A Letter From Rachel Kaplan

In 1967, as a student of the Lyçée Français de New York, I took my first chartered flight to Paris with my mother and my three younger brothers. We stayed at a hotel facing the Luxembourg Gardens, a place the Nobel-prize winning novelist William Faulkner once found congenial enough for both sleeping and writing.

Because I spoke French fluently, and had already heard of Napoleon, Marie-Antoinette and Joan of Arc, the riches of Paris came alive for me. After a week of eating tomatoes vinaigrette and fraises des bois twice a day, I had become as red as a lobster. It hardly mattered—my life-long love affair with France had begun.

Flash forward June 1993. Following two and a half years as an international media consultant to the Hachette Filipacchi Magazine Group in Manhattan, I took another trip to Paris. During that trip I discovered the Cognacq-Jay Museum—a jewel of 18th century decorative arts and Old Master paintings that had just opened in the Marais district—the very museum that would inspire the first book in my series for the publisher Harry N. Abrams: Little-known Museums In and Around Paris. It was on that trip I had my epiphany; I was going to live and work in France.

By 1994, I was working as a consultant to a company which organized private guided tours and corporate events. When the company went bust, former clients told me that I could do the same thing—only better. That is how French Links Tours was born. My idea was to create a business that would contradict the old adage: When God created France, he created Paradise; then he remembered Original Sin, and created the French. I knew that France was great because of the French and not in spite of them! The concept behind French Links Tours was to help my visitors create lasting memories of France, whether it was with its history, culture, food or fashions.

Thus began a very enriching and demanding education in everything French, ranging from the history of Paris and other parts of France, to the food, fashion and gastronomy I loved so much. I have had the privilege of testing the finest restaurants and cooking schools, inspecting some of the most elegant and refined hotels, and visiting some of the most magical sites in the world, whether they are in Normandy, Provence, the Loire Valley, Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Biarritz or the French Riviera. But more than anything, I have had the great privilege of learning about France's riches and grandeur through its writers, artists, fashion stylists and artisans, its hosts and hostesses, its local experts and highly educated licensed guides. Many of them have become my most trusted collaborators.

By 1997, www.frenchlinks.com was launched on the Web, and my first customer was one of the 125 vice presidents at Microsoft. It turns out that he also had attended the Lyçée Français de New York! While I slept, visitors from all over the world landed on my website, bringing to my attention a variety of requests that have made French Links Tours a very exciting and dynamic company.

As I researched and wrote my other titles, Little-Known Museums In and Around London, Berlin, and Rome, I developed sister businesses, under the name British Links and Italian Links. Last year I added Belgian Links and look forward to soon creating Spanish Links and German Links as well.

In 2004, French Links Tours became a division of the Paris-based Events & Company, with offices five minutes away from Louis Vuitton's flagship store on the Champs-Elysées. Our international team of guides, chauffeurs, and hostesses prides itself on satisfying the changing needs and interests of our guests, whether they are families, couples or small groups.

We now provide a detailed trip planning service that distils the best that a country or a city has to offer, including tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants, night clubs as well as shopping. But we also make sure you visit places that are inaccessible to the general public, including private castles and gardens, vineyards, haute couture houses, and fine jewellers.

French Links Tours is inspired by the talent and quality of our guests, who continue to spur us to do our very best. I am so grateful to all our visitors who have valued and continue to appreciate our passion and dedication to bringing the best of France and other parts of Europe into their travel experience.

I very much look forward to helping you create your next travel adventure.

A très bientôt,

Rachel Kaplan

President