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Meet Gwen and Sophia...
Gwen’s daughter, Sophia, is one of the youngest business owners on the Olympic Peninsula. Sophia moved from Seattle to Port Townsend, WA with her family in 2001. Sophia’s first trip to Paris was at the age of 16 while studying abroad in the Czech Republic. Sophia and her mother began Paris Found Tours in 2007 when Sophia was 18 years old. She has traveled extensively through Europe and Mexico. She spent several months teaching English in China. Sophia is certified as an aromatherapist from The West Coast Institute of Aromatherapy. When she’s not guiding tours of Paris she co-owns and operates a small lingerie and aromatherapy store in Port Townsend by the name of Slather. Her passions include traveling, languages, dancing, art, and fashion.
Gwen Evans, 60 years young, has had a life long love affair with the senses: color, texture, scent, and music. She has been been designing and making clothing for over 40 years. She also has been a practicing herbalist and aromatherapist for almost as long. Although seemingly dissimilar, both disciplines combine a bit of alchemy, art and science: putting just the right combination together, whether it befabric, trim and buttons or carefully chosen essential oils for therapy or perfume. She moved her 20-year clothing design business and three children from Seattle to Port Townsend in 2001 and opened a small shop where she designed and sold her one-of-a-kind clothing and accessories along with her hand-blended herbal and aromatherapy products (Iris Moon Herbals). What was supposed to be a one-time trip to Paris morphed into 15 trips in seven years. The “aha” moment came while wandering through the city on her own for the first time and realizing that she was “a Parisian at heart”; the careful attention to detail that embodies French art, architecture, fashion and food was what she had been doing her whole life.
She began bringing back French clothing, lingerie and accessories to sell in her shop; they became so popular that she and daughter Sophie opened Slather in 2008, selling hand-picked French lingerie and Gwen’s herbal and aromatherapy products. Gwen’s passion for Paris inspired her to share her knowledge and love for all things French and began informally taking women along on trips to explore flea markets and the fabric and fashion districts. This turned into “Paris Found Tours” in 2007; Gwen and daughter Sophie now combine buying trips with their intimate small group tour to Paris.
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