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Andrea

Andrea is originally from Venezuela and has been living in Paris for 2 years. She fell in love with energy, colors, and architecture of Paris during her first visit, and since moving there, her love for the city has only grown! Around every corner, there is a unique story, and every street gives off its own personality. While Andrea has several pre-designed tours based on different topics and interests, she is happy to create a custom tour if there is something specific you are interested in. Some of her tours will take you to popular landmarks and sites, while others are based on specific themes such as fashion, sports, urban life, Bohemian culture, and Paris-filmed movies. Andrea wants to share her love of Paris with you and show you another side to the city that you wouldn’t otherwise know or might miss while exploring on your own.

Alex

Alex is a native Parisian and licensed tour guide, offering tours to individuals and groups up to 12. Limiting the group size is a way to make sure all tour participants can hear the information and comfortably ask questions without fighting to get to the guide. Alex’s tours can last anywhere from one hour to the entire day, he can purchase tickets ahead of time to help you avoid long lines, and will even help you plan your visit to Paris. With Alex, you will explore Paris like a local, while gaining insight on some of the city’s top landmarks and discovering the hidden secrets of the city itself. Alex does not have premade tours, he simply creates a plan with you based on your interests, needs, and time constraints.

Alex the Tour Guide

Alex has led thousands of visitors around the city through the many tours he offers. Whether you are interested in seeing the city’s finest street art, learning about the historic Marais neighborhood, or exploring the extravagant Château de Versailles, there is a tour for everyone. Alex is a native-English speaker who studied history and is now an expert on Paris. He is extremely passionate about his work and is happy to make a customizable tour to fit your needs and interests.

Flora

Flora is a licensed tour guide, specializing in the Jewish walking tours in Le Marais. She was born and raised in heart of the Jewish quarter in Paris and is very close to her Jewish origins. After studying history and art history at the Sorbonne University, she decided to become a guide with the hopes of revealing the city’s Jewish history that you would never find in a tour book. Flora is passionate about Paris, her Jewish origins, and sharing her vast knowledge with visitors who come to explore her hometown.

Eiffel Tower Guided Climb

The Eiffel Tower Guided Climb gives you the opportunity to climb the Eiffel Tower with a guide who will share with you the history of the tower and point out the surrounding sites as you get to the top. You won’t have to wait in the long elevator line and you will definitely get a good chunk of your daily steps in. There may be a line for the stairs, but this is still much shorter than the elevator line.

Your guide knows the 704 step climb isn’t easy and has prepared several stops along the way to share fascinating stories and legends about the world’s most visited landmark. During the first section of the clumb, you will learn about Gustave Eiffel, the young engineer, entrepreneur, and builder of the magnificent tower.

If you’re worried about bringing kids on this tour, many people who reviewed this tour said it wasn’t a problem and their kids loved it. Because of the breaks between levels, the climb isn’t as daunting as it sounds. On the second level is where you feel a real sense of accomplishment. You can gaze out at the breathtaking views and enjoy the birdseye tour of the entire city. Your guide will tell you about the districts and monuments such as Les Invalides, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Montparnasse, and Champs-Elysees. This tour is a once in a lifetime experience that will leave you with a sense of accomplishment, insight on the tower’s history, and many wonderful photos to show friends and family when you get home.

Le Marais Secret Food Tour

There’s no better way to explore the culture of a city than through the local cuisine. On this tour, you will taste a wide variety of French culinary delights including French cheeses, sausages, croissants, baguettes, macarons, chocolates, pastries, and local wines. The tour takes place in Le Marais district because the guides believe that all visitors must explore this historic district during their stay in Paris. It is here where you will truly feel the history of Paris and enjoy the beauty of Paris from medieval times.

The tour begins in the beautiful north area of Le Marais and ends in the busy streets near Saint Paul metro station, allowing you to see two very different parts of the district. When the tour concludes, you are encouraged to walk around and further explore the shops, galleries, and museums that make up this district.

Paris Charms & Secrets

Paris is a city filled with rich history and culture, but there are so many hidden facts to some of the city’s top attractions and stories behind almost every corner. The big Saint-Sulpice Church, for example, was once a hayloft, and the building where the president works, the Elysse Palace, was once a gambling house. Thanks to the research made by the team at Paris Charms & Secrets, hundreds of strange and personal stories that were hidden somewhere in old books and documents, have been brought to life again.

Did you know that there is a link between Al Capone and the Eiffel Tower? Or that the Eiffel tower had a younger sister? Paris is a mysterious city and on this tour, you will learn some of the top mysteries and the stories surrounding them. When you take a tour of the Louvre, you might hear a few details about the architecture, but at Paris Charms & Secrest, you will hear a story about the museum’s greatest scandal. The goal of this tour is to provide you with the lesser known, hidden stories and details, that you won’t find anywhere else.

