David B. had a plan and asked if we were game to supersize it with a side trip to see Gertrude Stein's atelier. The four of us trooped on with enthusiasm despite the rain. David knew his material and wove together a great narrative about the large literary personalities in Paris in the 1920s. However, he admitted he was having a bad day and was a little off his mark in the delivery... he was at a loss for words at several points in the tour and that distracted somewhat from the experience.

John B. was incredible - he has so much knowledge and passed it to us easily. He made us really enjoy the topic as well as just being around him. He was incredibly wise - he knew so much about so many aspects of Paris. Amazing experience with John!

We've taken a number of Context tours and this was by far the weakest. David was a nice man but to be frank he is well past his tour giving prime. He repeatedly struggled with names, dates and book titles. The chronology was muddled and had I not known a fair amount about the topic I would have been a little confused at times. Although this wasn't targeted for younger participants, our kids, who are thirteen and fifteen, were frankly bored. We've taken another teen on Context walks before where the guide really engaged her, so it was certainly not an issue of subject matter that wasn't interesting. Toward the end of the walk he said, "only fifteen minutes left," then, "only ten minutes left," to the point that we wondered if he thought we were bored or if he was warning us that he wouldn't give an extra five minutes if someone wanted to engage in further conversation. I've recommended Context to many people and still will, but had this been our first Context tour I would likely not be a repeat customer, given the cost of the walks. Apologies for the negative review but I do feel that you should be aware. Having watched an elderly parent decline in her cognitive functions, it did occur to me that David is at an age where he just is struggling with finding words and expressing concepts and therefore is no longer an effective guide.

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