Of Gods and Hills: from the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève to the Butte Montmartre

About four hours between two sacred hills, roughly twenty kilometres, starting and finishing in the 7th arrondissement. The electric assist takes the climbs; you keep your breath for the stories. Everything is told outdoors, and no admission or refreshment is included in the price.

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Of Gods and Hills links two heights that each founded Paris in their own way: the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, where a shepherdess from Nanterre became the patron saint of the city, and the Butte Montmartre, where legend has bishop Denis beheaded around the year 250. Between the two, roughly twenty kilometres and about four hours starting from the 7th arrondissement: the Panthéon, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, the Great Mosque of Paris, whose visit and mint tea are included, Notre-Dame from the forecourt and the quays, Saint-Eustache, then the crossing north and the climb of the Sacré-Cœur, before we ride back together to the starting point.

Here too, most of the account is given outdoors. In front of the Great Mosque of Paris, inaugurated on 15 July 1926 by President Gaston Doumergue and Sultan Moulay Youssef, the account stays precise: the building came out of the First World War and the tens of thousands of Muslim soldiers who died for France, Parliament voted its subsidy in the law of 19 August 1920, two years after the armistice, and during the Occupation lives were saved here through false certificates of Muslim identity, under the rectorate of Si Kaddour Benghabrit, with documented cases whose number historians still debate. The account begins outside, reading the façade and the thirty-three-metre minaret from the street, and the visit to the building and the mint tea are then included in the price. The interiors are visited in silence, on the terms and opening hours the place itself sets, and the ride never runs on a Friday, when the Great Mosque is closed to visitors. Nothing is dressed up, and no position is taken.

You ride Tern pedal-assist electric bikes, helmet provided, with a guide alongside you from start to finish and a maximum of five participants. Beyond five people we may be able to run a second group at the same time, depending on our availability, at the same rate; we confirm that to you in writing. You need to be able to ride a bike and to feel comfortable in Paris traffic: the route uses streets open to traffic, including some busy roads between Les Halles and northern Paris. One sequence only is on foot, the final climb of the Butte from the square, about fifteen minutes at walking pace, with the bikes left locked at the bottom.

The indicative price is 105 euros per person, all taxes included, on a shared ride, and 125 euros per person, all taxes included, on a private ride. It includes the visit to the Great Mosque of Paris and the mint tea. It includes no other monument admission and no other food or drink bought from third parties: not the Panthéon, whose admission is charged and which we tell from the square, and not the Montmartre funicular. Your date request is not a firm booking: we come back to you, normally within two working days, with a slot, a meeting point and the final price, which is confirmed to you in writing before any payment. Because this is a leisure service supplied on a specific date, article L. 221-28, 12° of the French Consumer Code sets aside the fourteen-day right of withdrawal; our cancellation and postponement terms are set out in our general terms and conditions, which are provided to you before any payment.

On this ride

Of Gods and Hills: from the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève to the Butte Montmartre

Departure, Paris 7th arrondissement, and across to the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève

We meet in the 7th arrondissement: saddle height, helmet, a trial of the electric assist, and the handful of rules that make Paris traffic comfortable. Then we cross the Left Bank eastwards, twenty minutes of riding along the river and through the streets of the 6th, with one idea in mind: Paris is a city of hills that everyone has forgotten, because everyone climbs them by metro. You are about to climb two of them, and the electric assist will do half the work.

Place du Panthéon

The story starts in front of a building that changed religion more often than most regimes last: a votive church promised by Louis XV in thanks for a recovery, turned into a Panthéon of great men in 1791, returned to Catholic worship by Napoleon in 1806, who kept the crypt for the dignitaries of the Empire, a panthéon again in 1830, a temple of Humanity in 1848, a church under the Second Empire, until Victor Hugo's funeral in 1885 settled the matter for good. It was here that Foucault hung his pendulum in 1851, giving the first public demonstration of the Earth's rotation, under the dome of a former church. Admission to the monument is charged and is not included in our price: we tell all of it from the square.

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont

The church of the patron saint of Paris. In 1793 the silver reliquary of Saint Geneviève was melted down and her relics destroyed; only a fragment survives, and the stone of her tomb, brought here in 1803, is now the most venerated object in the building, in a chapel refitted in 1853. If the church is open, nothing stops you stepping in for a few silent minutes to see the only rood screen left in Paris, a lacework of sixteenth-century stone with two staircases winding around its pillars, and the memorial slabs of Pascal and Racine, whose remains were moved from Port-Royal in 1711. We do not guarantee it and no admission is included. Outside, the steps on the north side are the ones where Owen Wilson waits for midnight in Woody Allen's film.

The Great Mosque of Paris, visit included

A thirty-three-metre minaret in the heart of the Latin Quarter, inaugurated on 15 July 1926 by President Gaston Doumergue and Sultan Moulay Youssef: Parliament had voted its subsidy in the law of 19 August 1920, two years after the armistice of a war in which tens of thousands of Muslim soldiers died for France. Craftsmen from North Africa carved the plasterwork and laid the zellige tiles, in a Hispano-Moorish style that quotes Fez and Granada in the middle of the 5th arrondissement. The story begins outside, in front of the façade, and the visit to the building and the mint tea are then included in the price. The interiors are visited in silence, on the terms and opening hours the place itself sets, and the ride never runs on a Friday, when the mosque is closed to visitors.

Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame

A condensed version, from the forecourt and the quays: building work begun in 1163 and finished around 1345, masons following one another over close to two centuries, then 15 April 2019 and the roof timbers known as the Forest, rebuilt with oaks hewn by hand with an axe as they were in the thirteenth century. On the forecourt, the bronze medallion of point zero of the roads of France. At the summit, since 16 December 2023, a rooster designed by Philippe Villeneuve holds three relics and a sealed tube with the names of nearly two thousand people from the site: that is the image we keep for the end. No admission is included and we do not speak inside.

