ABSTRACT
In the context of a tourist stay, contacts and exchanges with the local population may appear to be the best way to discover a town or region. Some inhabitants have understood this and take on the role of an amateur guide for urban walks in their own neighbourhood. This is the purpose of this chapter, which examines how this participation of the local population helps to diffuse the tourist phenomenon to places of “everyday life”, in the heart and on the fringes of one of the most visited cities in the world: Paris. From an ethnographic survey conducted between 2016 and 2018, this research examines the practices of some 15 amateur local guides. As much through the transmission of their attachment to the capital as through their desire to erase negative prejudices and fantasised images, these permanent residents wish to show what they consider to be the authentic “backstage” of their city. The analysis focuses on the highlighting of new actors, objects and places by these non-professionals of tourism. Ultimately, the reflection in this chapter leads us to ask whether this involvement of civil society contributes to the hybridisation of practices and the erasing of the boundaries between tourist places and everyday life.
