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Many individuals dream about dwelling in Paris, and embracing a life immersed within the sights, sounds and ambiance of the alluring Metropolis of Lights.
For many, it should keep a romanticised best, however for 36-year-old Australian expat Oliver Gee that dream has change into a actuality.
He’s making a dwelling as a podcaster in Paris, sharing tales concerning the metropolis and its folks.
His journey podcast and channel The Earful Tower has greater than 300 episodes and has had greater than 2 million downloads since its 2017 launch.
Mr Gee says his success nonetheless feels surreal.
“I pinch myself just about daily … I usually suppose, ‘I am unable to consider this labored out,'” he stated.
“It is had two million downloads which I have been advised places it within the prime 0.5 per cent of all podcasts.”
Mr Gee co-owns the Earful Tower along with his spouse, Lina Nordin Gee, a dressmaker and illustrator from Sweden, and so they’ve additionally created kids’s books, movies and guides to Paris.
“It is type of frequent now in Paris to get stopped on the road, as a result of the vacationers are coming again now after COVID … folks will recognise me for my voice,” Mr Gee stated.
“That is actually surreal, to be an Australian kicking round in Paris and have these individuals who have listened to so many hours of my present, come up and faucet me on the shoulder and say hi there.”
‘It took years’
Mr Gee was born in Melbourne and spent a lot of his childhood at Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid North Coast, earlier than later transferring to Sydney and Perth.
He began working in Paris as a full-time journalist in 2015, however discovered it wasn’t the fitting match for him.
“It was a critical time to be in Paris … there was a collection of terror assaults and loads occurring,” he stated.
“When you’re not a extremely critical particular person, in case you are protecting very critical information, you’re swimming within the mistaken pond, and that is what I discovered.”
Eager for a change, Mr Gee began podcasting in 2017.
“I began a podcast on the aspect which actually took off, and now it is a profession,” he stated.
“It was exhausting to make it occur … except you’re a superstar you possibly can’t make a podcast worthwhile till you will have a bunch of listeners, and it took me years.
“It bought to a degree the place I needed to flip it into an organization after which I had a realisation that this was an actual factor.”
Bringing Paris to life
Mr Gee attributes his success to having the ability to faucet into the worldwide fascination with Paris.
He explores town with enthusiasm and curiosity.
“Paris is only a actually lovely metropolis … it is exhausting to go for an uninspiring stroll if you end up there,” he stated.
The podcast strikes past the Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame cathedral, and the Eiffel Tower, to incorporate lesser-known folks and locations.
“I interview fascinating characters that make the Metropolis of Lights shine,” he stated.
“Paris can really feel fairly inaccessible, lots of people need to go there, however they do not actually know the place to start. They’re afraid they do not communicate any French, so it should really feel international and complicated.
“I break that down by discovering folks — whether or not it is an writer or the native mayor, or anybody thrilling, like an actor, or somebody run of the mill, who has lived there for 50 years — and speak about their life.
“Their tales, blended in with a few of my very own tales, make town far more accessible.”
‘Excited to see the place issues go’
Mr Gee and his spouse now have enjoyable navigating Paris with their one-and-a-half-year-old son.
“I do not know if Paris was constructed to have kids, so it’s kind of of a handful, however it makes life fascinating,” he joked.
“He’s just a little Parisian boy, which is type of loopy to suppose, me having grown up in Port Macquarie.”
Not too long ago the household visited Australia on a guide tour, which gave Mr Gee pause for thought.
“It is a journey to suppose Paris is not only a non permanent house, however that we have been there so lengthy and made it such an enormous a part of our life, however I find it irresistible,” he stated.
“I am actually curious to see the place issues go within the coming years, it is at a extremely thrilling level proper now.”
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