Categories: Addicted to France Tours, First Time in Paris, Paris
THIS IS AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED TRANSCRIPT
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This is join us in France Episode 245. Bonjour,I’m Annie Sargent. And in this episode, I will tell you all about the best way to take me in your pocket so I can show you around Paris. You can do this by getting one of my GPS aware self guided audio tours on VoiceMap. It’s a very simple product. You will enjoy Paris at your leisure, and I’ll make sure you take the time to stop and smell the song. I’ll play a little bit of the audio tour. tell you why audio tours are the best way to enjoy a city in my humble opinion how these tours work, even though it’s pretty self explanatory, and more Show Notes for this episode are on join us in France. com forward slash 245 the number 245
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I have wanted to do audio tours for a long time because for as much as I love to show you around Paris, I live in Toulouse, and most of you visit Paris, so it rarely works out. So I’ve decided that the next best thing for me to do is audio tours. I love audio. I assume you do too, or you wouldn’t be listening to me right now. Audio is super popular right now. You can do a lot with audio to bring the streets of Paris to life, especially if you’re right there. If I’ve learned anything about you, my listeners it is that you are Franco files. It could be your first or your 10th visit to Paris. You are the person who is not going to be satisfied with just seeing the big attractions or going on, you know on the big tourist bus to snap some selfies. Maybe maybe you’re a shallow visitor in other cities, as am I but not in Paris. There’s something special about Paris in your heart. In Paris, you want to see the big hits and you want to go off the beaten track to you want to hear about the major landmarks that everybody goes to, but you also want to see the more obscure places and and learn about events that made Paris what it is with these are your tours I bring both to your ears. You want to know about the revolution you want to know about Paris in the Middle Ages. You want to know where the great bakeries are. You want to know why there is more to that Basilica up on the hill that meets the eye.
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You are not your run of the mill average tourist and I love that about you by the way. GPS aware audio guides are all about bringing the city to life and guiding you through the streets with audio cues. So you’re looking around at the city and you don’t have your nose in your phone constantly. You don’t have to worry about getting lost, you don’t have to worry that you walk right past something amazing that you didn’t know about. These are GPS aware tourists. So if you want, you can look at your map on your screen if you’re nervous or something. But honestly, it’s okay to put the phone away because I tell you where you need to go. And I tell you about the important things you’re looking at. Sometimes in a tour, I tell you about something that’s kind of small or hard to see. And in that case, I describe what you’re looking for. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. But I also include a photo it on the app to make sure that you can see what I’m talking about and that photo just comes up when you get to that point. The idea is for you to be fully immersed in the stories while walking around Paris. So what parts of Paris Can you explore right now with these audio guides? Well, number one is illegal a city. So that’s the area around not heard them Cathedral. I started researching this one in February 2019. And it was mostly written when the fire at Notre dam happened in April 2019. So I had to go back to the drawing board find the best route around the cathedral. I mean, obviously we do much more than the cathedral but that’s the big part of it right? So I found a route where you can see it as well as possible and hear the stories about what makes that Cathedral so special. Now this terrible fire delay things a lot but I found you know, a really great way for you to enjoy as much of it as possible. This tour will always be special to me because it was my first and internet city is where Paris was born. And you can’t really understand Paris. If you You don’t explore this area. So that’s called intellect city where Paris was born. Second one is the my, everyone wants to see them. It’s really popular and it’s so interesting. There’s so much to see and do in the movie is got beautiful architecture, amazing stories, I had to make a lot of choices. So the tour wouldn’t get too long because the money is a big neighborhood. And people tend to get lost in the mafia. It’s a bit of a maze. So the question for me was how to show you the best of the movie without taking the whole day. I got this now, let me show you around. Number three is MoMA calm. Now this one is not out yet, but it will be published in just a few weeks, September 2019, just around the corner, so I must mention it. As you know, if you listen to this podcast