From Carte Blanche Tours to Détours & Guides: A New Name for the Same Expertise

After 14 years of guiding tours, creating journeys and building relationships throughout France, our founder has decided that it was time for a change of name.

Carte Blanche Tours is becoming

Détours & Guides

Détours and Guides

It is a new name, but it is not a new company philosophy. Our experience, our professional standards, our local network and our commitment to meaningful travel remain at the heart of everything we do.

A Name That Better Reflects Who We Are

Over the years, we have evolved.

What began around professional guiding has grown into a broader travel service: a team of registered professional guides, tour leaders, drivers and travel advisors working together to create, coordinate and deliver experiences throughout France.

We design tour, private tours, and excursions. We provide professional guides and tour leaders. We work with travel designers, agencies, DMCs and tour operators. We create bespoke itineraries and experiences, connect travellers with local people and businesses, and provide the expertise needed to make a journey work smoothly on the ground.

The name Détours & Guides reflects this evolution more naturally.

Because guiding is still at the centre of what we do. And because we believe that some of the best discoveries happen when you take a detour.

What Is a "Détour"?

In French, détour can mean a detour, a diversion, a different route.

But for us, it represents something much more than simply taking the longer way. A détour might be leaving the main tourist route to visit a village that doesn't appear in every guidebook or on every Instagram account.

It might mean meeting an artisan who has spent decades perfecting a craft. It could be discovering a local market with someone who knows the people behind the stalls. It could be learning about a landscape from a farmer, tasting a regional product with its producer, exploring a forgotten piece of history or simply taking the time to understand why a particular place matters to the people who live there. These are the moments that often become the most memorable parts of a journey.

Beyond the Obvious

France has extraordinary monuments, museums, landscapes and destinations. We love them and we believe they deserve to be understood and appreciated. Our professional guides are qualified to guide you there.

But France is also much bigger than its most famous attractions.

Our work increasingly takes us beyond the main tourist routes, into villages, rural landscapes, small museums, workshops, farms, vineyards and communities where local culture is not a performance for visitors — it is simply everyday life.

This approach is particularly important to us as tourism continues to evolve.

We believe that spreading visitors across a wider range of destinations can create better experiences for travellers while also bringing positive economic benefits to smaller communities. It can support local businesses, artisans, producers and cultural initiatives while reducing pressure on places that are already struggling with over-tourism.

For us, taking a détour is therefore not about avoiding the famous places. It is about making room for everything else.

Guides Remain at the Heart of What We Do

The second half of our new name is just as important.

Guides.

Our professional guides-conférenciers, tour leaders, and driver-guides remain at the heart of Détours & Guides. They bring knowledge, interpretation, languages, storytelling and, above all, the ability to create a connection between travellers and the places they visit.

But they are not alone. Our team also includes professional drivers and trusted local specialists who contribute to the quality of the complete journey. A great travel experience is rarely created by one person alone. It is the result of many people working together — often behind the scenes — to make a journey feel effortless for the traveller.

The Same Standards

If you have travelled with Carte Blanche Tours and Gwen, worked with us professionally or collaborated with us locally, you will recognise the same approach.

We remain committed to:

• Professional, qualified guiding

• Strong knowledge of the destinations we operate in

• Carefully selected local partners

• Reliable organisation and communication

• Small-scale and private experiences whenever possible

• Meaningful encounters rather than superficial tourism

• Respect for local communities, heritage and environment

• Tailor-made solutions rather than standardised packages

The name changes.

The standards do not.

A New Chapter

Détours & Guides is the next chapter of a journey that began 14 years ago.

It allows us to better express what we have become while remaining faithful to what has always mattered to us: professional expertise, human connection, curiosity and a genuine love of France.

Whether you are travelling privately, organising a group, designing journeys for your clients or looking for a reliable professional partner on the ground, we are here to help you discover France differently.

Sometimes the most interesting journey is not the one that follows the map.

It is the one that takes a détour.

Welcome to Détours & Guides.

Same expertise. Same commitment. Same excellent service.

A different way through France.