Paris and HOF September - What is the "mystery neighborhood?"

First move should be to contact the tour office and ask. I can't imagine why it would be a secret.

When I took this tour in 2018 we went on a walk that started near the Forum de Halles, then included a church with a classical music concert playing, onto a lovely market street where the guide had arranged for the group to sample foods at different stores, and then we finally ended up at the Louvre where we were given our admission tickets and sent out on our own.

I can't tell you if every tour does this the same or what may have changed in 4 years, but that was what we did.

This was my first RS tour in 2014, it’s still one of my favorites. I arrived 3 days early and toured the Musée Carnavelet which covers the history of Paris. It was fascinating and at the time there was a special exhibit about Paris and the end of WWII. It has since gone through a renovation and is now reopened. In 2018, I was again lucky enough to be in Paris and visited the Musée Picasso which was wonderful.
Both of these museums are in the Marais. If either of these are of interest to you, I don’t think they are on the tour itinerary so you could plan to go in your free time.

I don’t recall the “mystery” neighborhood in 2014 so it’s likely something new. Therefore, I would call the RS office and ask.

Yes, Carolnowretired, that sounds similar. It will be a "guide's choice" and then the Louvre.

And yes, I will try to email the tour office, but I have seen here that the responses are slow in coming these days, so just thought I would ask if anyone had an insight. If it is usually on the final itinerary then I wasn't going to bother them. Thought others might be wondering too.

jimabbott03, It’s not that it’s a mystery or a secret; it’s a “guide’s choice.”. Our experience in 2019 was similar to Carol-now-retired’s. The choice will depend on your guide, his or her preferences, and which local guides are available that date and time.

When is your tour? I’d call the office, but go ahead and make plans for whatever district it is you want to see in your free time. And have a plan B, in the unlikely event that the group covers whatever it is you gave planned.

Enjoy your tour; we really liked this one.

I was on Paris and HOF in April of this year. We had a wonderful walking tour of Les Halls early in the day. It was very interesting and a neighborhood I wasn’t familiar with, but there was little time to wander. I’d try to find out which neighborhood your guide has chosen, and if it’s le marais, you’ll just see more and interesting parts of it.

Unless you are planning to visit a museum that requires advance tickets, how about you make plans for 2 neighborhoods: one for the Marais, and one for another area of your choice, such as Montmartre or Saint Germain des Prés? And you'll just choose one on the spot.
Also, it is unlikely that a morning tour of the Marais would exhaust all that there is to see there, so you might want to spend additional time there on your own!

Thanks for the suggestions, and yes I had thought of making a Plan B. The thing is, the only afternoon we have free for the Marais is the afternoon just BEFORE the "guides choice" and I didn't want to spend all afternoon in the Marais if we were going to get a "guided" tour with the group the next morning. Too many wonderful things to see, and too little time! In any case, it seems that Les Halles seems to be a pretty safe bet, and we can proceed with plans for the Marais on our own.

Also, I wanted to get tickets to Atlier de Lumieres, and needed to plan a time slot. We are not giant art museum people (please don't send hate mail...we just don't know enough about it to appreciate it for hours on end.) But I have been to one of these fun and beautiful exhibits in the states and wanted to show my husband.

I did email the office, but like I said, they seem to be scrambling with CoVid concerns and don't need to be bothered by silly things if I can get the info on my own. I will let you all know what they say, in case anyone else is wondering.

Just ask your guide at the first orientation meeting, and then you'll have time to change your plans if necessary.

I am taking this tour next year and was wondering the same thing! The issue (for me anyway) is that I will have three days in Paris before the tour to explore, and I want to see the other neighborhoods not on the tour. Waiting to ask the guide is too late. I’m not sure if the tour office would know. . Maybe, if you provided the name of your guide, someone here who had the same guide on the tour in the past can tell you where they went. I hope you have a fabulous time!

The office reply was that they leave it up to the guide and it will not be on the itinerary. I will let you know after we get back who our guide was and where we went.

thanks for the update janetabbott01

Atelier des Lumières is feasible without advance reservations. There are plenty of time slots available for this afternoon, for example (one hour from now).

Ok balso, good to know. I am glad I can use my Marais plan…I worked hard on my “wandering” HA!

I was just on a RS tour to Paris in May. We did not have a mystery neighborhood. We did spend half a day in the Marais district and then we were set free to stay in that district or go elsewhere. I went elsewhere then on another day I returned to see the Picasso Museum which is wonderful. That one post that wrote about that nice surprise from their tour guide, I would have loved that. WE did not get anything like that, in fact I often felt rushed through places that we should have been given more time in.

So just to let you know what happened...We did have a great tour of the Les Halles neighborhood, as anticipated. We did not find out where we were headed until we got the itinerary the night before. Our tour guide was Veronique, I am not sure if this matters to which neighborhood was chosen - I forgot to ask her! She had also engaged the help of an additional tour guide who was very familiar with that area. They had arranged a cheese tasting, as well as some other treats, and it was a great morning. In fact, I liked it so much that I want to make this area our home base on our next trip to Paris!

I'm going on this tour next Spring and am curious too, but since we're walking from hotel to the "mystery tour" and then to the Louvre I'm thinking the tour will be in close-ish proximity.

We took the subway from the hotel to les Halles.