Seventeen communities, two directions of the story, one ride through Paris.

What Paris owes your country, and those of your compatriots who became Parisians here. Seventeen communities are in our catalogue: some have a fully developed route, others a more condensed outline, and if yours is missing we will build it on request, without promising you a date by which it will be ready. Choose your community, then the direction of the story, and we will tell you frankly what we can put together.

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The idea comes in two directions. One way, those who left: Paris in your country's history, the treaties signed here, the ideas that set off from here, and your own compatriots who reshaped their country from a Paris bedsit. The other way, those who came: the ones who stayed and became Parisians, who arrived with a suitcase and left a mark on the city. You pick the community, then the direction; for some, the material fits into a single combined tour. The tour is private, 115 euros per person, an indicative rate inclusive of all taxes, in French or English, two and a half to three hours. The final price is confirmed to you in writing before any payment.

British: a ten-year-old English king crowned king of France at Notre-Dame on 16 December 1431, Mary Stuart raised at the French court and married to the dauphin at Notre-Dame in 1558, Oscar Wilde dying on rue des Beaux-Arts in 1900. Germans: Marx, living on rue Vaneau, meeting Engels in Paris on 28 August 1844 and never letting go of him again, Wagner booed in 1861 when his Tannhäuser faced the Paris Opera, Heine and his twenty-five Parisian years up to his death in 1856. Italians: two queens from Florence governing France, Lulli, a Florentine who became the king's superintendent of music and the father of French musical tragedy, Modigliani at carrefour Vavin. Spaniards: Picasso at the Bateau-Lavoir, Guernica painted on rue des Grands-Augustins in 1937, La Nueve first into liberated Paris. Scandinavians: Strindberg and his Parisian Inferno, Munch at the Salon des Indépendants in 1896 and again in 1897, a Swedish dynasty founded by one of Napoleon's marshals. Russians: the Ballets Russes of 1909, the riot at the Rite of Spring in 1913, the Russian Paris of rue Daru.

Americans: La Fayette buried at Picpus under soil brought back from Bunker Hill, and the Lost Generation of rue de l'Odéon. Brazilians: the French artistic mission that sailed for Rio in 1816, Villa-Lobos and his seven Parisian years from 1923 onwards, Niemeyer, whose 1965 design produced the Communist Party headquarters on place du Colonel-Fabien, occupied since 1971. Argentines: Buenos Aires laid out the French way, Cortázar's thirty-three Parisian years from 1951 to his death in 1984, and his grave in Montparnasse cemetery, where readers still leave drawings of a hopscotch grid, Piazzolla sent back to his own roots by Nadia Boulanger. Mexicans: Napoleon III's Mexican adventure, Diego Rivera among the tenants of La Ruche, Frida Kahlo exhibited in Paris in 1939.

Japanese: Foujita, a Japanese figure of the École de Paris, then Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake, Hanae Mori, in 1977 the first Asian designer admitted to Paris haute couture, and Yohji Yamamoto. Chinese: the worker-students of the 1920s, a plaque on rue Godefroy, the Asian quarter of the 13th. Koreans: a Korean pavilion on the Champ-de-Mars during the 1900 World's Fair, the last appearance of the unified country at an international exhibition, then Lee Ufan, who came to the Paris Biennale in 1971 and has worked between Japan and Paris ever since. Indians: Tagore's paintings shown in Paris in May 1930 at the initiative of the Argentine Victoria Ocampo, passage Brady, the Ganesh procession that crosses northern Paris at the end of the summer. Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians: an unheated room on impasse Compoint from 1921 to 1923, then the 13th arrondissement after 1975. North Africans: Bourguiba studying law in Paris from 1924 to 1927, the Étoile Nord-Africaine founded in Paris in 1926, the Goutte d'Or. Gulf Arabs: the Institut du monde arabe, founded in 1980 by France and eighteen Arab states, and its 1987 building on the bank of the Seine. And if your community is missing from the list, just ask.

