Unexpected Paris – personalized guided tours in English, excursions and soirées...

that throw new light on our beloved city

As Americans, other foreigners who love the city and French Parisians, we would like to you show this town through our eyes. We reveal legendary France from new perspectives, decipher the past to explain the present, bring to light important sites that are little-known and unveil a modern culture that is dynamic, multi-faceted and usually unsuspected.

Our web site and blog are detailed, to help you discover this different Paris on your own. If you do call on us, we want you to remember our time together as outstanding, and will do all we can to make it so.

(For activities that are designed for more than six participants

and for team-building and soirées, please click.)

We propose all the usual tours and many that are new. All bring to light what usually remains in the dark

Taking city skeletons out of the closet

: Latin-quarter barricade, 1848

Why are many of the city's streets so wide? Why build a huge space in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which makes it seem smaller and less imposing? Why does a canal dive underground? What major monument was built to rub in insurgents' defeat?

Delving beneath the surface, explaining the context behind Paris's beauty and dramas, our visits show that the past is a living force.

Underestimated or ignored neighborhoods and populations

emerge as centers of new energies,

while artists, craftspeople and small producers

continue the tradition of excellence

• The other side of the tracks

_{In eastern Paris, a detective hovers over the street and kids hang out.}

Of course we can introduce you to Paris's celebrated beauty,

but it is in neighborhoods where rents are relatively affordable that energy abounds –

as was once the case in Picasso's Montmartre or Hemingway's Montparnasse.

• Immigrant territories...

_{African embroidery, Chinese parade}

...such as the neighborhood where 60 tailors and embroiderers create ceremonial dress for Africans from all of Île de France. The quality can rival that of haute couture

...or the two Chinatowns, largest in Europe.

• Protestants, Jews, Americans...

...historic populations essential to understanding modern France

• ...Art de vivre that only Paris can offer

_{In the métro, at a fashion show}

Artists, craftspeople and owners of independent boutiques propose unique wares, and carry on a tradition of quality that the royal Court began. We discover them in elegant neighborhoods or places that are overlooked, in markets and even in the métro.

Their wares express a unique point of view and are produced in very small quantity. Their prices reflect the articles themselves, without additions from advertising, sumptuous stores or high profit margins. So they are affordable.

We take no commissions.

For gastronomy and restaurants,

our criteria are the same.

We also suggest day trips and ideas for after dark

_{Renaissance domain at the origin of French landscaping; medieval vaulted "cave" for jazz and jitterbugging}

We began in 1985, by creating events for Parisians with high-profile professions,

who were allergic to wasting their time...

•Bistro performer •Concert performer •Salon and major art

_{We produced an evening every month (here are two examples), plus visits.}

Our competition: the innumerable cultural events that Paris hosts each week. Plus, that public set the standards for originality and organization extremely high, knew what things cost and watched its budget. That's how we "went to school."

Our events went on for twenty years and that experience, plus the network it established, are at the heart of our proposals.

That background explains the number and variety of our proposals, as well as their originality

• For descriptions of most of our daytime activities (aside from those particularly adapted to groups), please click here. For possibilities that we have not mentioned here – World War 2, suggestions for other parts of France interpreting (trouble-shooting included) – the menu will guide you.

• To fully benefit from the help we can give, please fill out (and feel free to adapt!) the questionnaire.

: "Now, look at what others don't see"

As a non-profit organization, our fees are highly competitive

What counts is the experience, not the cost (within reason). Our fees start at 250€ for a single visitor, a couple or a family of five, for four hours (or as long as your energy lasts), plus 20€ per adult for annual dues.

_{• Dues?}_{By law an association's advantages (here, unique activities at exceptionally competitive prices) are open to members alone. Legal responsibility rests with the Board. For an outline of the differences between an association and a business, please click.}

_{• That payment includes the guide, legal charges on that remuneration, public transportation and accident insurance (but not entry fees or incidentals, including the guide's). We know of no personalized tours at that price – and there are no comparable suggestions at}all.

Plus, we are happy to help plan your tour before you come. There is no extra cost for the services that we recommend. We put you in touch with resource people directly (and have chosen them with care).

Not us!

I created these activities, guide them in French and English and make sure that things take place as said

We are training cicerones to present the main visits in other languages, in their own ways of course. Specialists (ecologist, foodie, fashionista...) propose their own itineraries. We adapt programs to your interests – tell us about them!

Let this website help you!

You can even use it as a guidebook, particularly if you follow our blog too: http://unexpectedparis.blogspot.com, It describes ongoing explorations, gives practical information and proposes new perceptions of France's history and culture.

A bientôt!

NB: For names and cvs of resource people, please ask us.

Catherine Loveland Aubin
President, trip advisor, tour guide

B.A. Vassar, M.A. Harvard, Pḧ.D. Columbia

All degrees in History

Member, Paris Convention and Visitors' Bureau

convention.parisinfo.com/en/

Credits: webmaster / David Worms; banner / Julien Debure; revolt / "Barricade on the rue Soufflot, 1848," by Horace Vernet ; attack on Protestant assembly / 1950's schoolroom poster (photo Catherine Aubin); evening gown / fashion show at City Hall of the 18th arrondissement in October 2011, organizer Christian Germain (photo Catherine Aubin); Renaissance domain (Château de Courances) / Jeanrond; dancing / Claude Abron; bistro performance / Claude Abron; concert in salon / Claude Abron; Catherine Aubin / Claude Abron; hand reaching for coins / detail from 16th-century tapestry ("Soldiers' pay"), Renaissance museum: other photos / Catherine Aubin