Saint-Eustache

The church of the belly of Paris, where Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was baptised on 15 January 1622, long before he became Molière, and where Louis XIV made his first communion around 1649. On 4 July 1778 it hosted the funeral of Anna Maria Mozart, who died in Paris during the tour of her twenty-two-year-old son, who did not follow her to the graveyard. The organ, one of the largest in France with some eight thousand pipes, still plays inside an eighteen-metre case raised in the middle of the nineteenth century to designs by Victor Baltard, the architect of the market halls that once stood right opposite.

Crossing to Montmartre, rue des Martyrs

Twenty minutes of riding due north, through Les Halles, up rue Montmartre and then rue des Martyrs, whose gentle gradient the electric assist absorbs for you. This is the moment the ride links the two sacred hills of Paris in the same morning, with no climbing effort, and the moment you understand through your pedals that the city is built on ridges of limestone and gypsum. Rue des Martyrs owes its name to the same legend as the Butte, that of Denis and his companions.

The Butte, the Sacré-Cœur and the ride back

The bikes stay locked at the bottom and we walk up through the square: the name Montmartre has hesitated since the Middle Ages between the mount of martyrs and the mount of Mars, and legend has bishop Denis beheaded here around 250, before setting off north with his head under his arm. On the forecourt we tell the story of a long-debated basilica, declared of public utility by the law of 24 July 1873, with work starting in 1875, the nave inaugurated in 1891, consecrated on 16 October 1919 after the war, completed in 1923 and classified as a historic monument in 2022. Its Savoyarde bell, cast in Annecy in 1895, weighs 18,835 kilos and remains the largest bell in France; its Château-Landon stone exudes a calcin that whitens it again with every shower. Access to the nave is free when the basilica is open, with no commentary and no photographs from us, and is not part of the service. We then walk back down and ride together to the starting point, in the 7th arrondissement, where the bikes are returned.

Practical details
Duration
About 4 hours, stops, the climb on foot and the ride back to the starting point included, for roughly 20 kilometres
Level
Hilly, and the electric assist takes care of it; you need to be able to ride a bike and to feel comfortable in Paris traffic; final climb of the Butte on foot, about fifteen minutes
Meeting point
Paris 7th arrondissement, 26 rue Bosquet; the ride starts and ends at the same point, exact time confirmed in writing when you book
Group
5 participants at most per guide; beyond five people we may be able to run a second group at the same time, depending on our availability, at the same rate, confirmed in writing
Languages
French or English, your choice in your request

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, as well as the visit to the Great Mosque of Paris and the mint tea. That visit depends on the establishment's own arrangements and opening hours, which we check before confirming your slot; the ride never runs on a Friday, when the mosque is closed to visitors. No other admission is included: the other monuments are told from the street, the forecourt or the square.

Frequently asked questions about this ride

Does this ride run every day?

We prefer Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The ride never runs on a Friday, when the Great Mosque is closed to visitors, and we avoid summer weekends when Montmartre is very busy and the Butte hard to talk over. Opening days and hours of the buildings on the route are set by each of them and can change without notice: we check the Great Mosque's visiting arrangements before confirming your slot, and if the visit cannot take place we offer you another date or adjust the price. Give us your possible dates and we confirm the slot in writing.

What does the price include?

The Tern pedal-assist bike, the helmet, your guide from start to finish and the storytelling. It also includes the visit to the Great Mosque of Paris and the mint tea. It includes no other monument admission and no other food or drink: the Panthéon charges for entry and we tell it from the square, and the Montmartre funicular is run by a third party. What the service covers, the date and the final price are confirmed to you in writing before any payment. In front of places of worship, covered shoulders and discretion are expected.

Do I need to be fit?

No, but you do need to be able to ride a bike and to feel comfortable in Paris traffic: the route uses streets open to traffic for roughly twenty kilometres. The electric assist absorbs the climbs, rue des Martyrs included. Only one sequence is on foot, the final climb of the Butte from the square, about fifteen minutes at an easy pace: take that into account when choosing your route, because the Montmartre funicular is run by a third party, is not included in our price and is sometimes out of service. We do not currently offer a wheelchair-adapted version of this route.

Where are the bikes during the climb on foot?

They stay locked together at the foot of the Butte, on public ground, for the climb and the way back down, about forty minutes in all. We ask you to leave nothing of value on them and to take bags, phones and papers with you. The ride sets off again from that point for the return to the 7th arrondissement.

How does booking work?

Your request is neither a payment nor a firm booking: you send us a preferred date, a route and a number of participants, and we come back to you, normally within two working days, with a slot, a meeting point and the final price. The indicative price is 105 euros per person, all taxes included, on a shared ride, and 125 euros per person, all taxes included, on a private ride. The final price is confirmed to you in writing before any payment. Because the service is supplied on a specific date, the fourteen-day right of withdrawal does not apply, under article L. 221-28, 12° of the French Consumer Code; our general terms and conditions set out cancellation and postponement.

Other rides
The Sacred Cradle: eight centuries of Paris religious heritage, from the Latin Quarter to the Marais Three and a half guided hours, almost entirely flat, linking the medieval churches of the Left Bank, the forecourt of Notre-Dame and the streets of the Marais. The stories are told outdoors, on forecourts, pavements and bridges. Start and finish at the same point, in the 7th arrondissement. 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.

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, as well as the visit to the Great Mosque of Paris and the mint tea. That visit depends on the establishment's own arrangements and opening hours, which we check before confirming your slot; the ride never runs on a Friday, when the mosque is closed to visitors. No other admission is included: the other monuments are told from the street, the forecourt or the square.

Request a booking