MoMA has not been my favorite part of Paris, because it’s too busy to commercial there are too many pickpockets is too noisy. I just never found Good there. But I know it’s a favorite for lots of people. And I know that a lot of great stuff happened there. So I didn’t give up on it. I went back again and again to look around. On every trip I took to Paris, or watched movies or read articles, books, I really gave it a lot of time. And it turns out that I only dislike the movie. When I follow the throngs of people. You know, there’s a sea of people all going around like lemurs in MoMA, that really doesn’t work for me. So I went off on little side streets, I talked to people who live there, like the old lady at the Battle of LA, and the guy who takes care of the little vineyard. They told me how to enjoy more math. And as you may know, there is a lot of stairs in more math. It’s 220 steps to go up to the second acre 176 steps to exit the Abbess metro station. If you don’t know that, there’s an elevator which I do talk about in the app. So I wanted to take a pass that anybody could take. My tour will work with kids, elderly people, I’ve made it as easy as possible on the knees. Because some some days my knees aren’t happy either. So you get to enjoy peaceful moment without killing yourself. You get to do all the cool things, see all the cool places, and we end the tour with the busy parts around plus death concert quicker. But by then you’ll be so trying to I bet you’ll enjoy them anyway. So what’s my inspiration for these tours?
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This is my process in writing these audio tours. Unlike most other English speaking guides, I rely on French sources only. I am after all French. I’m plugged into French culture. And I do not want to rehash stuff everybody has already heard. I want to bring genuine friends into it. In English, and I want you to have a great time in France. I mean, that’s why I’ve been doing this podcast for five years. I want you to feel sorry, you have to go home. And lots of you tell me that happens to you. That’s why I bring in bits of French culture and lifestyle into the tours. And these GPS aware tours are a big time saver. You will save time because I map things out for you, you won’t get lost because you can you know, even if you didn’t hear what I just said, but even if you have to hear it again, you can skip back and forth. If you miss some directions. Hope you skip back. Listen to it again. You’re fine. There are people who say the whole point is to get lost in Paris. And that’s how you really discover Paris yada yada. Okay, I agree with them
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but not if you’re like in Paris for five days. If you move there pure, have fun, get lost go everywhere. But if you have limited time, get one of these all your tours. They’re selling Guided, you can take them whenever you want. And it will save you a lot of aggravation. You’ll also learn about things that you’ve never heard of, I make a point to bring in a little bit of everything into the tour. So a bit of history, some architecture, science history, because there’s been a lot of scientific breakthroughs in Paris, popular culture, famous novels, movies, food wine, if it piques my interest, I’ll find a way to put it in the tour. Now, let me tell you a little bit about how these VoiceMap tours work. VoiceMap tours are designed to be around one hour of audio and about two miles long, but in reality, you’ll probably stop and look at things. Maybe you listen to the audio of a certain place more than once. Maybe you’ll rest your feet for a bit. Most people it takes them two hours to complete the tour. The tours only work outside of buildings because it’s cheap. PS driven so the technology to make GPS work inside of buildings isn’t quite ready for prime time. So with the velocity tour, for example, I take you right in front of the center Bell, and I tell you why you should go inside at some point during your stay in Paris. Well, if the line is short, why not? Go see it right there and then you can pause the tour, enjoy the sun chapel. And when you’re done resume the tour. That’s one of the best things about doing an audio tour. Most in person tours either go too slow or too fast. They stop for a bathroom break when you don’t need one. And when you’re dying, the guide keeps talking and talking and talking. In person tours are sometimes hard to hear. Sometimes you know the guides they do their best but you miss half of the stuff. And that will not happen with headphones or earbuds with an audio tour. You control the pace. You can tear right through it in an hour or you can take it slow stop in order museums, monuments, restaurants that I recommend. And then it will really take most of the day. You can pause and resume as often as you’d like. