Sightseeing tours in Paris
There’s a wide choice of Paris sightseeing tours arranged by different themes.
For those that simply want to see the major Paris tourism attractions, there are general tours, but there are also a number of sightseeing trips around Paris that cater to more specialist interests. For example:
If you’re interested in the history of the city, you could go on a historical guided tour of Paris attractions. One of the most popular locations for such tours is the Ile De La Cite, which is the island in the center of town and is the oldest part of Paris. On this island, you will find famous churches like Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle.
For those interested in the city’s artistic past, you can can see the stamping ground of Renoir and Toulouse Lautrec by taking a guided sightseeing tour of Montmartre, Paris’ famous bohemian quartier.
Movie buffs can also enjoy Montmartre by going on the tour “In the footsteps of Amelie Poulain”, which follows the footsteps of the heroine of the popular French film that starred Audrey Tautou.
Although some might find it macabre, there are guided tours of the Père Lachaise Cemetery . Père Lachaise is a great place to spend an afternoon and, for fans of Edith Piaf, Frederic Chopin or Oscar Wilde, a place of pilgrimage. And a good guide will regale you with stories about the people that were put to rest in the cemetery.
If you prefer doing your sightseeing sitting down, you can see the Paris by bus. There are a number of good routes, but my own favourite goes from Notre Dame to Invalides (the gold-domed building where Napoleon is buried). Among the sites you’ll get to see on that tour are the Arc de Triomphe, Saint Germain Des Pres, Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower.
However, for the romantics, the best tours of all have to be the dinner cruises on the river Seine. Paris looks magical when the sun goes down and it’s only in the dark that you get to see why the call it “the city of light” .
If you really want to get off the beaten track, there are other trips you can take. For example, you could travel up the Saint Martin canal by boat ... or, if you’re not into the organised Paris Sightseeing Tours, you can grab yourself a map and plot out your own unique course.