Founded in 2015, Food & City Tours is an event agency that specializes in food and wine tourism in Strasbourg and the Alsace region. At the helm are two women with diverse, but complementary, backgrounds.
Virginie Holm, an outgoing traveler in her thirties, is passionate about other cultures and human contact. In another life she might have been an explorer or a journalist. A graduate of the University of Strasbourg, she studied History with a capital H, but also the local history of her native region, Alsace. She then completed further studies at a business and management school, where she specialized in tourism management. Virginie obtained her accreditation as a tour guide from the French Ministry of Culture (providing the right to work as a tour guide at public museums and monuments) and became a freelance tour guide. In particular, she works with the Strasbourg Tourist Information Center, and English-speaking tourists from the United States, the UK, Canada, and Australia. In the past, she has also worked for the City of Strasbourg as a project manager in event planning and tourism. She left this job to concentrate on developing her concept of gourmet food tours.
A year later, she was joined by Patricia Szychowiak, a bubbly, fifty-something gourmet with whom she founded Food & City Tours. Patricia has provided solid experience in the travel and events sector. Also an accredited tour guide, she has traveled to more than 70 countries and organized large-scale events for high-profile clients in both France and Germany. Patricia quickly proved to be vital in making Food & City Tours both a strong company and an essential part of the tourism sector in Alsace and the Rhine region.