FOC Tour Guide Class – Early takes
Here are some early takes on the FOC Tour Guide Class.
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And we’re off in the FOC Tour Guide Class
The 2025 Friends of the Cabildo (FOC) Tour Guide Class kicked off this past Monday.. The FOC offer French Quarter Walking Tours daily. They rely on volunteer guides for the tours. Since it’s a high-quality tour by a reputable organization, the standards for these volunteers are high. FOC requires their guides complete a four-week training course. This course covers New Orleans history, from the French Colonial period to modern times. The veteran FOC guides train folks to be top-notch street presenters.
I’m finally in a position, work-wise, to commit four weeks to this and become a licensed tour guide. Friends of mine involved with the FOC encouraged me to do this years ago. In fact, I’ve spoken to the group at their monthly meetings a number of times over the years. They’re that serious about continuing education, the tour guide committee brings in folks to present various historical subjects. So, my big hang-up here was that I’ve been self-employed, doing computer consulting and training, for the past forty-ish years. Taking this course meant giving up four weeks billable time. Things have changed on that front, however, in recent years. When I learned that I wasn’t really needed for teaching in the month of March, I knew it was time to do this thing.
The course
The class began on Monday in the classroom at the Cabildo. The room is actually in The Arsenal, the building directly behind the Cabildo. The two buildings have been joined together for decades. Led by the indomitable Robi Robichaux, ten-year FOC veteran and local manager for Gray Line, along Mr. Charles Goldberg, course committee chair, we got moving. Once we settled in, Mr. Robert Cangelosi, architect and FOC President, presented a full overview of the city’s history. Three-and-a-half hours is a lot of data. All of the facilitators and mentors advised us to just take it all in, don’t try to take notes and record details. With that caution in my head, the talk was enjoyable. After half an hour for lunch, Robi began the process of turning book learning into street talking.
This part is a big deal for me. I’ve written books and spoken to all sizes of groups, but this idea of walking people around Da Quarters is something else entirely. That process began last month. Class attendees were required to “tag-along” on four regularly scheduled FOC tours. We recorded our observations and generally got a feel for how these tours go.
Up and down
The guides break tours into two basic types: “up-river” and “down-river.” Three of my tag-alongs went the down-river route, through the more-residential Lower Quarter. This walk extends out to the 1100 block of Chartres and Royal Streets. The guides explained the architectural styles of buildings in the Quarter, as well as the background of how New Orleans came to be here, at this place along the Mississippi River.
One of the things Robi and the other facilitators and mentors stress to us is that we’re supposed to design our own tour. There are basic things we need to cover and discuss, but from there, it’s on us to flesh it out. So, I’ve been mental notes on what to keep, what to change, and how I would present much of this content. I’m getting some great advice and guidance through this process.
After now going on four down-river and one up-river tour, I can safely say, I’m going to develop an up-river tour first. The idea here is to start in Jackson Square, then meander in the direction of Canal Street, rather than the Ursuline Convent. My route is evolving. I’m sure it will be something totally different in two weeks, after more advice from the veterans.
Legend has it…
The biggest takeaway I had from Day 1 was Robi’s discussion of myth vs. fact. There are a lot of myths and inaccuracies in New Orleans history, from why the Jackson statue has the general doffing his hat to ghosts and vampires. I’ve always been on the side of just tossing the myths and telling the real story. Naturally, though, lots of guests on these tours know the vampire and ghost legends. Telling people they’re not going to hear what they want to hear isn’t necessarily a good approach when the guests are paying customers.
The approach to make this work is framing the presentation of the myths. Robi suggests saying “legend has it…” This brought me around to how you can talk about vampires and ghosts without becoming a schlock tour. It’s a work in progress.
Indigenous Peoples and French Colonial history were on tap for Day 2’s class work. Frank Perez offered us a ton of data on the numerous indigenous tribes in Louisiana, and how they came to the French colony here. Dr. Charles Chamberlain then presented an overview of the French period, 1699 to 1768ish. Not the same fire hose intensity of Cangelosi’s talk on Monday, but still a lot of stuff. Filtering all this will be the challenge.
Day 2 Walking
They broke us into two groups for the afternoon. Close to half of the class had not taken an “up-river” tour. So, those folks went off with my mentor, Steve, to hit that side of the Quarter. The rest of us went with Carol on her down-river route. Carol’s approach was different from what I walked on my tag-alongs, which made it refreshing. My mistake here was i took my backpack along. Bad idea! I had my coffee cup, big water bottle, and the Chromebook in there. I was draggin-ass after 45 or so minutes. Next time, I leave all that back in the Arsenal. If we don’t finish by closing time, I’ll just collect it all the next day. Not like I’m never up there and all that.
Homework
Our main assignment for Day 2 was to prepare our tour introduction. The expectation is to open the tour with two minutes about ourselves, the FOC, and some basic safety/environment cautions. Half of the class did these yesterday; the other half goes tomorrow. I’ve got mine timed out to 1:47. I’ll run it down a few times in the car today and tomorrow.
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