Let's take a walk inside the most beautiful house in Paris

Fancy Paris dinners, an exceptional gilded residence, and.... a NEW YORK Earful meet-up???

Hello there and happy Friday.

Let’s start with the big news. This newsletter is officially a bestseller. Which is defined, according to Substack, as having over 100 paying subscribers. What an honour. Thank you so much to all paying subscribers (both here and on Patreon).

If you’re new around here, I’ve been sending out these newsletters for many years. About one year ago, I switched to this platform, Substack. And now it’s apparently a “bestseller”.

To give you a glimpse behind the scenes, this newsletter has over 10,000 subscribers, about 100,000 readers a month, and, if I keep sending newsletters twice a week, it should have 1.2 million views by the end of the year.

Wow, the pressure to avoid speling mistakes!

But hey, you didn’t come here for newsletter stats, let me give you some fun Paris content that you’re not getting anywhere else. That’s why you’re here after all.

Let’s start with an invitation.

Amazing upcoming YouTube video…

At 9pm tomorrow (Saturday night in Paris), I will launch a live premiere of a new YouTube video that you’re going to love.

It features the outgoing US ambassador Denise Bauer showing me around her opulent residence in Paris.

This will be a 30 minute video where we walk through all the incredible rooms and talk about her time in Paris. You’ve maybe had the chance to visit this house before, but I bet you’ve never seen upstairs. Including the Presidential Suite, the Jefferson Library, and more! These are places that no one gets to see. Except us. Tomorrow. On YouTube.

Here’s the link. I will be watching it live and writing comments in the chat section. Please join me, I’d hate to just be talking to myself. If this video gets lots of hits, maybe the doors to other amazing buildings will open for us…

Speaking of the US

Today I did a talk for the American Women’s Group in Paris. I told them the full story of the crocodile in the canal and how we got our self-published children’s books into the Louvre museum.

Two old-school stories for Earful fans, perhaps, but fun to tell to an audience of new ears. It got me excited about doing live events again, which we used to do much more often. When the weather gets a bit warmer again, we’ll do some. And the annual Summer Picnic Party is a certainty this year too. Watch this space. First spots for members, as always.

Meanwhile, who is in New York?

Also on the topic of the US, I will be heading to New York City in late March this year. It occurs to me that we could do the first ever Earful Tower meet-up on US soil. What do you think?

I propose the evening of Friday March 28th. I could bring some books, put on a little French soirée, tell some tall tales. But who would come? You?

More importantly, where would we hold such an event? Does anyone, perchance, have access to a cool venue? At this point, I have no idea how many people would come, but I’m keen to put some feelers out. Let’s see where this goes and plan accordingly.

(Also, now is the time to let me know about awesome accommodation opportunities…….)

I’ve been to New York only once, in 2017, and I’m excited to see it with fresh eyes. Heck, maybe it’s time to take some more definitely-not-posed cool dude pictures, like the one below, wherever that might have been taken.

Ten things I’ve learned…

Elsewhere… this week’s podcast episode was about the ten things I’ve learned from my ten years in Paris. I’ve embedded it below via Spotify, but as usual, you can find it anywhere you find podcasts. Here’s the link to Apple, for example.

And if you’re not too tech-savvy, save this link: It’s all 450+ episodes I’ve ever done via my official site.

I loved reading everyone’s feedback on this one, and I was glad that others have had similar hurdles in their own lives abroad. Read the full list of ten things here.

A very special dinner in Paris

Very often (even today, actually!) I get messages asking for tips on where to eat in Paris for a “special occasion”. I’ve been lucky enough to dine in some of the best places in recent years. Comice, Tour d’Argent, Shang Palace, le Train Bleu. And I’ve posted stories about them all. But for very special occasions, I’ll forever come back to Le Meurice.

And so, to mark my ten years in Paris, I went there for dinner this week. After all, that’s where my wife and I had a fateful cocktail ten years ago on one of our first dates. (See a one-minute version of our meal here). This week’s experience was pure excellence. And as always, it’s where I’d recommend you go for any similar special occasions.

Note: We specifically went to the Restaurant Le Dali. If I ever have a VERY VERY VERY special occasion I’ll try Restaurant Le Meurice, on the other side of the partition, which shone so brilliantly it almost hurt my eyes to look upon.

Members’ corner

Lastly: Another huge thank you to the Earful Tower members. I said on the show that I’m focusing more on the members’ club this year and I hope it’s showing.

Your bonuses this month have been more numerous than usual, here’s how to find the three main ones so far (or how to unlock them if you’re tempted to join the club).

• The new 2025 PDF guide to Paris (Substack here - Patreon here)

• Two bonus podcast episodes (Substack here - Patreon here)

• New Scoop du Jour column from Lina (Substack here - Patreon here)

A reminder: membership on the two platforms unlocks the same new perks, the only difference is that Patreon gets you everything from the back catalogue too.

And I don’t wanna promise too much here, but I’m getting very organized on Patreon. Look at this, they’ve launched a “collection” tab, so I can gather content in nice and easy-to-find tabs. I can even sell these “collections” to non members. Have a look and watch it develop.

That’ll do for now.

If nothing else, please watch my YouTube video on Saturday. I’d love to see lots of viewers giving it a head start into the wild world of online videos. Your views and likes make a difference - and they’re free and easy to give. Here’s the link again, see you tomorrow.

Oliver