Bestseller
Reserved Access
Paris, the City of Light, has a remarkably dark and stormy past. Before the city earned its reputation for culture, art, fashion and romance, it endured centuries of strife – gruesome murders, torture, and beheadings, political and social unrest, brutal monarchies and wars, not to mention terrible plagues. This tour will bring to life Paris's mysterious and often horrific past – its ghosts, legends and historic personalities. You’ll see both rarely visited and well-known sights in a whole new way!
Our nocturnal ghost and legends tour takes you down dark, winding alleyways – the better to soak up the atmosphere of mystery and imagine Paris in very different times. At the beautiful, romantic Square du Vert-Galant - created in honor of Henry IV and his mistresses and recently declared an “Espace vert ecologique” (an ecological green space) – your guide will describe a different scene, when the last Knights’ Templar was burned at the stake here.
You’ll visit the 7th century church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, and learn how and why around 30,000 Huguenots were murdered in the infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. You’ll learn that the Palais de Justice - which was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Empereur as the greatest work of art produced in France in that decade - was where unfortunates were judged guilty during the French Revolution and sentenced to the guillotine in front of cheering crowds – even if they were Kings or revolutionaries themselves!
Beginning with tales of early ritual worship, you’ll travel through time as your guide recreates scenes of gruesome plagues, the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and Nazi occupation. They will acquaint you with famous historic figures, such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie Antoinette, and Henry IV as well as serial killers that once preyed on the city’s residents… maybe in some of the same alleyways you'll walk through!
Get off the beaten path, away from the crowds of sightseers on typical tours, and scratch beneath Paris’s beautiful, romantic surface to discover its lurking dark side.