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, go hide into a cafe and come back the next day. Audio tours give you total freedom. And this is important, please listen carefully. As soon as you’ve downloaded the tour, you’ll see a button that says start. You can play the tour from home anywhere in the world. I think you should in fact play with the app so you get comfortable with it. You know, some people are more technologically challenged than others. And the more technologically challenged you are, the more I recommend that you spend a little time playing with the app before you get to Paris. And of course, feel free to ask me any questions that you have. But it’s like it’s like an audiobook with chapters. You can pause, skip, repeat, all that good stuff, but what’s magic Is that when you get to Paris, you open the you know the day you want to do the tour you open VoiceMap and go to the tour meeting point, which is all explained in the verbiage, the written verbiage. And the phone will know that’s where you are. And then I will start telling you about this particular part of Paris. Now you must download the tour at home before you visit. I mean at least that’s what I recommend. You could do it at the last minute from your hotel. But hotel Wi Fi is usually not great. And yeah, it’s best to do the home and get this once the tour is downloaded and you’re in Paris. You can turn data off the map and audio you already downloaded into your phone at home right. And the GPS works without data at all. So you do not need a data plan while you’re in Paris for this app to work. Just download the tours you want at home and enjoy them while in Paris. But whereas You will not need data, you will need power. Okay? power is important for your phone, make sure your phone is charged. A couple of the tour testers told me they had to stop and recharge because their phone died in the middle of the tour. There are two things you can do about this. Number one, turn your screen off and just listen to the tour. That’s how it was meant to be done. That will save you a ton of battery. And number two, when you travel anywhere, not just Paris, but anywhere. Always have an external battery pack and a cable in your bag. That will save you so much time and aggravation. Because all of these navigation apps, whether they are Google Maps, citymapper voice map, whatever, they all suck your battery dry. They that’s that’s the fact of life. So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to grab your smartphone, go to the App Store or the Play Store. And once you’re there search for Voice map all in one word, and install it VOICEMAP the voice map app is free. And once you’ve downloaded it, you create an account. Then once VoiceMap is installed, and you have your account, scroll through to Paris. And there are two Paris tours of mine on the app right now. And the third will be published in September 2019. You can recognize them pretty easily because the podcast logo is on the image and it says tour by Annie Sargent so
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but they’re called in velocity when where Paris was born, and Loma. Hi, Zuma high, excuse me. Zuma high, the Paris neighborhood that has it all. Now why do you have to create an account? You have to do that because you can’t buy anything online with an account. That’s one thing, but also, you know, five years from now, when Notre Dame is open and ready for your visit. I will Data tour to include the new parts of the cathedral that you will be able to see from the outside. And he will not cost you a penny more because VoiceMap will remember from your account that you’ve already bought that tour and you’ll be able to delete the old one, download the new one again. And then and you probably switch phones at some point in five years. No problem, download VoiceMap on your new phone, sign into your account. And your tours are going to be right there. And I also made sure before I even wrote one line is that VoiceMap is not a creepy app. And that tracks you and sells your data to the highest bidder. Of course, they know your GPS location when the app is running, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to show you on the map. But they don’t share it with anyone their business model and mine is to sell great tours, not creepy surveillance. So let me answer a question that people have asked me They asked You know, does everyone in my group need to download the app and the tour. And I think having your own copy of the tour is ideal. But I guess you could share an earbuds with someone maybe get immuno get a cord splitter. If your phone has a headphone jack, it could do the trick with, you know, one year, but in your year and the other, the other person’s here. Why not? I mean, whatever, whatever works for you, but I think it’s easiest if you if you get if each person gets the app and the tour. So how do you buy these tours? Number one, you can buy the tour directly from the VoiceMap app as soon as you install it. Number two, you can buy a tour code from join us in France. com. Because I offer it at a discount for podcast listeners. You look for the menu or a green button that says audio tours. And in that case, you get the code and instructions within 24 hours. will respond to any issues you may have. Why 24 hours because for now, it’s manual will automate it but for the next few weeks it’s going to be a manual process