Visits of widest appeal, with links to detailed information

 II. NEIGHBORHOODS, WITNESSES TO HISTORY

AND MONUMENTS TO DECIPHER 

In chronological order

 For full descriptions, please click on the links. 

For visits that cover more than one neighborhood,

please click theme tours.

• Grasp essentials of medieval and modern Paris

View Notre-Dame Cathedral as its builders intended. Understand the enigma of its esplanade and, since profane power still nestles in the great church's shadow, discover a surprising hospital, an almost-unknown panorama and at the Tribunal, peek in on a trial. 

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• Explore two celebrated Left Bank neighborhoods and observe how the past affects the present

See how an all-but-disappeared 13th-century city wall has a lasting effect on the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Appreciate how the wall made these neighborhoods, which at first seem similarly picturesque, so very different.  present. 
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• Approach a monarchy whose imprint remains 
  

• At Versailles, understand the importance of a grandiose perspective... 

that merges into the horizon, symbol of endless might. Explore the domain by bike, the Grand Canal by rowboat and the château at the end of the day after crowds have usually left.

For an analysis of mass tourism as seen through the Château web site: please CLICK.

• View Napoleon's terrifying epic at the Arc de Triomphe...

through records of troops that made up Europe's first mass army. With the help of our binoculars, peer up at sculptures that show soldiers as men of the people for the first time.

...a 19th-century masterpiece that reveals unstated preoccupations of a new elite.  

• In Montmartre, skip the tiny perimeter that mass tourism dominates...

to stroll along winding streets where the art of our times began. Explore this freedom-loving hilltop, and compare it with paintings of places that have barely changed.

• Evoke Montparnasse in the Roaring 20's 

via cafés, binges, jazz and the first international colony of artists (as Woody Allen's « Midnight in Paris » shows). Come upon Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Picasso and so many others through works, places and tales of love, fêtes and, sometimes, glory.  

Approach them via works, places and tales of love, fighting, jazz, fêtes and, sometimes, glory.