Monique Wells – Black Women in Europe™: Power List 2016 – A List of Our Own©
Monique Y. Wells is a 20-year resident of Paris, France. She is co-owner of Discover Paris! – Personalized Itineraries for Independent Travelers, and is also a freelance travel writer and editor.
Through Discover Paris!, Monique has provided services tailored for the African-American traveler to Paris since 1999. Over the years, she has created Afro-centric itineraries, self-guided African-American history walking tours, a comprehensive Black Paris bus tour, and African-American hosted culinary activities for those wanting an in-depth travel experience in the City of Light. Her book, Paris Reflections: Walks Through African-American Paris (McDonald & Woodward, 2002; co-authored with Christiann Anderson), contains abbreviated versions of the walks that she proposes to Discover Paris! clients. She has provided private, guided tours of African-American Paris for student groups from Syracuse University, Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, and other schools.
Monique writes and edits articles on many aspects of life in Paris. Her articles have been published by the International Herald Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, France Today, This City Paris, and other American newspapers, magazines and web publications. One of these articles was published in the anthology France, A Love Story (Seal Press, 2004).
Barnard College, Rice University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas Southern University, and numerous private groups have appreciated Monique’s lecture on “Black Paris and the Myth of a Colorblind France.” In 2011, she was named Black Culture and Heritage VIP in Paris by the online magazine African Diaspora Tourism.
Monique is also the president of Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, a French non-profit association whose goal is to honor painter Beauford Delaney and to educate the public about his life and art.