We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joelle Gracia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
As a travel host, Joelle welcomes guests to explore Paris together through guided walks, food tours & wine tastings, Paris cafés & more! From the moment that travelers arrive at the Paris airport, all of your needs have already been taken care of including transportation, hotel reservations, curated itineraries, admission tickets, exclusive experiences and all of the details in between. Guests simply arrive, relax and enjoy the Parisian vibe.
Meet Me in Paris is not just about seeing monuments, but offers a taste of Parisian culture and joie de vivre (joy of living). Guests spend time in the neighborhoods hearing stories, exploring the different arrondissements, visiting the French market, checking out the live music scene, and experiencing Paris café culture. As a speaker of the French language, Joelle helps guests navigate through the bonjours with the locals. As for your place of stay, your home for the week is a boutique hotel in the elegant sixth arrondissement filled with an assortment of delightful places within walking distance. Meet Me in Paris is the perfect Paris vacation for first time and returning visitors, solo travelers and those traveling with family or friends.
Joelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
“C’était le coup de foudre” – It was love at first sight. I remember the day when I fell in love with Paris for the first time. It was during a trip with EF Tours in April 2002, my first trip abroad. Our group of 40 plus travelers had just arrived from London to the City of Light via Eurostar. On the coach ride from the Gare du Nord train station to our Paris hotel, I remember looking through the windows and feeling immediately enchanted. The cafés, the bridges, the stylish people, the architecture, the language… there was a certain mood, a certain ambiance that I had never experienced before and I instantly felt at home.
Fast forward to 2011, the year that I started traveling to Paris and France as a solo traveler with Zoé, my little Yorkie. I knew that this time around there would be no tour guide to translate for me, and so I decided to prepare for this solo trip by taking French classes at the Alliance Française. I’m so glad that I did because not only have I met some of my best friends there, but when I arrived in Paris that summer, I realized that knowing basic phrases in French was a total game changer. I was able to go to my local boulangerie and order “une baguette tradition, s’il vous plaît”, chat with merchants at the weekly farmer’s markets, and even build friendships that still exist to this day.
It was also during this trip where I developed a passion for French wine after an impromptu visit to “La Bordeauxthèque”, the former wine gallery attached to the Galeries Lafayette, and later that month, visiting famous wine regions such as Burgundy, Provence and the Rhone Valley. I knew then that my life would never be the same.
Since that summer in 2011, I’ve deepened my relationship with Paris and France by being there as often as I can, usually for a month or longer at a time and staying in my favorite Parisian neighborhood Saint Germain des Prés. When in Atlanta, I enjoy hosting French themed events through Meetup and InterNations. The wine continues to be “a thing” for me (it always will be :) and in 2013 I went on to pursue formal training at Emory to become a French Wine Scholar. The Covid-19 pandemic further opened up opportunities to train remotely with schools based in France such as the Comité Champagne where I could specialize and become certified in Champagne, as well as studying French at Sorbonne University in Paris via Zoom. Nowadays, as a full-time educator with summers off, I invite guests to join me each June andJuly in Paris where we experience the “joie de vivre” (the joy of living) together!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I enjoy sharing on social media photos, videos, travel tips, etc. With Paris being the most visited city in the world, the content is already familiar to many people, and this helps to build an online community. The advice that I would share with others because this is something that I am still trying to work on myself, and that is the consistency. Even if you’re not posting daily, having some sort of routine where you’re sharing content on a regular basis does help in building your social media audience.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
As much as I enjoy sharing content on social media, I’ve found that the best source of new clients has been the good old-fashioned, tried and true method, which is word of mouth. There’s something to be said for the human-to-human sharing of information and experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meetmeinparisatl.com/
- Instagram: @meetmeinparisatl
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087366610609
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo%C3%ABlle-gracia-6121911b8/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBa2BuIfsFxdWXMJZbXKVOA
Image Credits
Image credits: Joelle Gracia