Bonjour. Welcome to the 347th edition of Tranquility du Jour: Secrets of Paris with Heather Stimmler-Hall. Hear stories from her journey to French citizenship, travel writing, and creation of Naughty Guides .

Featured Guest: Heather Stimmler-Hall

Born just outside Philadelphia, Heather grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona where she was Teen Correspondent at the Phoenix Gazette (1992-1993). She studied journalism, political science and environmental policy at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota (1993-1997) and the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas in Paris (1995-1996), where she moved permanently after graduating in 1997.

Travel Writing
After working as the editorial assistant at the Carleton News Bureau (1993-1997), her first professional position in Paris was as Travel Editor for the website of ELLE Magazine (1999). Freelance since 2001, she has written for many international publications and websites including Fodor’s Guides, Michelin Guides, Robb Report, Expedia.com, easyJet inflight magazine, Time Out Guides, United Airways inflight magazine, The Guardian (UK), France Magazine, Rick Steves, Hotelier International, ELLE, L’Officiel and Avalon’s Moon Metro Guides, in addition to her own website and newsletter, Secrets of Paris, which has over 16k subscribers. See a selection of writing clips here.

Tour Guide
In 2004 Heather became a tour guide, working for EF Tours, Backroads, and Context Travel, before starting her own Secrets of Paris Tours in 2006 to focus on private, custom tours of Paris for individuals and small groups.

Indie Publisher
In 2007 Secrets of Paris created its own independent publishing house, Fleur de Lire Press, which has published the award-winning travel book “Naughty Paris: A Lady’s Guide to the Sexy City”, the iPhone app and eBook “Paris Pastry” with cookbook author David Lebovitz, and the eBook “Secrets of Versailles: A Visitor’s Survival Guide”.

Photo Credit: Hana www.journeyintolavillelumiere.com

Savvy Sources: