Culture Walks
Montmartre of the Impressionists : Art Walk - 2 hours
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, see their homes & learn about their art. Using archival photos we will see how they lived, how they partied...and why so many of them died tragically young. We will visit an Art Market where you can buy original artwork directly from the artists themselves. Along the way, we will stroll the leafy winding picturesque streets that make Montmartre so uniquely charming. We'll see the last two windmills of Paris, 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 - 2.5 hours
The Harlem Hell Fighter's Orchestra
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 in Paris, several of them owned & operated by African Americans.
This tour relates the story of how a handful of pioneers from 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.
The Lost Generation Writers of the 1920s - 3 hours
Hemingway & Beach at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore
Hemingway once said : “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 men and women had suffered through WW1, a war that had taken 20m lives. They questioned the old regime as morally bankrupt – and sought 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, William Faulkner & 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's Haunts in Paris - 3 hours
Hemingway at age 19 in his Red Cross uniform
Hemingway spent his formative years in Paris. Surrounded by more experienced 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 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 - it is possible to end the tour at the Hemingway Bar of the Ritz Hotel, where you can type a letter on the typewriter he left in the hotel (48 hours advance notice required).
Duo Tour : Hemingway + the Lost Generation - 4 hours
This tour is a combination of the two tours above - the Lost Generation & Hemingway's Haunts. It combines the best of both with a deep dive on Hemingway in the 2nd half of the tour.
The Fitzgeralds in Paris - Scott & Zelda - 3 hours
This tour takes you to the places that Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald frequented while they were living in Paris. They lived in the city off and on from 1925 to 1930, traveling frequently to the South of France and back to the US.
The time they spent here transformed Scott, not necessarily for the better. The artistic atmosphere gave rein to his imagination, but the city’s lavish party scene gave him the excuse he needed to drink to excess, which frequently prevented him from writing.
Today the name Fitzgerald brings to mind images of the Jazz Age – an age of flappers, reckless spending, smoky speakeasies, long voyages on ocean liners… and finally the fall, the Great Depression, the loss of innocence, the descent into despair, alcoholism and madness.
Along the way I share the tragic tale of this glamorous Golden Couple, the rock stars of the 1920s, who blazed into instant fame, self-destructed, then fell from glory.
Scott & Zelda (1920)
Golden Couple of the Jazz Age
The young author
Max von Gerlach, a millionaire bootlegger on whom Gatsby may have been modelled
Fitzgeralds en route for France, April 1924
Villa Marie, the home the Fitzgeralds rented on the French Riviera
Zelda took up painting to express her creativity
Zelda also took up ballet
Family Portrait in Paris
The Dingo Bar, where Fitzgerald first met Hemingway
Fitzgerald's tale of his experience with alcoholism & depression
Fitzgerald in Hollywood, 1939
Highland Hospital, where Zelda died in a tragic fire
The couple's tombstone
Duo Tour : Hemingway + the Fitzgeralds - 4 hours
This tour is a combination of the two tours above - Hemingway's Haunts & the Fitzgeralds in Paris. It covers the authors in both tours with a special focus on their interactions.
Art Nouveau Architecture of Paris - 2.5 hours
Art Nouveau is a form of expression that flourished in Europe from 1890 to 1910 - during a period of innovation & invention. It was inspired by the use of natural forms (plants & flowers) with curving lines.
Art Nouveau sought to unify the fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) with the applied arts, in a single movement. Its practitioners came from diverse backgrounds : architecture, interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewelry and metal work. The Art Nouveau architects in Paris fought the rigidity of the Haussmannian style which had come to dominate the city since the 1860s.
This visit will take you to the most outstanding examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Paris and provide you with the background and historical context in which these fabulous buildings were created.
Covered Galleries : the First Shopping Malls - 2 hours
The very first covered gallery was built in 1786, in the Palais Royal. The gallery was an early form of a shopping mall, a place where fashionable women could shop in an enclosed environment protected from the rain & cold, rather than having to go from one corner of the city to the next looking for shops through dark muddy streets.
Most were built during the first half of the 19th Century & by the 1850s there were 150 galleries in Paris. However they were for the most part abandoned when the department stores became popular in the late 1800s. By the 1950s only a dozen or so remained, many quite dilapidated.
They are now being lovingly restored as upmarket malls with glass ceilings for natural lighting & beautiful ornaments and decors.
They provide a uniquely historic way of seeing the boutiques of Paris.
