I wish my english was good enough to express my admiration and thankfulness with Pablo. Joining him during Gothic Paris, Versailles and the Louvre walks changed our entire experience in Paris in the most extraordinary way. He caught my 6 year old daughter's attention and "trust" (and mine) from the very first moment. Josefina enjoyed every single moment of the walks, and then kept looking at everything in the way Pablo taught us to! It was so important for me to listen, not only to what he told us, but also to the way in which he listened, answered our questions, and showed us a new way of looking at this wonderful city.

We took three Context tours whilst in Europe (the other two in Rome) and this was the weakest one by far. We spent one and a half hours in the cafe before even moving on to our first destination (Sainet Chapelle) - about a third of that time was spent on her background info, and another third on historical tangents with only a limited bearing on Gothic Paris. When we got to Sainte Chapelle, she informed us that she wasn't allowed inside the building because tour guides aren't allowed to talk inside and she'd been blacklisted by the authorities there. That was a bit surprising, especially considering we saw at least 3 other groups getting info from their guides while we were inside. We stood outside for a lot more talk from here before we got into the dreadfully long line to enter Notre Dame (couldn't she have talked while we were waiting?) and then she rushed us through the interior of that magnificent cathedral with very little explanation). We still went more than an hour over the projected tour time, and barely saw anything. As a teacher myself, I can see that she made several common mistakes: she didn't take time to assess our interests or background knowledge before launching into her lecture, she talked way too much (and didn't invite questions or dialogue), and didn't check for comprehension (we aren't Catholic and so missed a lot of Saint references and my 13-year old had no context for understanding the crusades) as she proceeded. That said, she was very well informed, and I appreciated a lot of the historical knowledge she shared with us as we explored the city later that week.

Cindy was prepared for the kids and tried to make it interesting and relevant for them. She clearly had a grounding in the history and tried to bring it all forth for us in a manner that the children would understand. She seemed a littel inexperienced with this type of responsibility, but I am sure that she will continue to grow and develop into an excellent guide.

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