Monet captured the excitement of the city

Getting acquainted with Paris

Our Paris city tours are designed to personally introduce you to the famous sights of Paris. Paris offers a rich buffet of life and art. The choices are many, hence we focus on developing a personalized itenerary and experience matched to your particular interests and tastes. Each tour is developed with you; viewing a sample tour can give you a taste of one possibility. The "main event" choices include Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, the Musée d’Orsay (a former train station now the home to the Impressionists), the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de la Concorde, the Latin Quarter / Left Bank, Montmartre, but there is also a wide variety of other areas you might want to explore.

We offer both driving and walking tours of Paris. Paris is a very walkable city, and you may prefer experiencing it up-close, by walking and using public transportation. But it is also large, and there are many things to see. We encourage get-acquainted driving tours as well as focused walking tours.

We also offer guided tours of the major museums, with knowledgeable escorts who can place the paintings and sculptures within them into their artistic and historical context. Our guides are experts in the history and culture of France and can greatly enhance your visits to Paris’s museums and landmarks and enrich your understanding of France’s cultural contributions to civilization. They will also introduce you to the historical personalities and individuals whom you will encounter on your cultural explorations.

A half-day driving tour of about three hours, with ten to fifteen minute stops at Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, can serve as a basic overview of the city.

You can design it as you wish to include such sites as:

	The Cathedral of Notre Dame, a stunning a masterpiece of the Gothic style; the Sainte Chapelle, another architectural jewel; the formidable medieval fortress, the Conciergerie, later a notorious prison where many of the victims of the guillotine spent their last hours. Crossing the river on some of Paris’s architecturally impressive bridges, the tour can continue past the Louvre, the former residence of kings and now a treasure house of artistic masterpieces, and the Musée d’Orsay, a former train station now the home of the works of the Impressionists.
	The nearby Place de la Concorde leads to the Champs Elysées, the world- renowned avenue, and to the Arc de Triomphe. The tour can then take you to Paris’most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, and to the Dome of the Invalides, where the Emperor Napoleon’s red marble tomb lies. Then on to the Rodin Museum housing his famous sculptures and to St Germain-des-Pres, a chic district of galleries and boutiques. Passing the Luxembourg Gardens with late Renaissance palace that is now the home of the French Senate, you may see the Sorbonne University, one of the oldest in the western world; the Cluny Museum and its Roman baths before returning to your hotel.
	City tours can be extended to four hours and can include the Garnier Opera, famous setting for the Phantom of the Opera, the Bastille, where the infamous revolutionary prison once stood, and the Marais with its Place de Vosges, the world’s first planned residential subdivision; the Pompidou Center with its inside-out design; and the Place Vendome, one of the most elegant shopping areas in the world.

Walking tours using public transportation include an orientation to using the Paris Metro and Buses. Morning tours (3 hours) can optionally include lunch. Afternoon tours (3 hours) can break for tea or coffee. Evening tours (2 hours) include a break for a drink.

Walking tours can focus on particular areas such as the Marais, Notre Dame and the city center, the Eiffel Tower and its neighboring region, the Left Bank, or on less familiar sites such as Père LaChaise cemetery, or Paris’ parks. We will take you where you wish to go, and can make suggestions of very special sites in the city and the near-by suburbs that the standard guidebooks often overlook.

Chauffeur Driven tours in a comfortable car include stops as you wish. Click here for one example. As with the walking tour, morning tours can add lunch at a restaurant of your choice, or we can help you select one. Afternoon tours can break for tea or coffee.

Evening tours can be scheduled for an illuminated tour of Paris monuments by night and dinner if you wish. They can include a break for a drink or a meal at a restaurant, with our assistance in translating menus and ordering

Pricing and Availability

Chauffeur-Driven and Escorted Tours: $100 per person with a two person minimum for a half-day tour; $150 a day for a full day tour. Tours will begin at the time you select. . Walking tours of the city using public transportation are $75 per person for a half-day tour, $125 per person for a full day tour. Reductions for groups larger than 5.

Special Considerations or Preparations

We will meet you at your hotel and return you to your hotel at the end of the tour.

Evening tours can be combined with dinner in a selected restaurant. We will be delighted to assist you in selecting a restaurant, translating the menu, and advising you on specialties and drinks. Restaurant expenses are not included in the tour price.