Culture Walks
Montmartre of the Impressionists : Art Walk - 2 hours
€60/Adults 18+ €45/Teens 12-17 €30/Kids 5-11 Free/Kids under 5
Montmartre has occupied a unique place in the history of Paris. Known for its windmills & bucolic setting in the 1800s, by 1900 it had become (in)famous for its racy cafés, dance halls & cabarets, where wealthy Parisians went "slumming". During the Belle Epoque, Montmartre's bohemian atmosphere attracted numerous struggling artists : Renoir, Picasso, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec....
On this Art Walk, we will discover these artists, visit their homes & see their art. Using archival photos we will see how they lived, how they partied...and how some of them died tragically young. We will visit an Art Market where you can buy original artwork directly from the artists.
Along the way, we will stroll the leafy winding picturesque streets that make Montmartre so uniquely charming. We'll see 2 windmills as well as the city's only vineyard, ending the tour at Sacré Coeur. A charming & informative Art Walk.
Picturesque Montmartre street
Harlem in Paris : Birth of Jazz in France - 2 hours
€55/Adults 18+ €35/Teens 12-17
After World War I, Paris was a magnet for numerous African American musicians, writers, poets and performers, settling mostly in Pigalle. They brought a new style of music to Europe : Jazz. By the late 1920s, there were over 300 jazz clubs, bars & theatres in Paris, many of them owned & operated by African Americans.
This tour relates the story of how Harlem came to Paris & introduced the French to Jazz.
Hear the stories of the fascinating men & women who remade Paris into a Jazz mecca during the Roaring 20s. Listen to their music (original recordings from the early 1920s) and watch videos relating their life stories, on a tablet which is provided during the tour.
The Harlem Hell Fighter's Orchestra
The Lost Generation Writers of the 1920s - 3 hours
€55/Adults 18+ €35/Teens 12-17
There is a famous saying : “Everyone has 2 countries, their own & France”. This was especially true for numerous artists, writers & jazz musicians between the two World Wars, many of whom flocked to Paris not only for artistic inspiration but also to find themselves.
Known as the Lost Generation, these were men and women who had suffered through WW1, a war that had taken 18m lives. They questioned the old regime as morally bankrupt – seeking to build a new system. Eager to share ideas, they gathered in the cafés of the Left Bank, living in cold-water flats and the area’s cheap hotels.
Follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, Ezra Pound & more. We will visit the places where they lived, worked & partied…bearing in mind that the bohemian Left Bank of starving artists & struggling writers has given way to chic boutiques & high end bistros.
Hemingway & Beach at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore 1928
Hemingway's Haunts in Paris - 3 hours
€55/Adults 18+ €35/Teens 12-17
Hemingway spent his formative years in Paris. Surrounded by fellow authors such as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound & F. Scott Fitzgerald, he transitioned from struggling journalist to seasoned novelist. This tour will take you to the places that Hemingway frequented, where he lived, worked & met with fellow authors..
You will learn about his life & exploits through documented research materials, archival photos of Hemingway in Paris, and excerpts from his work..
From his first trip to Europe as a volunteer Ambulance Driver in WW1, to his final journey embedded with the American troops liberating France in WW2, you will retrace Hemingway's experiences in Paris, his life, his loves, his work and his tragic end. We will visit his favorite bars and perhaps share a drink - you can even type a note on the typewriter he left in the Ritz Hotel.