now, and we do sleep on occasion now, I’m going to play assemble for from the city tour just to give you an idea of what you can expect. Most audio bits in the tours do not have any sound effects because I think that would get old, but this one does, and I love it. And this is part of the tour that describes how the man who killed Henry the fourth was executed. It’s not for the faint of heart. But this is really what they did back then. Now go to the edge of the plaza where you can see the river. Henry the fourth died a tragic death. He was assassinated while visiting a friend at a hospital in Paris near the Allah on Huda TV. Young men stabbed Henry the fourth several times in the chest. The murderer Francois have a yak did not try to flee. He was arrested and put on trial. And there was never any doubt about his guilt. Have a yak was put through terrible torture before he died. They walked him to Notre Dame Cathedral not very far where they made him confess in front of thousands gathered there. Then they took him to the place to have which is where City Hall is today and tortured him properly. Warning This is about to get a bit graphic. The executioner’s started with burning his right hand and for arm with molten lead and sulfur. They didn’t stop until the bones were exposed. Why the right hand? Because that’s the hand he used to stab the king. Then they ripped his nipples. Off with metal pincers, slices, arms and legs in various places and poured more molten lead over the wounds. Then they attached his four limbs two ropes, which were tied to the voices that were made to pull his limbs off. When that didn’t work the way they expected it to, they decided to slices tendons to make it easier for the horses. When they
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had him quartered at long last, they let the people take away some parts of his body and burned the rest in place. And all of this was to the delight of the people who love to see a prisoner get his dues. What was have a yaks motivation for killing the king. He was a fanatical Catholic who also had a history of violence and was probably mentally ill. He had tried to join a religious order in Paris but they turned him down when he told them about his visions were ancient Asked him repeatedly to kill the Protestant King. Now turn so the road is behind you and walk forward. You come to some steps going down. Those are the steps that lead to the squared event Gala. Go down those steps and look for a plaque in between the archways near the bottom of the steps. I hope you enjoyed that story. I certainly enjoyed reading all about it and writing it. Thank you, Terry errors Betty stilt Michelle Turner and Alice Phillips for pledging to support the show on Patreon this week. patrons enjoys several rewards including membership into a secret Facebook group where I answer questions every day. You can also hire me to be your trip consultant and help you work out details for a trip that you’re having difficulties with Visit patreon.com forward slash join us PATREON. Join us no spaces or dashes to see the different reward tiers. And thank you so much for giving back. My thanks also to Leslie Morris and Damaris Kulin for sending in a one time donation by using the green button on any page on join us in France. com that says tip your guide donations of $20 and over also gets you an invitation to the secret Facebook group. And obviously if you buy the audio tours, you’re also supporting the show so thank you for that too. And I would love it if you would leave reviews because it’s brand new. So the more reviews you know, it’s it’s social proof. If there’s a bunch of reviews, people are more likely to check something out. For my personal update this week. Well my in laws are arriving on Wednesday, just three days from Now and my sister in law is coming A few days later. So we’ll have visitors for three weeks. I am super excited that they’re coming to visit. I always love having them and will be visiting parts of France that I haven’t seen yet. And so I will talk about them on the podcast, but that means that there won’t be an episode for the next two Sundays, and I’ll be back on September 8. If you want to recommend the podcast to someone who already listens to podcasts, tell them they can find a join us in France travel podcasts, anywhere they get their podcasts if they listen to music, but not podcasts on their phones. Tell them to search for join us in France, on Spotify, or Pandora. And if they don’t normally listen to anything on their phones, send them to join us in france.com. And thank you for listening and spreading the word. Send questions or feedback to Annie at join us in France. com. Have a great time in Paris or planning your trip and I will Talk to you again on September 8 of the join us in France travel podcast is written and produced by Annie Sargent and copyright 2019. By addicted to France. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution non commercial no derivatives license.
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Episode PageCategories: Addicted to France Tours, First Time in Paris, Paris