What is a licensed tour guide?

A protected title

In France, “guide-conférencier” (licensed tour guide) is not a title anyone can use. It is a profession regulated by the French Tourism Code: to practise it, a guide must hold a professional card issued by the State.

The card is granted after a specialised university degree (a professional bachelor’s or master’s degree in guiding) or recognised professional experience. It bears the guide’s name and photo, and guides carry it during their tours: feel free to ask your guide to show it.

What a licensed guide can do

• Guide and speak to a group inside French national museums (“musées de France”) and historic monuments.
• Use the group and professional entrances of many museums and monuments, instead of the line for individual visitors.
• Prepare tours on site: the card gives free access to many national museums and monuments.
• Design and lead tailor-made tours, in French or in other languages, in museums, monuments and neighbourhoods.

No card, no guided tour inside museums

French law reserves guided tours inside national museums and historic monuments for holders of the guide-conférencier card. Someone without the card is not allowed to lead a group there: they may be refused entry or stopped during the tour by museum staff.

Before you book a guided tour, make sure your guide is a licensed guide.

At La Compagnie des Guides

All our guides are licensed guides who hold the professional card. When we say “private licensed guide”, we mean a qualified professional who guides your group only.