Paris Greeters

We used Paris Greeters for our first visit to Paris. Our guide thought our walk was going to be in Montmartre because of a miscommunication. Our guide was able to pivot to the area we requested - Canal St. Martin. Not only did we explore the area around the canal, but took the metro out to the basin. Our greeter was knowledgeable of the area. We discussed the history of the area and the current politics happening in Paris (protests about an increase to the workweek 32hrs to 36hrs). We are going back to Paris this year, and I was thinking about using them again.

Paris Greeters is not a tourist agency but a non profit group of residents who enjoy showing off parts of their city to visitors.
You fill out the form on the webpage with your area of interest and the organizers will try to match you with someone.
They also asked that you contact them about a month in advance.
There is no fee but they do request a donation when you accept their offering.
I've done this twice over the years and enjoyed it very much both times -- one in the Butte Chaumout and the other in the Marais.
The "guides" won't accept any gratuity but might let you buy them a coffee or ice cream.
My experiences were before Covid so things might have changed. But I think that it's worth checking out.

I have used Paris Greeters on 4 different trips, all before Covid. Some were more interesting than others, but I enjoyed them all and was able to learn about areas I had never been to before. As Sharyn said, they don’t accept tips. On my first experience the guide did have a drink with us after we finished. No one else has taken us up on our offers of a refreshment.

https://greeters.paris/en/

We've done the Greeters in several different cities and highly recommend them! Not only do you get an in-depth tour of a city or a neighbourhood, but you also gain insights into what it's like to live there, learn bits of history that don't get told on commercial tours, get to ask questions about local issues and the tour can be customized to your interests.