What brought you to Switzerland and what does the country mean to you?
I grew up in Paris, but my mother came from Neuchâtel in Switzerland, so the town had a pull on me from an early age when we used to come here on holiday. It’s the place of happy childhood memories. Back then it was like arriving in a fairytale land — from the first glimpse of Neuchâtel Castle from the train to days spent swimming in Lake Neuchâtel in summer and sledging in winter. After Paris, the space and clean air was like a tonic, and it sparked my love of nature.
What inspired you to pursue a career in travel?
I used to work in the watchmaking industry, but what I loved most about the job was providing guided tours of the factory. I always longed to spend more time outdoors. I did a stint as a conventional city tour guide, but it wasn’t for me. I wanted to go deeper, share stories, move away from the one-size-fits-all-approach and home in on what people wanted in a fresh way, so in 2019 I decided to freelance as a tailor made tour guide, just before the pandemic struck.
I like to share my passions but also embrace those of others. Some people’s idea of fun might be ticking off 10 museums, but others just want to hang out at a cafe, explore natural landscapes or spend half an hour looking at a painting in a gallery. In many ways, I’m more like a friend or a long-lost relative than a tour guide. It’s all very personal and intuitive.
How do your tours avoid the Swiss cliches and crowds? What kind of alternative city tours can you arrange?
A city is much more than the sum of its sights; it’s entirely possible to visit a tourist hotspot like Lucerne, for example, without ever setting foot on its famous wooden bridge or seeing the lion monument. Instead, you could head up to Chateau Gütsch for a forest walk, visit the Jardin des Glaciers for an insight into the Alps, stroll the city walls or ride up to Mount Rigi for its lake and mountain views.
Neuchâtel is obviously another favorite of mine. It has a pinch of Italian sweet life about it, with its cafes, lakeshore, gorgeous historic center and Saturday farmers’ market. Even if it’s overcast, the yellow-stone buildings always radiate warmth.
In Zurich, I’ll often head off the beaten path to the former haunts of the avant-garde dada artists, say, or to the little-known Chinese Garden by the lake, which has a totally different vibe to the city centre, with families out playing and people swimming and sunbathing. Walking here, you pass sights you might otherwise overlook, such as the brightly colored Pavilion Le Corbusier and a sculpture by Jean Tinguely.
I never follow a script; if it’s rainy, I might suggest a walk through the medieval arcades of Bern, last-minute, instead. Everything is flexible.
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