Guiding is a profession!
By hiring a certified guide, you are choosing a professional trained in leading guided tours and lectures.
Often specialists in history and art, and fluent in foreign languages, professional guides possess a broad knowledge base that guarantees the quality of their service.
Flexibility, responsiveness… A qualified guide is not an audio guide!
Their service is personalized: They answer your questions, know how to adapt to different audiences (children, adults, people with disabilities, different nationalities and cultures). They are familiar with the various cultural and tourism stakeholders and can advise you on preparing your visit and assist you with the logistics.
A guide to tell you both the grand and the intimate stories, to take you on the roads of France or to a market, to discuss gastronomy, history, art, or nature, to broaden your perspective on the world around you and give it meaning, or simply to help you have a good time...
Guide-Lecturer Training
It's not enough to be passionate... you also need to be well-trained to act professionally!
The qualification of tour guide is obtained upon completion of:
- a professional tour guide licence
- a national master's degree with validation during the training of three supplementary teaching units:
- "Tour guide skills"
- "Practical application and professional practice"
- "Foreign language"
The practice of the profession
New practices are emerging: company visits, wine tourism, tasting tours, literary walks, theatrical tours, storytelling tours, unusual tours, street art tours…
New technologies are changing the way guides are conducted: audio guides, tablets, video conferencing, bicycle transport, vintage cars, scooters…
Visitor demands are evolving. Tour guides often work with families and groups of friends, offering customized tours. They also work with pre-formed groups: travel agencies, associations, works councils, school groups, or even after-work events.
Whatever form these tours take, the tour guide remains, above all, a central figure in cultural tourism.
With professionalism and enthusiasm, tour guides lead tours of monuments, museums, and exhibitions. Passionate about their work, they will help you discover cities, neighbourhoods, local areas, traditions, innovations, and expertise.
The Professional Card
The tour guide card clearly identifies a professional guide.
It is issued upon presentation of the diploma(s) by the prefecture of the guide's place of residence (Articles R221-1 and R221-2 of the French Tourism Code).
It must be presented at the entrance to museums and national monuments in France.
Valid throughout France, the card can be used to prove professional qualifications in any member state of the European Union.
Specific information related to the practice of the profession may be included on the card.
They are:
- linguistic in nature, without limitation on the number of languages (diploma or native language)
- related to a specialization linked to a higher education diploma.
