amusing! (And, not one guide mentioned "expressing your appreciation".)

My overall impression is that ParisWalks is in in for profit, whereas the guides on LondonWalks are in it mostly for your pleasure.

I took five Paris walks and was very impressed with them - as much as with the London walks. It's true they do use British and American guides in Paris, but I presume that's for linguistic and cultural reasons. All guides seemed very knowledgeable and very interested in their topics. My guides were Iris (Notre Dame, Marais I), Malcolm (Latin Quarter), Peter (Montmartre, probably not the owner also named Peter), and Mary Ellen (Marais II).

I've taken 5 or 6 Paris Walks tours and enjoyed them all, some walks more than others. But, I could say the same about London Walks.

I believe the Paris Walks guides are certified by the French government. I was talking to one of the guides after the tour and she was telling me about the certification process to be an official guide in France.

As far as humor, it depends on the individual guide. In both companies some guides are more enthusiastic or humorous than others. Somes guides are more serious about their talks.

The owners of Paris Walks are quite interested in feedback. Perhaps you should take a few minutes and email them your thoughts on their tours with suggestions to improve. That would benefit both Paris Walks and others who take the tours.

I'm sure there are walking tours in Paris given by Parisians. I prefer that the guides are British or American since sometimes you can get native guides whose accent is a bit difficult to understand.

There are French-language walking tours advertised in Pariscope. Presumably those are by native French speakers. I would gladly have taken them if I were better able to understand French at that level.

djk...my thoughts exactly.

I am not hung up on a guide necessarily being parisian but they should have some special connection with the city that subtly comes out in the tour rather than just pointing things out and telling the history.

I usually do not take tours (especially in a city where i live!) and swore off them until taking a couple of the londonwalks tours to kill a free afternoon or two. I prefer to do things myself and have used many of the books mentioned here.

While londonwalks gives you something different, pariswalks, in my opinion is nothing special (from my experience). As the guide meant well, I will not mention the name but i had the impression that he/she was just a bored american expat giving tours to fill spare time after reading up on a little history.