Guide / Escort Paris, Normandy, London

I suspect it will be pretty difficult to find a guide for that type of escorting, especially for Paris and Normandy, but maybe someone here knows better, and can suggest something.

In the meantime, why not show them this Road Scholar guided tour, covering Paris and Normandy? These are paced for older adults and this looks like a good itinerary (a friend of ours has done this one and recommends it). This is a very reliable company and they will take good care of your parents.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/21095/The-Best-of-Northern-France-Paris-and-Normandy

Lola, that actually sounds amazing! Maybe Mike your parents could take that trip! It is wonderful for those not comfortable with getting around in a new place to be with people who can manage the logistics :)

The tour sounds great as does a custom made holiday.

Since they are not looking for a guide, it sounds like they would prefer a knowledgable driver.

Some local tour companies do this type of thing but I can't recommend any.

Please keep in mind the Europe of 50 years ago didn’t require the advance (timed) reservations for many/most/all the famous sites. So that may help direct them a little better in how they want to travel.. An organized tour will take care of many of those thing with a set itinerary. A driver to point them in the right direction would likely require you /them to do much of the advanced reservations/ preplanning. A private guide may organize an itinerary /tickets but I’m not sure how they work. Lots to consider.

Also, we just got back from Paris. My husband injured his foot on the last full day we were there. We had downloaded the G7 taxi app (very much user friendly like the Uber app but for official Paris taxis) so we just G7’d our way through the day for getting wherever we wanted to go which minimized our walking that day.

If they want to stick to one hotel location in Normandy they could take the train from Paris to Bayeux and stay in the darling center of town in one of the lovely hotels or bnb’s. And sign up for WW2 site tour(s) through Overlord or one of the other companies suggested on this forum.

If you do a search in the forum for Paris tours someone has suggested My Private Paris tours.

I agree that the itinerary on the Paris to Normandy Road Scholar sounds good. I would caution you to look closely at the activity level for this tour. It's rated at their "Let's Go" level which is the highest level of their non-hiking tours.

https://www.roadscholar.org/practical-information/activity-level-diet/

In my experience over 13 Road Scholar tours, the activity level is pretty accurate now. They would not want to be on a tour that had an activity level over their capabilities. They'd miss a lot and to be quite frank, would not want to hold others up. It's probably a moot point anyway because all the tours are sold for this year. It's possible to get on a waiting list but of course more difficult to get 2 spaces on a sold out tour than just one.

There is a cruise based itinerary which has more focus on DDay to Paris and less on first-timer sights in Paris. It is the Keep the Pace level which is one notch below Let's Go. It, too, is sold for Sept but has availability for 2025.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/12416/The-Seine-D-Day-Beaches-to-Paris

IF they were interested in a Road Scholar tour, there is also Paris at a Slower Pace which is a level 2, On your Feet activity level. There are openings for September 2024 for this program.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22235/Paris-at-a-Slower-Pace-Art-Culture-in-the-City-of-Light/

My experience with Road Scholar has been good. The guides are excellent and informative. The tours in France generally have great food as well.

Unfortunately that tour is sold out for every departure in September 2024, so it won’t work for them.

Pam, I wonder about that “activity level” and how strict they are. The one Road Scholar tour we have done was March 2023 in Puglia (we normally are independent travelers or book very active guided hiking tours, but signed up for this because it seemed the best way to see Puglia without renting a car, which we do not do any more—-my husband is 80). It was designated a level 3 “Keep the Pace” tour. There were 2 solo travelers on the tour who were very limited in mobility, and the guide made appropriate arrangements to accommodate their needs. Also we and other tour members helped out, assisting them with unavoidable steps, or in some cases volunteering to sit with them in a piazza or at a cafe while others did a more vigorous activity involving unavoidable walking over rough ground. Maybe this was unusual?

"Pam, I wonder about that “activity level” and how strict they are....snip....Maybe this was unusual?"

@Lola, I would not say they are strict but I believe that other tour members expect people to have sorted themselves out as far as activity level is concerned. If someone is recently injured (had one lady who had fallen and fractured her wrist the week before travel) I think allowances are made without the group being disturbed. If people are very limited in mobility, honestly the guide should have stop off points for them or leave them on the bus but the rest of the group should go on.

This is going to sound like I am a terrible person but no way would I sit with another tour member in a piazza while the group did something else unless I was ready for a break as well. IF the person needs monitoring, the guide should have arranged for them to leave the tour. To me it's also inappropriate for other tour members to help people over barriers unless it is something that has just happened (tree down, etc).

One one of my first Road Sch tours had a tour member who had very impaired mobility to the point that she could not get off the bus unassisted. The Bus driver, leader and instructor all told her they could not assist her so she did manage. She also attached herself to another tour member and I thought she was going to pull that poor soul over a few times. I did some passive intervening and took the poor soul off different places at times to get her away from the person. It was a bad situation for other reasons as well.

I also was doing a Road Sch hiking tour in England and fell badly in London banging up my knee. Some days I was OK to hike, other days I knew I would hold up the group so stayed behind and figured out my own plan for the day. No way was I going to slow up the group.

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it