Guest interview - Laurence Monclard of Meeting the French
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I read about Meeting the French and thought that arranging contact between local residents and visitors sounded such a good way to make a visit to Paris more authentic that I wanted to find out more. So here’s the background to Meeting the French in founder Laurence Monclard’s own words.
1 What is the aim of your business?
We want to open the doors of a more personal experience of France. Most of us are frequent or regular travellers in various countries of the world, and we feel that it becomes harder and harder to be surprised, touched or amazed by solely the places we visit. The major monuments in the world are architectural or historical must-see masterpieces, but are usually very impersonal and overcrowded. We sometimes feel better in small places where you get a personal contact with a host. We are tracking the typical elements of the French culture that are not enhanced yet by travel agents, and we add a host, as a dinner at home with French people, or the visit of a bakery.
2 What prompted you to start your own business?
I got up one day with the idea of organizing dinners between international tourists in Paris and French residents. I suddenly realized that both would like to meet, make friends, and spend a good time together. Everybody likes to have friends abroad, don’t we ? Friends to give you a quick access to some parts of the culture that are not easily accessible in books, and to welcome you when you are alone in a foreign country.
3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own business?
The hardest part is not starting but developing it : get known, and balance your offers with the demand.
4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your own
business?
There are often anecdotes related to the life or wishes of our customers orpartners. A customer asked for a gourmet tour - one of our best off - but a very special one, focused on dog food. She was a dog Chef. Another anecdoteregards the visit we hold every week in a bakery. Our dear baker partner usually keeps some dough, already risen and shaped in baguettes, to be decorated and baked during the visit. That day, he was very excited as, for the first time, we were waiting for a major French TV to come and shoot a
report about our visits. He was very happy and proud to show how he initiates many visitors to bakery. Then he suddenly realized with horror that everything was baked. He had totally forgotten to leave some dough. Then, believe me, he totally adapted the bread recipe - especially the proportion of yeast - in order to get some baguettes ready for baking in 1 hour instead of the regular 4 hours. They were fine for the images though,
and you could not guess from the screen that the taste was… a bit strange.
5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of
hindsight?
I would just be quicker in finding the best partners that I am happy to work
with now!
My comments - I couldn’t stop laughing at the thought of a dog food chef coming to Paris on a top of the range gourmet tour. It certainly outdid a film I watched yesterday when the home delivery pizza was for the dog. You are so right, Laurence, about how crucial it is to find the right partners with which to work. I’ve had some problems with suppliers who haven’t answered queries quickly resulting in clients going elsewhere.
