Paris Starts Here – Notre Dame to Louvre for first timers to Paris
Experience the magic
Paris, France
120 min
10am. Click on "Book now".
Free tour - tip supported
Overview
This is our most visual tour, and we are sure you will love it.
Enjoy Paris with a Parisian by your side and experience the magic. On this 2-hour free tour, you do not chase a huge group, we keep groups small. And your guide is a real Parisian – fluent in English, knowledgeable, and fun.
Because we’re a small group, in two hours “Paris Starts Here” brings you to: Notre-Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Conciergerie/Marie-Antoinette, the old Louvre (and the new, too), the glass pyramid, le Carrousel and the Tuileries Gardens. We start at Notre-Dame. We even visit a basement. All of it! Not accessible to wheelchairs.
We also bring you to: Point Zero i.e. the very center of Paris. The spot where they tried to kill Napoleon. The Love Lock Bridge, a.k.a. “the Sex & The City bridge”. Where the Grand Master of the Knights Templar was executed. And the magic spot where, at the same time, you see the Eiffel tower, the Tuileries Garden, the Champs Élysées and both the Arc de Triomphe and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel .
In one tour, you hit Paris’ top historic landmarks, you learn their significance, you get great photo spots, and you experience living in a megapolis 2,000 years of age. By the end, you have experienced why Paris is the most popular destination in the world.
Note. Guides are instructed to always reject large parties, so if you are a large party, please contact us in advance at private@discoverwalks.com to book a private tour. To see all this in two hours, we do not go inside every monument.
Tour highlights
- Notre-Dame Cathedral (almost finished)
- Point Zero (compass from which all of France is measured)
- Paris CSI Paris headquarters
- Sainte Chapelle Royal Chapel
- Palais de Justice de Paris
- Conciergerie (former palace/prison & Marie Antoinette’s last days)
- Park Dauphine (created by King Henri IV)
- Pont Neuf (Oldest Bridge in Paris – and still looks great)
- Académie Francaise (home of the Immortals)
- Pont des Arts (Love Lock Bridge)
- Louvre (Palace and now art museum)
- Paris underground (we can’t explain, you have to see it for yourself)
- Plus many more – i.e. Marine Fireboat, Paris Flower Mart, Henry IV Memorial, City Wall of the 1600’s, City Wall of the 300’s, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, etc.
Booking information
This tour runs in the morning, rain or shine.
Meeting point: 10 rue de la colombe, closest metros are hotel-de-ville (line 1 and 11) and Cité (line 4).
Booking is required. Your guide is wearing a pink vest.
The tour ends at le Louvre, 5 minutes away from the Palais royal/musée du Louvre metro station.
Booking is required and capped at 5 people. Parties of 6 and more must book a private tour. In the interest of all guests, we will turn large parties away, so large parties please reserve a private tour.
Why people take this tour?
Paris is the most visited city in the world. Barring none. On this tour, you find out why.
Also, we all love our home city. And it shows.
HOT DAY SPECIAL: We walk in the shade as much as possible and every tour makes frequent stops for water.
Price
This is a free walking tour. First you take the tour, then you pay the guide what you wish.
Booking is required. Parties of 6 and more must book a private tour.
Turn up at the free tour meeting point 5 minutes early.
To book this tour, use the “Book Now” button.
Other information
Average duration of 2 hrs and 5 minutes, this tour is a bit longer than our other free tours
Average tip on this tour: €14.50 (longer tour, people pay a bit more)
Average group size: 12 guests (still small groups!)
Ends near metro station Palais royal/musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7).
Look for our distinct pink vests. We walk rain or shine
Companion tours
Other free tours work well as companion tours. They are:
The village of Montmartre – from Moulin Rouge to Sacré Coeur
Trendy Marais – Mansions and Fashions
On this tour – fun fact about Le Louvre
For two years the Mona Lisa went missing at Le Louvre. It was in 1911, an Italian janitor stole the painting to “return it to Italy”. He kept the Mona Lisa hidden under his bed for two years in Paris. He was caught eventually, in Italy, when he tried to sell it to an art dealer in Florence.
During World War II, “La Joconde” as we call the Mona Lisa, disappeared yet again. Now this time it was the work of the curator of the Museum, who wanted to keep it out of the reach of Adolf Hitler, and who had it moved to the south of France. Mona Lisa returned to Le Louvre after the war, and it hasn’t left home since then.