Self-Guided Paris Walks

Free self-guided walking tours of Paris, written by a local team: the walks we send our own clients, with the stops, the tips and the one local move that makes each one better. No sign-up needed.

• A Food Morning on Rue Montorgueil: The market street Parisians actually use, two minutes from Les Halles.
• A Food Walk Around Rue Cler: A short, delicious walk through a genuine Parisian market street in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
• A Marais Food Crawl: The Marais is one of the best eating neighborhoods in Paris, and this walk grazes across it: the oldest covered market, a great cheese shop, falafel that draws a Sunday line, an...
• Along the Seine, Bridge by Bridge: The banks of the Seine are a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the best way to feel Paris is to walk them at water level.
• Batignolles, the Village Nobody Told You About: The neighborhood where young Paris actually lives.
• Belleville and Ménilmontant: The real, multicultural, hilly east of Paris: street art on every wall, the birthplace of Edith Piaf, a Chinatown of great cheap food, and a hilltop park with a skyline view tha...
• Canal Saint-Martin: The canal is where young Paris hangs out: iron footbridges, tree-lined locks, indie shops and cafes, and a long easy waterside walk that ends in a huge modern park.
• Canal Saint-Martin to La Villette: Paris Along the Water: Follow the water north from the iron footbridges of Canal Saint-Martin to the wide basin of La Villette: locks, a film-famous hotel, a 17th-century hospital courtyard, and canal...
• Historic Paris: The Island and the Left Bank: This is where Paris began, on an island in the Seine, then spilled onto the Left Bank.
• Île Saint-Louis, Slowly: A tiny island frozen in the 17th century, one main street, no metro, no crowds after dark.
• Luxembourg Gardens to Montparnasse: From the most beloved garden in Paris into the old artists' quarter of Montparnasse, where Hemingway, Picasso and Modigliani drank and painted.
• Montmartre, Above the City: Montmartre is a hill village that got swallowed by Paris and never quite gave in.
• Opéra and the Grand Boulevards: Belle Epoque Paris: a gilded opera house, the grand department stores under their stained-glass domes, the covered passages of the boulevards, and a gourmet square to finish.
• Paris Lights: A Night Walk from Trocadéro to Pont Neuf: Paris earns its nickname after dark. This walk strings together the Eiffel Tower sparkle, the gilded lamps of Pont Alexandre III, the fountains of Concorde and the glowing Louvr...
• Passy and the Art Nouveau of the 16th: The genteel west of Paris, where Hector Guimard and the Art Nouveau architects left their finest buildings.
• Père Lachaise Cemetery: The most famous cemetery in the world is really a hilly garden city of the dead: cobbled lanes, grand tombs under old trees, and the graves of Chopin, Wilde, Piaf and Jim Morrison.
• Quiet Corners of the 16th: Balzac, Buddhas and Hidden Villas: The 16th looks buttoned-up until you find its secret doors: a Japanese garden behind the Guimet museum, the stairway passage where water sellers climbed from the Seine, Balzac's...
• Quiet Corners of the 1st: Calm in the Heart of Paris: The 1st arrondissement is the busiest square mile in France, yet its quietest corners hide in plain sight: a silent Louvre courtyard, a painted 1826 passage, the royal gardens, ...
• Quiet Corners of the 3rd: The Marais Without the Crowds: One street north of the Marais crowds, the 3rd goes quiet: mansion-lined lanes, a hidden rose garden locals guard like a secret, and courtyard galleries where you can stand alon...
• Quiet Corners of the 4th: Cloisters and Craftsmen: Between the Marais boutiques and the Seine, the 4th keeps its oldest secrets: the last medieval cloister in Paris, a mansion library with a garden, and a village of antique deal...
• Quiet Corners of the 5th: Cloisters, Ruins and a Mosque Tearoom: The Latin Quarter hides its calm behind institutional doors: an Irish college courtyard, a Roman arena where kids play football in the ruins, and mint tea under fig trees at the...
• Quiet Corners of the 6th: Courtyards and Painters' Gardens: Saint-Germain gets crowded, but calm hides one door away.
