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The 5 worst clichés about guided tours that are hard to uproot

Yes yes I know...  Everyone will be able to share the memory of a long and boring tour...  A taste of "It will never happen again!" after an unfortunate experience... It happened to me too even if I am quite easy going...

Let's go through the 5 clichés about guided tours that are hard to uproot and that we hear far too often!

 Cliché#1. A guided tour is a catalogue of dates!

Well, I say... Not necessarily...
You know, dates are not my thing. Do I lose credibility if I tell you that I sometimes have a hard time remembering them...
Damn, shouldn't I have kept my mouth shut again?!

In my visits, I prefer to give a sequence of events over a period of time that will lead to certain situations and an impact on decisions at a given moment in time.... In my opinion, it is more important to understand why and how than to know if it happened on October 12th or April 23rd.

 

Cliché#2. You get bored on a guided tour

Oh, yeah? Really?
I think you need to come for a walk with me to reconcile yourself with the concept of guided tour.
Here we laugh, we distance ourselves from history books and we learn a lot of tricks to look smart in society at cocktail hour.
What's more, I even offer aperitif tours, since we're talking about it! 

 Happy faces

Cliché#3. Anyway, the tour guides... they always use complicated words and you don't understand anything...

How to answer that... It's not normal. ????‍
Sometimes, the guide can get carried away on a topic he/she is very concerned about and becomes more difficult to follow...
But keep in mind that  the essence of our job is precisely to demystify complicated subjects and make them more approachable and understandable. The objective is to transmit our knowledge and to enhance the place you visit.
So yes, I know complicated words, but I don't see any point in showing off with "modillions" or "mandorles" if the person opposite doesn't know these words and has no idea what I'm talking about? There's nothing worse for switching the connection off!

 

Cliché#4. Who cares about History, we're not all planning to go to college! 

I strongly disagree. We're not all planning on going to history college, that's true. I'll tell you a secret, I didn't go to college either and that's okay! 
But understanding history isn't at all like learning the genealogy of all the kings by heart or the dates of great battles!
It's about understanding our roots, our expressions, the city we live in and its traditions.
It is understanding how certain events led us to where we are today. 
Where does the name of this street come from? Why does your bus or subway stop has be named like this? Why is this neighbourhood isolated? ????

 Do you know why this tram stop has been named "Terres Neuves"?

Cliché#5. That was annoying... The guide spoke very softly and recited her text in a scholastic way...

It's like everywhere and in every profession. Sometimes routine and everyday life can take its toll on people. It then becomes difficult to reinvent the concept of guided tour. Habits are comfortable.

As far I am concerned, I like the fact that no guided tour is like the previous one.
But before you tell me that I wasn't talking loud enough for you to hear me, it's going to be a long time coming!

 

My ambition today is to change your mind!

 5 good reasons to choose a guided tour! 
 

 Behind the gate : Saint Emilion Guided Tour

1. With a guide, you will save time

No need to look for your way: I'll take you straight to your destination, without any detour you would have wished in advance.
So I will be your best ally if you have little time on the spot and want to see as much as possible. ⏳

 

2. You think you see... but you don't...

Yes... my job is to draw your look on this little detail that you would'nt have noticed ...  and maybe put it in parallel with something more familiar to you... My job is to give you keys to understand and decode... keys that you can then reuse later in other places and understand them better.
This little trick that I'm going to anchor in your memory through an anecdote so that you will have a memory of your visit here in the corner of your head.

3.  You don't have to endure the guided tour, you can be the actor.

Here, the tour is participative ! You can ask questions and to interrupt the tour (well not too much, within reason, eh!)...
And if it happens, the visit will be completely different from what I had planned because of your questions!
We're not at all on something formatted. Thanks to you, no two visits are ever completely identical!

4. You can choose to do something different than the tourists.

If you've come a long way with the sole purpose of doing the same thing as the others and go do your selfie in a crowded place trying to frame your picture to avoid the hundreds of heads around you ... Well, then clearly, I'm not your guide. I'd rather advise you to take a Hop-on/Hop-off bus.

In fact, you can visit all the places highly praised by the press their such as the miroir d'eau de Bordeaux, the Cité du Vin or book a visit to a famous Cognac house by yourself. It's very easy to find your way around on these sites and you don't need me.

However, if you want to see some special, moving and unexpected places far from the sometimes insipid paragraphs of the paper guides, then contact me and we will build together a plan for sightseeing according to your interests.

 Overcrowded street sainte Catherine - Bordeaux    Water miror crowded with tourists - Bordeaux   Little Train

 5. Because a guided tour stimulates your memory!

The information and anecdotes collected during a guided tour are better remembered than what you can read on your own on a panel during an exhibition... 
And human interaction is pretty cool, isn't it?!
Our brain loves to be told stories... since we were young. So it seems logical that our memory is stimulated much more by this form of transmission. 

 Gironde estuary embrace the sight over the european largest estuary

 

I hope I've convinced you and that if you've had any bad experiences, you're now ready to try again with me!

Thank you so much for reading until the end.

Don't hesitate to leave me a little comment below and join me on the social networks! 

Ask a free quote for my next Bordeaux or Cognac guided tour

 

 

Cognac Tours, Licensed Bordeaux tour guide, Bordeaux Private Tours, Bordeaux tourist guide

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