Paris - Special Tour/Experience

Yoda - Take a look at these unusual walking tours from link below. Also, Paris Greeters offers free unique tours of different areas of Paris and they accept donations for their organization.

https://greeters.paris/en/

https://www.parisinsidersguide.com/unusual-guided-walks-in-paris.html

Hmmm....it's well known on here that I love Paris Walks. Not a shill for them, just enjoy them. They are 15E, no booking needed, just turn up. Out of maybe 10 or 12 I've had just one mediocre guide. If you have any interest in WWII, I'd suggest the Paris during the Occupation tour that starts at the Tuileries Metro stop on Sunday afternoon. It is excellent. I also really enjoyed one on Jefferson and Franklin in Paris - very interesting!

Have you all watched Midnight in Paris? I'm not a Woody Allen or Owen Wilson fan but I love this movie. The church steps where he sits to get picked up by the time traveling taxi are at Saint-Etienne-du-Mont which is near the Pantheon. The inside of the church is also interesting - relics of Sainte-Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, are supposedly in a box there and there is a neat double spiral rood screen.

One year I tried to find a number of things that are listed on Atlas Obscura including the statue of a lion eating a man's foot at the gate to the Jardin des Plantes. Speaking of which, the Jardin des Plantes is lovely in April!

I also look at Corey Frye's walking tour videos to find interesting stuff. He did a walk one day that included the Church of St Paul and Saint-Louis where he showed a revolutionary slogan left over from 1800's I think that is unable to be removed! I also loved his walk on lesser known sights around Trocadero. Go to Youtube and put in Corey Frye.

Um, I just realized that all of mine involve food to some extent.... But it's not high end, so maybe still interesting for you.

The tour de france wine tasting at O Chateau. Get the optional cheese and charcuterie plate and you will leave full and tipsy. It was great fun.

Also, Fat Tire Bike tours trip to Versailles. You take the train out with your group, get fitted for a bike and ride to a market to buy your own picnic lunch. Then you bike all through the gardens, have your picnic and finish up at the Chateau. The gardens and the picnic are more the highlight for me than the tour of the Chateau, but I have done this twice with two different family members and loved it both times - even getting caught in a rain shower once.

They also do a night bike tour that stops for ice cream and ends with a cruise on the Seine with wine.

I think those are my favorites.

I second the bike tour! 10 years ago, my children (16-23 at the time) and I did the night Fat Bike Tour. It was a fabulous time, biking through Latin Quarter, around the Louvre pyramid, relaxing on the boat riding by the Eiffel Tower at the end. One caution: please consider wearing a helmet as you are on an unfamiliar bike in unfamiliar streets. I nearly killed myself - caught my foot dismounting, fell into a taxi lane and hit a taxi tire with my head (fortunately it was me who hit the tire and not the taxi who hit me - no injuries except my pride). I think I nearly gave our tour guide and my kids heart attacks:-) Kids insisted on knowing the entire itinerary better and all card PINs after that - just in case Mom did something else silly!

I had a private walking tour with a Paris Greeter and it was wonderful. A real live person pointing out interesting, non touristy spots in a few different neighborhoods was a highlight of my trip. I was lucky enough to get a former school teacher who also had quite good English... But in my limited experience all the French people I met had very good English (and prob wouldn't sign up to be a Paris Greeter if they didn't have a flair for it).

Have you considered a cooking class? La Cuisine Paris and Cookin' with Class offer morning classes where the group shops for food at a local market, then prepares it, all under the direction of a chef. Of course, the class then gets to enjoy the results. They also have evening classes, usually without the market experience, as well as baking classes. I did the evening dinner class with Cookin' with Class, and the morning class and marcaron class with La Cuisine. La Cuisine also does food tours - I did a tour with them to the King's Potage in Versailles that included a tour of the King's vegetable garden, lunch, and tickets (untimed and on your own) to the palace. I can recommend both of these providers. Their websites provide complete listings of their classes and other details.

When we were in Paris last month, my sister and BIL did a wine and cheese tasting event. They thoroughly enjoyed it, loved the wine AND the different cheeses and it is now one of their favorite memories of the trip.