At Paris Orientation, you'll spend time with experienced EF Group Leaders who are happy to share their stories, offer personalized advice and answer your questions. You'll also gain firsthand experience with on-tour meals, accommodations and sightseeing.
DeAnne Boyce teaches French at Peoria High School in Arizona. She recently attended Paris Orientation to help prepare her for her first EF tour. Using online templates, journaling, photos from her tour and conveniently provided images, she captured her tour experience in an iStory™ travel journal.
View DeAnne’s iStory™ travel journal 
Bob Reif led his first tour with EF in June 1993, and presented at his first Paris Orientation in 2001. Since then he has averaged three Orientations per year as an experienced presenter, ready to give advice to new group leaders and share his passion for travel.
How do you spend your time at Paris Orientation when you are not in the workshops?
When I'm not in the workshops, I'm exploring. Getting a sense of life in the neighborhoods is an important part of my experience in any city outside my own. Plus, I'm an avid people-watcher, and there is no place better suited to that activity than Paris. I especially enjoy getting up early and strolling through the local markets, which are beehives of human activity.
What’s your favorite piece of advice to give to new group leaders?
My favorite advice to new group leaders is multifaceted: One—pack light. Two—be the best ambassador you can be. And three—always maintain your ability to laugh.
What keeps you coming back to Paris O year after year?
Educational travel has become my personal and professional passion. I firmly believe there is nothing I do as an educator that is more important, and I have made it my "mission." I come back to Paris Orientation conventions every year because I want to share my passion. I want new group leaders and their students to have a successful tour, one that will be the life-changing experience for each and every one of them that it has proven to be for me, my students and my own children.
Brenna Autrey teaches English at Guilderland High School, in Albany New York. She attended Paris Orientation last year and led her first tour with us shortly after.
What did you learn about leading a tour from our Paris Orientation?
What didn’t I learn! I felt pretty confident that I was ready to lead a tour group before I went to Paris, but I soon realized that I had questions I didn’t even realize I had once I got there. It was nice to meet EF people, see what a tour looks like and experience some of the tour before leading students.
What was the best piece of advice an experienced group leader gave you?
Bring duct tape! At first, I laughed and didn’t think she could be serious. However, duct tape fixes everything from broken luggage to blisters on the feet. I wouldn’t think of traveling without it now.
How did you spend your time at the orientation when you were not in the workshops?
I shopped, took in the local culture and enjoyed the sights of Paris with other members of the group. Since everyone is in the same situation, it was easy to get a group of people together to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower or to a café for baguettes and cheese.
Jason Thorndill teaches Japanese and coaches basketball and tennis at Ocoee High School in Orlando, Florida. He attended Paris Orientation in October 2005, then took 10 students to Japan the following May.
What did you learn about leading your first tour from Paris Orientation?
First of all, I learned what it's like to be a participant on tour. By watching experienced group leaders and the ways they interacted with different people, I became more aware of the different personality types of people on a tour, and how to effectively deal with them. This helped out a lot when I became a group leader.
What was the most valuable piece of advice you received from an experienced group leader?
The organizational tips were very helpful, for example, making sure that I color photocopy everyone's passports and carry them with me.