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Actors use theatrical flair to bedazzle Paris visitors

By Ollia Horton - RFI
France REUTERSGonzalo Fuentes
NOV 28, 2019 LISTEN
REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

Visiting Paris can be daunting with so much to see and do – and who has enough time? Tourists of course often turn to guided visits. But one company has a theatrical edge: Sight Seeker's Delight hires trained actors who use their storytelling skills to bring history to life, with Paris as their stage. 

Although millions of tourists come to Paris every year, the competition is tough for tour operators.

In business for the last ten years, American-born Karen Reb Rudel seems to have struck a winning combination with Sight Seeker's Delight.

From Jewish history in Paris, to the Resistance, to what real Parisians eat – founder Karen Reb Rudel's got you covered. 

Karen prides herself on the fact that the tours provide something for all tastes and ages, and guarantees that her team will entertain.

Her staff is made up of six trained actors, with a flair for storytelling and are able to highlight history with a theatrical edge, with Paris' famous monuments as their stage.

One of the longest running tours, and one of Karen's personal favourites is the Jewish history tour of the Marais district of Paris, which she says is constantly in demand.

It was in doing the Jewish history tour that many questions arose about the French resistance during World War II, so the Resistance tour has now been added to the 15 or so tours on offer.

Arts, comedy key to storytelling
Is is hard to combine tragic chapters of history with a sense of humour?

"It is basically a form of escapism," she explains.

"Obviously talking about Jewish history, the Holocaust, troubles that the Jewish people have been through, gets very touchy, but it's also one of the reasons you have so many Jewish people in comedy, art, music and theatre," she explains.

"We find a lot of doctors, lawyers, scientists and big thinkers on the tour, but then you have the rest of us that have to take the light side of the subject, otherwise we would be crying all the time."

Speaking of arts, Karen's first love is music. She grew up learning the flute and spent a number of years playing in bands before setting up her business.

She even has plans to turn some of the future tours into live theatre performance with a musical touch. Watch this space.

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