Paris Free Walking Tour

Paris began on an island in the Seine, and this tour keeps the river close the whole way. From the Hôtel de Ville the route follows the water past Notre-Dame's ongoing rebirth, crosses the Pont Neuf — the 'new bridge' that is actually the city's oldest — and continues along the quays toward the Louvre and the museum-lined stretch facing the Musée d'Orsay.

Over two thousand years of history get compressed into an afternoon: Roman Lutetia, medieval kings, revolutionary mobs and Haussmann's great demolition, told by a guide who knows which courtyards to duck into along the way.