Walking tours are one of the great un-touted pleasures of visiting a new city, especially one as easy to get around in as Paris. Instead of wandering aimlessly into a tourist trap or a sleepy residential neighborhood, you can make sure you’re actually learning a little history and culture (while also getting in your steps). Here are some of the most remarkable and delightful walking tours available in Paris today.
Paris’s Most Unique Walking Tours:
1. Crimes and Torture in the Old Paris
You probably don’t associate Paris with beheadings, witch hunts, ghosts, and torture, but the City of Light has a fascinating dark side. And for those who relish being spooked, Cecilia Papadimopoulos’ terrific three-hour tour takes you back in time as it snakes through narrow lanes and back alleys filled with some of the city’s more macabre historical highlights.
The terrifying six mile tour treks through Place des Vosges, past Hôtel de Ville (where the guillotine was first tested on April 12, 1792), Les Halles, Île de la Cité, and the area around the Louvre. Imagine an amusement park haunted house ride/history lesson in the most jaw-droppingly beautiful setting imaginable. Highlights of the horrors include a princess who had a penchant for cutting off heads, and a poet who was found mysteriously hanging from a bell tower with a white lace said to come from one of his paramour’s corsets. You’re encouraged to imagine the screams as you walk down la rue des Marmousets, where the fourteenth century demon barber and baker duo – who arguably inspired “Sweeney Todd” – dispatched their victims, and turned them into haute cuisine. You end up seeing the City of Light, well, in a very different light. As Cecelia points out, her tour “brings it to life, and people remember the juicy stuff.”
Price: 38€ per person, private groups available
Languages: French or English
Book here.
2. Laugh Your Way Through the Louvre
A sartorially elegant hipster art history teacher/tour guide/stand-up comedian sounds like quite a lot, but proves the perfect combination for a fun, informative, and truly memorable museum tour in Paris.
At his wife’s recommendation, Cedrik (who goes by his first name only) combined his two careers, comedian and tour guide. He recognized the power of humor to disarm people’s resistance to art. “People open up with humor, it’s a great way to get people to learn serious stuff,” he notes. He wants his guests to come away having learned something. For a funny man, he takes the time and expectations clients entrust him with very seriously. In return, they have some serious fun.
Since Cedrik began combining history with ha ha’s, he’s had over ten thousand guests “learning while laughing.” Cedrik’s entire year is typically booked, so if a rib-tickling tour sounds like your thing, you better book it sooner rather than later.
Groups of up to six spend 90 minutes touring the Louvre Museum or the Musée d’Orsay, bookended by 15 minutes before for orientation, and 15 after for wrapping up.
Price: From 72€ – 90€ per person
Languages: French and English
Book here.
3. 2 Hours to Save Marie Antoinette
It’s January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette awaits her fate in her prison cell. Two faithful Royalists plan a plot to hatch her escape. You’re armed with an intricate clue book, several historical documents, family trees of both royal families, and a reproduction of an actual letter from Marie Antoinette that is missing some letters. Find the clues hidden in plain sight around Paris to fill in the missing letters and, with your decoder sheet, decipher the secret to releasing the queen!
Based on a true attempt to save the deposed regent, this fun and informative scavenger hunt teaches cool historical tidbits, and “your journey will lead you in the Paris footsteps of the most famous queen of France, in an attempt to free her, and change the course of history.” Each team of three follows the leads through streets that she would have traversed, from Île de la Cité, past the actual Conciergerie where she was imprisoned, across neighborhoods leading to the Jardin du Palais Royal, the Louvre Museum, and finally meeting up after the two-hour hunt for a surprise ending at Place Vendôme.
Price: Starts at 35€ per person, private parties available
Languages: French and English
Book here.
4. Belles & Rebels
Edith de Belleville is on a tireless and wonderful mission to get people to love Paris as much as she does. Tour guide, font of historical knowledge, host of a marvelous Facebook page for Paris lovers, and author of Belles & Rebels, a history of remarkable women of Paris, she offers a number of tours, many under the same theme as the book. The most popular of these with American Francophiles is her Coco Chanel tour (think: glamour and gossip, as you gallivant to Place du Vendôme). Some of the other “Belles” tours focus on Empress Josephine, Simone de Beauvoir, and Sarah Bernhardt, among others. Of particular interest for history buffs is her Women of Louis XIV tour, which features the haunts of some of France’s most memorable 17th century women, all of whom lived in the orbit of the Sun King. What is now the Musée Carnavalet was once the sumptuous home of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, widely known as Madame de Sévigné, remembered for her extraordinary humorous letters, which stand among the most important in 17th century French literature.
Price: 115€/hour (up to four people)
Languages: French, English, and Spanish
Book here.
5. The Jewish Marais
You’d be hard-pressed to find an official Paris tour guide with such a wide knowledge about the history of Paris and Parisians as lawyer-translator-lecturer-educator-author-tour guide, Edith de Belleville. She is particularly well suited to give the tour on Jewish Paris, one of the many topics about which she is a sought-after lecturer and writer. We met at Boulangerie Murciano kosher pastry shop, the best in the area, according to de Belleville. The charming royal blue bakery is bursting with delicious pastries and baked goods, such as apple strudel, cheese cake, baklava, and challah. We stopped right next door at the Café des Psaumes (Psalms Café), an unassuming coffee shop that doubles as a community center and outpost of the invaluable social services organization, OSE, which hid Jewish children during the German occupation, and then helped them integrate into society after France’s liberation. Belleville walked us through a doorway on rue des Rosier to discover a lovely hidden garden, Jardin Joseph Migneret, named after the school principal who saved 150 French Jewish children during WWII. At the entrance is a plaque to commemorate pre-school children, whose names would not have appeared among those in every Parisian school that had children deported.
