Meet the Gees: We were featured on NBC!

Plus an interview with Messy Nessy Chic and our books are in the Louvre!

I’ll tell you what, the people over at NBC have their finger on the pulse. They called us about a year ago and said they were recording some segments ahead of the Olympic Games.

We met them last summer, down by the Eiffel Tower. We recorded a few things and then we kinda forgot about it. You’d be surprised how often little film snippets like that end up on the cutting room floor.

But fast forward to this week and I got a message from the TV host, Scott Swan, to say the segment had just gone live and they decided to make the whole piece about us!

So here it is, below, in its three-minute entirety. “Meet the Gees: Journey to Paris”. I can’t imagine creating a better introduction myself about who we are and what we do. They really nailed it. They even captured Lina making one of the pages of our new book… a year before it was published. Well played NBC.

Unreal. I guess on the next book we can write on the back: “Some of the best stories in France” - NBC.

Messy Nessy on the podcast

Meanwhile, did you catch this week’s podcast episode? I interviewed curiosity collector Vanessa Grall aka Messy Nessy Chic about her new boutique in the 5th arrondissement.

I was especially impressed by her idea to sell the Seine river in little wax-sealed bottles. What a great idea to draw attention to a new boutique. She certainly divided the commentators with the notion. It was the first thing I asked her about in the interview, listen below. Read our blog post with all the pictures here.

Our books are in the Louvre!

As you may know, we have a new children’s book out, The Animal Games in Paris. And this week I had the incredible fortune of delivering copies to both the Louvre Museum and the Musée d’Orsay. I borrowed the electric delivery bike from the lads at Le Peloton Cafe, loaded it up with boxes of books, then jetted around Paris as a delivery man.

I must say, in all sincerity, there’s no better feeling than taking your own book into the world’s most famous museum. Right into the belly of the beast, under the famous pyramids, next to all the big trucks. In my romantic version of things, the trucks are delivering priceless pieces of art from around the world, statues on loan from faraway places, paintings recovered from art thieves on the other side of the world.

In reality, the trucks are probably delivering toilet paper and coca cola for the museum’s millions of visitors. But hey, let’s not spoil it.

The point is, you can now find all four of our children’s books at the Louvre and the Orsay.

If you’re not in Paris, the ultimate place to get the books (and in fact the only place, it is via my online web shop here).

Long walks in Paris

The last thing I’ll mention this week is that I literally just pressed publish on the 20th and final video of our Countdown YouTube season. This is where we shared a long stroll in each of the 20 arrondissements, matched with the audio from the podcast.

The new video showcases the 1st arrondissement with the picturesque walk from the Palais Royal, through the Louvre courtyards, and down to the weeping willow on the Ile de la Cité. You can watch it below and you can scroll through all 20 videos here.

Thanks to LivTours for sponsoring that season, we wouldn’t have done it without them, check our their many varied tours of Paris here.

That’ll do for now, thanks for reading.

Oliver