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Paris-based art historian Ellen McBreen came up with the idea for Paris Muse when she was teaching part-time (while completing a dissertation for New York University) and noticed that as she led her classes around the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou, curious museumgoers would tag along to hear what she was saying. Paris Muse now offers intimate, interactive tours for groups of no more than four people, customized for English speakers wanting to get the most out of their museum visits.

Since McBreen knows the most efficient preticketed entrances at all the major cultural institutions, her clients spend little, if any, time standing in line. And her team of historians, teachers and writers are engaging and knowledgeable. Having an enthusiastic Princeton Ph.D. candidate explain Paris’s evolution through the Louvre’s large historical paintings spoiled me for audioguides forever. McBreen’s own two-hour Age of the Impressionists tour of the Musée d’Orsay was another highlight: Without her, I might have waited on line for hours and headed straight for the greatest-hits second floor, bypassing the fascinating works on the first, which are definitely not to be missed.