Potins de Paris

Do you already know everything there is to know about Paris? Its great monuments… its illustrious characters and their feats of arms? Would you like to see Paris differently? If so, why not opt for a truly unusual guided tour this time?

The hidden stories of Paris

Escape from the beaten track and the classic discovery walks of the capital! Potins de Paris brings you a programme of guided tours created around the hidden secrets of its personalities. Through a mix of anecdotes, gossip and other stories in which fact proves stranger than fiction, your hostess – in 18th century dress – transports you back to another era with its own appetite for revealing the little foibles and dark skills of the famous.

A truly immersive experience, "Potins de Paris" eschews history as it is presented in school textbooks, bringing it to life instead through stories of the antics of the capital’s politicians, small-time crooks and big-time scoundrels. Money, power, love and sex… famous people are revealed in all their human aspects.

Discover an unexpected Paris

"Potins de Paris" offers 4 guided tours in a format that’s suitable for all and free for children under 12.

Starting at the Pont des Arts, the “Disreputable Paris” walk spills the beans on the misdeeds of the greatest Parisian swindlers, who were ready to do anything for money. From Voltaire to the man who claimed he had sold the Eiffel Tower, be prepared for some big surprises.
The “Behind the Curtain of Power” tour presents the kings of France in a light you won’t find in their official portraits. Learn of scandals and adventures in a journey through the centuries from the splendour of the royal palace to the gloomy alleyways of old Paris.

Parisians are revealed in a less-than-virtuous light during the “Seven Deadly Sins of Paris” walk. From the search for the Philosopher’s Stone to St. Bartholomew’s Day and the Court of Miracles, beliefs and religion have sometimes led the way to madness.

More suitable for adults, the “Seedy Side of Paris” walk leads you to the area around the Palais Royal gardens and the Louvre museum to discover the naughty side of Paris, laying bare the gallantry and debauchery which earned the Parisians their reputations as seducers. Paris – that iconically romantic city in the public imagination – was no less shameless when it came to its famous brothels.
Slip on your walking shoes and watch history unfold through a series of amusing, confusing and disturbing little stories about the French capital.

You can find more ideas for guided tours in our Top quirky guided tours in the Paris Region.