This tour is done on an electric bike because you travel more than 20 km and this is an effortless way to cover as much of the city as possible in four hours. There is no other tour that travels this way, but it’s perfect for staying out of traffic, entering protected areas, keeping the group at the same speed, and being able to enjoy some fresh air. By now you’ve read a few of the hidden facts that the historians at Paris Charm’s & Secrets dug out for you, but there are plenty more stories waiting to be told. If you want a fascinating, slightly unconventional tour that takes you to the places less traveled and tells you the hidden secrets of Paris, this tour is for you.

Jewish Paris and the Marais

During this 3-hour tour, you will explore the Jewish history of Paris from the 12th century to WWII. You will be guided by a local historian who will take you through the city’s Jewish Quarter and show you the hidden Jewish history that most people don’t know. The tour begins at King Philippe Auguste’s city wall, which formed the first of many barriers that expelled the Jewish population from the city. Here, you’ll hear the story behind why the Jews were expelled, when they were let back in, and how these events created tension between the king and the Jewish community for the entirety of King Philippe Auguste’s reign.

As the tour gets into the center of the Marais, the guide will cover several issues that the French Jews faced such as the Dreyfus Affair from 1894 to 1906. The tour also makes a stop to the Memorial of the Shoah, which stands as a reminder of the horror the Jews faced during the Holocaust. You will hear stories about the Jewish people being rounded up, their fate at the concentration camps, and the effect this genocide had on the Jewish population in France.

Several other stops will be made along the tour and at the end, you will have a better idea of the cultural and historical influence that the Jewish community had on the city. The tour will end the Jewish Quarter where you will learn about the waves of immigration, famous French Jewish figures, and current and past issues. It is important to note that this tour does not take you inside any of the synagogues. Because many of Marais’ synagogues have been a target for antisemitic attacks, several synagogues are now closed to the public for security issues. The ones that remain open are mostly for Orthodox Jews and the tour company believes it would not be appropriate to enter with a mixed group of non-Jewish men and women.

Jewish Marais Tour

The Jewish Marais tour is a historic walk that begins at Place de Vosges, known by Napolean as the jewel of Paris. From here you will be lead through the streets of the Marais where you will learn about the neighborhood and how it has changed and developed over time. You will pass several sites including the famous rue Pavee synagogue and the Fleishman Synagogue, where a synagogue member will invite you inside and you will hear about the highlights and 2000-year-old history of the French Jewish community.

From the synagogue you will cross the cobblestone streets into the Jewish neighborhood, filled with Jewish shops and bakeries, and kosher restaurants. Your guide will take you to one of Paris’ most popular falafel shops, L’As du Falafel, where you can enjoy a no-wait traditional Israeli falafel (at your own expense). L’As du Falafel is extremely popular among both locals and tourists that there is usually a long line to order their homemade falafel and shwarma.

After the 40-minute lunch break, the tour will conclude at the Shoah Holocaust Museum and Memorial, where your guide will tell emotional stories about the Jews during WWII. Once the tour has completed, you can enter the museum at no charge if you wish to learn more about the Holocaust on your own. The Jewish Marais tour will provide you with a good overview of Jewish history in Paris as well as the modern Jewish life that thrives today.

Hotel de Jobo

The Hôtel de Joséphine Bonaparte, JoBo to those in the know, opened this charming residence, with its lounges and 24 rooms, to all would-be Parisians – for a night or a longer stay, a cup of tea, an evening drink, or even a whole night of cocktails and delicious nibbles. Hidden behind a flamboyant courtyard, Hôtel de JoBo is the intimate and delightful escape after a long journey, a day of strolling, visiting museums, and fabulous shopping to be found in this multi-faceted part of old Paris.

Born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, her lover and soon to be second husband Bonaparte renamed Rose de Beauharnais “Joséphine”. In today’s world, Joséphine Bonaparte would probably be known as JoBo on Instagram and in celebrity magazines. She is the fantasized inspiration behind this hotel. Who better than JoBo, the contemporary alter ego of Joséphine Bonaparte, to represent French elegance with charming frivolity? As a backlash to the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, the fashionable aristocratic subculture “The Incredibles and The Marvelous” (Les Incroyables et les Merveilleuses) decadent mantra was to live life to its fullest.

Joséphine, dressed or rather undressed like a Greek goddess, was amongst their trend setters. Her sense of style was admired by all. But this great seductress also had a more down-to-earth secret garden: at Malmaison, just outside Paris, she had 240 species of roses from all over the world planted… roses for Rose, the little girl that she had once been, who had run barefoot in her Martinique hometown of Trois-Îlets. To appease her nostalgia, a heated greenhouse for tropical plants was built.

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