The stops below are examples, taken from several tours. Depending on the community and the direction of the story you choose, a ride of two and a half to three hours keeps four or five of them, within one and the same part of Paris, and the route is settled with you beforehand. You start and finish at the same point, in the 7th arrondissement, where the bikes are handed over and returned: the loop runs from twelve to eighteen kilometres depending on the area. Nothing is visited indoors, and no entrance fee and no food or drink are included in the price.

On this ride

Seventeen communities, two directions of the story, one ride through Paris.

Picpus cemetery, 12th arrondissement

At the gate of a private cemetery, one of the few in Paris, we tell you about the two mass graves of the Terror, where more than thirteen hundred bodies were thrown in the summer of 1794, and about La Fayette's grave. The soil covering it comes from Bunker Hill: La Fayette brought it back himself from his American journey of 1824 and 1825, and his son, whose first names were Georges Washington, scattered it over his coffin. On 4 July 1917 a colonel from General Pershing's staff came to stand over that grave and said four words that stuck: "Lafayette, we are here." The cemetery is private: the story is told from the gate, and no entrance fee is included in the price.

17 rue Godefroy, 13th arrondissement

An ordinary building and a plaque. At this address, in a small hotel since demolished, a young Chinese man who had come through the political circles of Paris lived from 1922 to 1924: Zhou Enlai, later premier of the People's Republic. His room measured four and a half square metres, just enough for an iron bed and a chair. The plaque went up in 1979, and his name in Chinese characters was written by another worker-student from the same Paris network, one Deng Xiaoping. Chinese official delegations still stop at this door.

Carrefour Vavin, Montparnasse, 6th arrondissement

The crossroads where the École de Paris met between the 1900s and 1939: Modigliani, who traded his drawings for a few francs or for a meal, Foujita and his black fringe, Soutine, Zadkine, a whole quarter of studios and terraces. In the middle of boulevard Raspail stands Rodin's Balzac: commissioned in 1891, refused by those who ordered it in 1898, cast in bronze and put up here in July 1939, twenty-two years after the sculptor's death. We look at it from the central island, without going into anything.

Galerie Vivienne, 2nd arrondissement

An arcade built in 1823 for the president of the chamber of notaries, inaugurated in 1826 under its backer's name before becoming the Galerie Vivienne. Under the glass roof, a Japanese shop opened in April 1970: the first store of Kenzo Takada, who had arrived from Tokyo five years earlier with next to nothing. His first shows, all bright colour and loose cuts, were among those that opened Paris fashion to Japanese designers. The arcade is private property: it has its own hours, you go in on foot and you do not ride inside.

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, avenue Montaigne, 8th arrondissement

On 29 May 1913 the audience tore itself apart during the premiere of the Rite of Spring: unheard-of dissonances, choreography by Nijinsky, Pierre Monteux conducting, and such an uproar that Nijinsky stood on a chair in the wings, counting the beats out loud. Stravinsky, a Russian of Paris, waited it out without showing himself. The theatre is a listed monument: the story is told on the pavement, in front of the façade, and no entrance fee is included in the price.

Jardin des Combattants-de-la-Nueve, Hôtel de Ville, 4th arrondissement

A garden beside the Hôtel de Ville carries the name of La Nueve, the company of Leclerc's division made up mostly of exiled Spanish republicans, whose vehicles were the first Allied units to enter Paris, on the evening of 24 August 1944, right up to the square in front of the Hôtel de Ville. A plaque given by the city of Madrid remembers those Spanish anti-fascists. Many of them hoped Spain would be next. They waited until 1975.

Passage Brady, 10th arrondissement

Inaugurated in April 1828, this covered arcade was meant to be the longest in Paris: two hundred and sixteen metres of gallery, three and a half metres wide. From the 1970s onwards it became the Indian and Pakistani heart of the city, cardamom, fabrics and barbers included. Ten minutes away lives the Tamil community of La Chapelle, who arrived during the Sri Lankan civil war, and it is from that quarter that the Ganesh procession sets off at the end of the summer. Like the Galerie Vivienne, the arcade has its own hours and rules: you go in on foot, and no food or drink is included in the price.

