IL Postcard

The Truth Behind the Tour Guide's Lies

Date: 03/17/2007

International Living Postcards-- Sunday Edition

Sunday, March 18, 2007

What would the typical tourist tell you of his trip to Paris? He'd tell you about his visit to the Louvre…the Eiffel Tower…and, of course, Notre-Dame Cathedral towering over the Ile de la Cité--the very place, all guidebooks assure us, where the first inhabitants of Paris settled more than 2,000 years ago, before meeting their fate at the hands of Caesar.

That tourist should ask for his money back. Caesar did not besiege the city; he was busy elsewhere in Gaul and let one of his generals do the job. And you have to wonder, when you see the scanty Roman remains under Notre Dame, why Caesar would have shown any interest in conquering such an insignificant city?

The truth is, the Ile de la Cité is not the place that the Romans besieged--a fact lost on Parisian tourist office personnel and local tour guides. Instead, the first Parisians lived in what is now a suburb west of Paris called Nanterre.

Nanterre is a not a site that tourists explore. But archaeologists unearthed impressive ancient ruins there, dating to Caesar's days, with all the facilities of a modern city of the time--an orthogonal plan, a public square, paved streets, a sophisticated sewage system, a well in each private house, maybe even a mint, and a harbor.

These insights come courtesy of friend Catherine Lapp. Catherine is furious with every tour guide who has ever misinformed his group. She is on a mission to make sure that the next time you're on vacation in Europe, you get your money's worth. To that end, she's starting a new e-mail newsletter called The Owl. Catherine would love to have you as a reader.

If you seek far more knowledge, background, and context than the travel guides in your local bookstores can ever provide, The Owl is for you. Those guides, Catherine admits, are great if you want the phone number of the nearest pizza joint…or the opening hours of the major galleries…but if you have a passion for the true art of travel…travel in the classical sense…a yearning to uncover the mysteries brushed aside by uneducated tour guides and inaccurate movies…then Catherine would like to comp you a free subscription to The Owl.

In The Owl, you'll be exposed to the politics behind the discovery of the Venus de Milo and how the French pretended for almost 200 years that it was an invaluable original from Classical Greece. You'll find out where history stops and fantasy begins in Hollywood movies. And you'll see what the educated gentlemen travelers of past times wrote of the sites they visited…as compared with the platitudes you find in today's tourist literature.

The Owl will take you on off-the-beaten-trail adventures to the most history-laden sites of Classical Greece, Roman Italy, Renaissance Europe…and to those neglected jewels that mass tourism boldly ignores. It will tell you what guidebooks overlook…don't know…or get wrong.

As I said, The Owl is free. You can sign up here.

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living

[Don't miss out. Get your free IL Postcards subscription today.]

P.S. Another eye-opener Catherine tells is about the real meaning of the expression "thumbs up," a misconception that is repeated in nearly every guidebook going…and one you'll find in historic paintings and Hollywood movies. She'll share that story, and many more just as fascinating, in The Owl. I'm already signed up: click here.