• Quiet Corners of the 7th: Gardens Behind the Monuments: The 7th is where Paris keeps its monuments, and also its most discreet gardens.
• Quiet Corners of the 8th and 9th: Monceau to the Romantics: Two steps from the Champs-Elysees, Paris turns residential and calm: a hidden lane behind a carriage door, the follies of Parc Monceau, and the garden squares where Chopin and G...
• Quiet Corners of the Northern Heights: Flower Lanes and Secret Hills: Across the hills of northern Paris hide the city's last village lanes: a flowered pedestrian street from 1847, painters' graves under Montmartre, a colony of colorful cottages, ...
• Quiet Corners of the South: Villages of the 13th, 14th and 15th: South of the tourist map, Paris turns into villages: cobbled lanes of little houses, a hospital chapel the size of a cathedral, an English-style park, and a sculptor's studio fr...
• Saint-Germain-des-Prés: The old literary heart of the Left Bank: the cafes where Sartre and de Beauvoir argued, the oldest church in Paris, art galleries, chocolate shops, and the city's most beloved g...
• Secret Gardens and Quiet Corners: Paris hides dozens of small gardens and silent courtyards a step off its busiest streets.
• South Pigalle and Rue des Martyrs: The neighborhood Parisians actually want to live in right now: 'SoPi', a hill of great food shops, cocktail bars in old cabaret houses, and elegant 19th-century squares.
• Street Art of the 13th: Murals and the Butte aux Cailles: The 13th arrondissement turned its tower blocks into the largest open-air street art museum in Europe, with ten-story murals by Obey, Inti and D*Face.
• The Artisans' Courts of Faubourg Saint-Antoine: Furniture makers have worked the courtyards off Faubourg Saint-Antoine since the 15th century, and behind the street doors the workshops are still there.
• The Best Eiffel Tower Views: Everyone photographs the Eiffel Tower, but only a few spots make it magic.
• The Bois de Vincennes: Paris's Eastern Escape: When Paris feels tight, Parisians go east: a medieval keep, a flower park made for slow afternoons, lake islands you reach by rowboat, and a golden Buddhist temple in the woods.
• The Covered Passages: Before shopping malls, Paris had glass-roofed passages, elegant shortcuts full of shops, cafes and light.
• The Estate of Versailles: A full day at the palace of the Sun King, done the smart way: the state apartments and Hall of Mirrors, then out into the vast gardens most day-trippers barely reach, to the Tri...
• The Grand Axis: Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower: The monumental Paris of postcards, walked properly: the Arc de Triomphe, the sweep of the Champs-Elysees, the gardens toward the Seine, and the single best spot to photograph th...
• The Hidden Courtyards of the Marais: Behind the grand Marais facades hide courtyards most visitors never push open: craftsmen's workshops, secret gardens, and the cobbled cours where cabinetmakers and gilders still...
• The High Line of Paris: Bastille to Bercy: Paris invented the elevated park before New York did.
• The Jewish Marais: A Walk Through the Pletzl: The Marais has been the heart of Jewish Paris for centuries, and the Pletzl still smells of strudel and fresh bagels.
• The Latin Quarter: The student quarter, named for the Latin once spoken in its universities.
• The Literary Left Bank: Follow the ghosts of the writers who made the Left Bank a legend: Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Sartre and de Beauvoir, the Lost Generation bookshops and cafes.
• The Louvre and the Tuileries: The royal spine of Paris on foot, no museum ticket required: a hidden garden of arcades, the glass pyramid and its courtyards, the grand Tuileries garden, and two small museums ...
• The Louvre Inside Out: A Walk Around the Palace: You do not need a ticket to love the Louvre.
• The Marais, on Foot: The Marais is the best walking neighborhood in Paris: grand squares, free museums, the old Jewish quarter, and the city's oldest covered market, all in a few compact blocks.
• The Villages of the 14th: A southern district almost no visitor sees: cobbled artists' lanes of ivy-covered studios, the old Montparnasse arts crowd, hidden garden streets, and a rolling English-style pa...