Practical details
Duration
2 h 30 to 3 h, a loop of 12 to 18 km depending on the area, starting and finishing at the same point
Level
You need to be able to ride a bike and to feel comfortable in Paris traffic: the route uses streets open to traffic, alongside cars, buses and pedestrians. The electric assist does most of the work, including on the climbs, and the guide adapts the pace to the group.
Meeting point
Paris 7th arrondissement; the exact meeting point, where the bikes are handed over and returned, is confirmed to you in writing before any payment
Group
Private only, 115 euros per person, five participants maximum per guide; beyond five participants we may be able to run a second group at the same time, subject to our availability, at the same rate per person, which we confirm to you in writing
Languages
French or English only, whichever suits your group

Booking is a request, not a firm reservation: we confirm feasibility, date, meeting point and the final price in writing before any payment. Prices are indicative, per person, all taxes included, and cover the use of a pedal-assist bike and a helmet. No entrance fees and no indoor visits are included: the stories are told from the street, the forecourt or the bridge.

Frequently asked questions about this ride

Is the tour run in my community's language?

No. Our tours are run in French or English, whichever suits your group, and in no other language. It is your community's history that is told, not the language it is told in. Tell us which you prefer when you write to us.

My community is not on the list. What then?

Write to us. Seventeen communities are in our catalogue, some with a fully developed route, others with a more condensed outline that we fill in as we go. For a country that is not there, we look at the historical material actually available in Paris and then tell you what we can build, without promising you a date by which it will be ready, before any booking and before any payment.

What do we actually see, and are entrance fees included?

We ride from place to place and everything is told outdoors, in front of façades, on squares, on forecourts and on bridges. No monument or museum entry, no interior visit, no tasting and no food or drink are included in the price. Some places do not depend on us: cemeteries, but also covered arcades and galleries, which are private property, have their own opening hours and access rules and must be entered on foot. We therefore cannot guarantee that any given place will be open or accessible on the day of your tour.

How much does it cost, and how many of us can come?

The tour is private, 115 euros per person, an indicative rate inclusive of all taxes, with five participants maximum per guide. Beyond five participants we may be able to run a second group at the same time, subject to our availability, at the same rate per person, which we confirm to you in writing. The final price is confirmed to you in writing before any payment.

How do I book, and when do I pay?

Your request is not a firm booking. We agree with you on the community, the direction of the story, the date and the meeting point, then confirm the final price and the applicable conditions in writing. Payment only comes after that written confirmation.

Other rides
Three hours on an e-bike to see the Paris you came for. The Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, Concorde, the Louvre and Notre-Dame in a single outing of about three hours, almost entirely flat, including the ride back to the departure point. Five people at most around your guide, an electric bike provided, and a story at every stop. Paris lights up, and you are in the saddle at exactly the right moment. Two and a half hours as night falls, from gilded monuments to quiet riverbanks, all the way to the Eiffel Tower's sparkle. At night we talk less and look more. Five revolutions in eighty years, from the Bastille to the Communards' Wall 1789, 1792, 1830, 1848, 1871: a little over eighty years of barricades, trials and firing squads, from the Place de la Bastille to the Communards' Wall in Père-Lachaise. About three and a half hours on an electric bike in a small group, including some thirty minutes on foot inside the cemetery, with a guide who tells you what the cobbles no longer say.

Request a booking

Booking is a request, not a firm reservation: we confirm feasibility, date, meeting point and the final price in writing before any payment. Prices are indicative, per person, all taxes included, and cover the use of a pedal-assist bike and a helmet. No entrance fees and no indoor visits are included: the stories are told from the street, the forecourt or the bridge.

Request a booking