Price: 115€/hour
Languages: French, Spanish, English
Book here.
6. Ciné Balade
After finishing her graduate studies in cinema history, Juliette Dubois decided she wanted to travel a different route than the usual research and academia. So she created Ciné Balade, a movie tour outfit that offers over twenty unique tours based on Paris movie locations, cinema history, and notable French directors. A tour of movies made in Montmartre includes a ride on the funicular featured in a chase scene in John Wick: Chapter 4, and a stop at the Café des Deux Moulins, where Audrey Tatou worked in the iconic film, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain. Ciné Balade offers about 20 film tours, with themes including: Eiffel Tower (Mission Impossible, Inception), Romantic Paris (La La Land, scenes of which were shot at Caveau de la Huchette nightclub, and Before Midnight), French Film Noir (Rififi, Alain Delain’s Le Samurai, Elevator to the Gallows), Where Cinema Began, Train Stations and Canals, and more. Dubois also curates bespoke Paris cinema tours based on individual taste and preferences.
Price: 17€ per person
Language: French, English
Book here.
7. Street Art Tour
In a sense, the City of Light itself is a constantly changing museum, with a wealth of art everywhere. And who better to help you discover the world of Paris street art than the Paris street artist, Antoine, also known as Codex Urbanus, who wrote the definitive guide book on the subject? His bestiary of fascinating black-and-white monsters and “impossible animals” can be seen crawling (and flying) on walls throughout Paris. Antoine takes culture vultures to the neighborhoods La Butte Aux Cailles (13th arrondissement) and Belleville to view and learn about the history of street art in Paris, the city in which the art form was born. Codex (Antoine) doesn’t usually include Montmartre because he feels that its surfeit of street art creates a visual clutter that is less conducive to truly appreciating the work. Each tour is unique, since, as Antoine points out, “You never know what you’ll find on the tours, because street art is ephemeral.”
Price: 200€ (three-plus hours)
Languages: French, English
Book here.
8. Bespoke Fashion Tours of Paris
France (and Paris specifically) has long been recognized as the birthplace of la mode (fashion). American expat, life-style writer, and hand-bag designer Kasia Dietz takes couture-conscious visitors on bespoke fashion walking tours of Paris. Her Local Designer tour takes visitors behind the scenes to meet independent designers at their ateliers in the trendy Haute Marais district, to see where and how the magic happens. Dietz also offers a Luxury Fashion Tour which includes world renowned fashion houses as well as some rising stars and smaller brands, not to mention her Luxury Vintage, Flea Market, and Bespoke Beauty Tours.
Price: 350€ for three hour tour (1-3 people)
Languages: French, Polish, English
Book here.
9: Paris Sweets Tour
Baker, influencer, and cookbook author Frank Barron certainly knows his stuff, as he serves up a delightful and tasty walking tour of Paris for sweet-tooths. I met up with him at Debauve & Gallais, the oldest chocolate shop in Paris, which has been operating in the same location since 1800. (Learning French history through chocolate, what’s not to love?) About their chocolates, Marcel Proust wrote to a friend that they were, “a means to never lose sight of the true meaning of life.” King Charles X made sure to have their chocolate fleur de Lys for his coronation. Napoleon favored the chocolate almond clusters. The best-seller remains the chocolate pistoles (round wafers) that Marie Antoinette had regularly delivered. The tour treks a few blocks to enjoy some macarons at Ladurée, the pâtisserie that’s been credited for inventing this famous French dessert. Chocolate lovers won’t be disappointed, as the tour stops at a number of the best chocolate shops in Paris, including Alain Ducasse and Jacques Genin.
Price: All tours are custom designed, prices vary based on size of group number of stops.
Languages: English
Book here.
10. Migrant Tours of Paris
The topic of migration triggers strong feelings everywhere, and yet migrants undeniably add to the rich fabric that makes up so many nations, including France. The industrial revolution saw waves of migration from the provinces to Paris, and there have been migrant movements from territories of the French colonial empire from places like Algeria, Vietnam, and Cambodia. France has long been a haven for many fleeing political persecution or war, most recently from Ukraine in 2022. Among the 21 cities where Migrantours operates is Paris, the City of Light. In the hopes of shedding some of that light on cultural differences, the Migrantour Project offers “inter-cultural walks,” which as their Manifesto lays out, create “a concrete practice of intercultural encounter.” Through experiential learning comes understanding, and hopefully tolerance. Paris Migrantours are organized by Hôtes Urbains, a local non-profit, and are given by migrant tour guides. Each two-hour tour focuses on a specific arrondissement (district) in Paris, including the 13th, 10th, 18th, 20th, and select suburban neighborhoods.
Price: 15€ for two hour tour
Languages: French and English
Book by emailing [email protected].
Philip Ruskin is an External Lecturer (ESSEC Bus. School), writer, drummer, and regular contributor to Frenchly. He loves to bike around his adopted hometown of Paris. Find him here, on Instagram. All photos are by the author, except where indicated.
