Bénédicte Pilet and Laurent Fouquet share their passion for street art during walks which will make you (re)discover Parisian streets.
Hello Bénédicte, hello Laurent, can you tell us about the creation of Fresh Street Art Tour ?
Fresh Street Art Tour was born from a desire to share our passion for street art and urban arts and to offert a reason to discover Parisian streets and works of art. This initiative came to us from another passion, street photography, which led us to wander through neighborhoods and districts in Paris and the Greater Paris. After participating in a guided walk in Berlin in 2012, we decided to offer a similar offer in Paris. The first street art tour of the Fresh Street Art Tour Paris was organized on July 14th 2015.
Your walks are available on ExploreParis.com. What does this partnership bring you ? How did it evolve through time ?
It was very soon after we started our business that we were approached by Seine-Saint-Denis Tourisme and Val-de-Marne Tourisme et Loisirs, we are still so thankful for them and the opportunity they gave us. They provided us with a real support throughout the years and help us to achieve visibility on the ExploreParis.com platform. We would certainly not be where we are today without this precious and lasting partnership.
The sanitary crise was a real surprise and it was the occasion to rethink our methods to ensure the durability of our job and to keep sharing our passion. The conference format that we were used to do was then adapted into a videoconference. After offering it free of charge to the schools that remained open to welcome the children of hospital workers, we decided to extend it to a wider audience. ExploreParis.com immediately accepted these formats, which allowed us to keep in touch with urban art lovers and to offer a cultural escape during the first lockdown.
Since then, communication has been as good as ever with ExploreParis.com's partners to adapt our offers, both physical and virtual, according to current events and changes, always keeping the public in mind.
Lastly, can you tell us about your favorite visit? And are there places you recommend us to go ?
Our different walk paths are complementary. If the works of the 13th arrondissement are impressive by their size and number, the walk of the 20th is surprising by what we learn about the suburbs of Belleville and Menilmontant: we rediscover these neighborhoods that we think we know, we venture off the beaten path.
We actually can't wait to go back to the field and find the few bookstores and cultural places that are on our route, including the Librairie gourmande Maruani (171 boulevard Vincent Auriol, 75013 Paris), the Barbouquin (1 rue Denoyez, 75020 Paris), and the Lavo/matik (20 boulevard du Général d'Armée Jean Simon, 75013 Paris), among other establishments that are also affected by the crisis and that are relaying the same message as ours.
Thanks to both of you Laurent and Bénédicte!
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To go further, discover all our guides and lecturers through our portrait gallery.
