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Stroll a few small streets and alleyways around Montsouris park and experience the charm of a neighborhood where one really feel away and far from Paris. Some of the beautiful houses were built for famous artists. Some villas were also used as experimenting new art déco techniques and materials. In a close-by passage, we'll visit the grand house atelier of a sculptor, now turned into a museum after her death (10€ pp). -
The Opera Garnier is undoubtedly one of the most dazzling monuments in Paris. The tour will go through the history and context of the construction with a first outdoor description. The visit of the building will start with a vast space formerly used as a waiting room, before ascending the Great Staircase which leads to the auditorium as well as the various reception rooms and the famous grand foyer. It opens onto a balcony offering a stunning panorama stretching over to the Louvre. Some areas also exhibit costumes from famous plays, an archive gallery and temporary exhibitions. -
The tour will introduce the abbey of the Val-de-Grâce, built in the middle of the XVIIth century by Queen Anne of Austria to thank God for her son Louis XIV's birth. Since the Revolution, the abbey has been transformed into a military hospital. Inside the sumptuous church: many sculptures or paintings by Philippe de Champaigne and the beautiful Saint Anne chapel where the Queen was buried. The history of medical military service museum is located in the historical part of the building, around the magnificent cloister. -
Visit this authentic palace hidden in the heart of Paris where a enthusiast has spent all his life gathering the biggest private collection of Napoleon's objects in the world! Access the beautiful and gilded rooms where portraits, sculptures and pieces of furniture are exposed at an arm's reach in an apartment manner, without anyone around! The end of the tour will see the secret cabinet of curiosities open, where the visitor can marvel at some unique pieces of the collection belonging to the Emperor Napoleon and his family. Treat yourself: stroll the collection with a glass of premium champagne! -
The tropical garden visit with the remains of the 1907 colonial exhibition is like journeying in totally different worlds, from Indochina with temples and lush vegetation to North Africa with various pavilions from Tunisia or Morocco, through Congo, Madagascar and many more. This tour takes the visitor to an exotic trip in the footsteps of the former French Empire's different cultures! A break is also planned at the vast greenhouses where an association of enthusiasts present and sell their locally grown fruits and vegetables produced by permaculture. -
The Jérôme Seydoux Pathé cinema foundation is an amazing place, housed in a beautiful building created by the famous architect Renzo Piano. On top of the building itself, the tour will allow access to research and archive rooms, a temporary exhibition of 1900's posters, and the permanent collection of movie camera through the ages. At the end, experience a silent movie with live piano in the superb Charles Pathé movie theater! -
This tour is meant for architecture and interior decoration lovers. A first stretch in Western Paris will recall Art Déco's origins and diffusion, highlighted with several houses built in the same street by key architects. One of these houses will be exceptionally open for a visit of the vast workshop on the ground floor. Just a block away, another amazing place, built by leading 1930's architect Le Corbusier, gives another orientation to modernist style. After a short metro trip, a stop has been arranged in one of the most beautiful and typical restaurants in Paris, rich with anecdotes. Across the street, is another example of Art Deco buildings, directly inspired by American high rise. The end of the tour will take place in a fantastic hotel built as a tribute to the great 1925 Art Déco exhibition, filled with the most refined furniture, frescoes, and decors. -
With the Russian Paris tour you will discover Russian culture throughout its history, all around the French capital, and above all religious institutions, well known and sometimes hidden, one of which containing two trees growing inside!
You'll get to see amazing nineteen century typical wooden Russian houses in a back alley usually closed to the public and learn about the lives in Paris of famous Russian representatives, such as Turgenev, Bunin, Pushkin or Chagall as well as a rather more contemporary Russian presence, through nightlife and gastronomy. Tour also available with a private VIP car.
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Père Lachaise cemetery is the most prestigious and visited in Paris. Located in the 20th arrondissement, it extends over 44 acres of outstanding scenery and contains about 70,000 graves. In the largest green space in Paris are the graves of many celebrities: Balzac, Chopin, Colette, Champollion, Molière, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Jim Morrison, Alfred de Musset, Edith Piaf, Pissarro, Oscar Wilde, Modigliani and many others. The cemetery is also well known because the Commune of Paris, a socialist Revolution ended right there in 1871 in horrid fightings. -
The Faubourg Saint Antoine has gradually developed around the Royal Abbey of Saint Antoine des Champs, but the bulk of its activities developed when the wood craftsmen settled in this neighborhood. In the early 18th century, over 500 carpenters’ and cabinet makers’ shops thrived in the area thanks to royal commissions and the activity of the abbey. These traditions still exist; although manufacturers are increasingly rare to find, replaced by promoters' lofts or convenient stores. A meeting is organized with one of the last woodcrafters in his hidden workshop! -
In 1670, there was nowhere to house disabled or destitute soldiers who fought for France. Louis the XIVth, sensitive to the plight of soldiers who served during his many campaigns, decided to build the Hotel Royal des Invalides. Now assigned to the Ministry of Defence but also housing many organizations from other departments, the Invalides still retains its first hospital-hospice function for the severely disabled veterans of war. Aside the visit of the museum of war and its many secrets, we will go over the political design of the king behind the institution and its influence in the urban landscape in Paris. -
The name of this neighborhood comes from the ancient abbey of Saint Germain, one of the richest and most prestigious in Europe. Only the church remains today, and it is the most ancient in Paris with its oldest part dating from the 11th century. This area was also the meeting place of the intelligentsia and international artists before World War II, as well as for postwar philosophers. It is celebrated as the birthplace of jazz in Paris, and is famous for it nightly revelry and crazy parties. This walk will explore all of these fascinating aspects, as well as the superb Luxembourg Palace and Gardens. You will see why Saint Germain guards the literary soul of the left bank and boasts ‘chic Paris’, typical of the 6th arrondissement.
