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.

Ask for a date for Essential Paris See prices

Essential Paris is the first-time tour, the one you do before all the others. In three hours and about fourteen kilometres, including the ride back to the departure point, you link the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, the Place de la Concorde, the Louvre and the forecourt of Notre-Dame, with a proper break in the Tuileries garden. The electric assist takes care of the distances, so you keep your breath for the stories. There are five of you at most around your guide: you can hear each other, ask your questions, and the pace follows the group rather than the other way round.

The route is no secret. It is the one everyone expects, which is exactly why it works, and the difference lies in how it is run. A Tern pedal-assist bike set to your height, a helmet, a few minutes to get the feel of it before we set off, and a guide who knows the city, its characters and its backstage. Monuments are told from the street, the forecourt or the bridge, where the view is open and the group stays together. We go inside nothing: no entrance fees, no interior visits and nothing to eat or drink are included in the price.

Departure is from the 7th arrondissement of Paris, and we confirm the exact meeting point in writing. Allow about three hours including stops, on a route that is almost entirely flat and that uses streets open to traffic. The storytelling ends in front of Notre-Dame, then we ride back together to the departure point in the 7th, where you hand back the bike and the helmet. Indicative price, all taxes included: €75 per person on a shared tour, €95 on a private tour, also per person; we confirm the final price in writing before any payment. Beyond five participants we may be able to run a second group at the same time, subject to our availability, at the same price per person; we confirm that to you in writing. The exact route is adjusted on the day to suit weather, crowds and traffic.

On this ride

Three hours on an e-bike to see the Paris you came for.

Trocadéro and the Champ-de-Mars

We start with one of the most recognisable silhouettes in the world, built for the 1889 World's Fair in two years, two months and five days. The original contract had it taken down on 31 December 1909, and what saved it was science: the wireless telegraphy station set up at its foot by Captain Ferrié from 1903 carried army messages thousands of kilometres. On 1 January 1910 the City renewed the concession instead of demolishing the tower. We tell the story from the street and from the esplanade; going up the tower is not included in the price.

Hôtel des Invalides

Louis XIV founded it by edict of 24 February 1670 for his wounded soldiers, who until then had been begging in the streets, and building began the following year. Beneath the dome, regilded in 1989 with a dozen kilos of gold laid leaf by leaf, Napoleon has lain since 2 April 1861 in six coffins one inside the other, within a red quartzite sarcophagus; his body had come back from Saint Helena on 15 December 1840 and waited twenty years in a side chapel for the tomb to be ready. The story is told from the esplanade: entry to the dome and the tomb is not included in the price.

Pont Alexandre III

Tsar Nicholas II laid the first stone on 7 October 1896, alongside President Félix Faure, and the bridge carries his own father's name, Alexander III, the man of the Franco-Russian alliance. Opened on 14 April 1900, the day the World's Fair began, it crosses the river in a single arch spanning one hundred and seven metres, with no pier in the Seine so as to block neither the shipping lane nor the view down to the Invalides. From the deck, the Eiffel Tower comes into view downstream, to the west.

Place de la Concorde

It was once called Place de la Révolution, and the guillotine worked here in spells between 1792 and 1794: Louis XVI was executed here on 21 January 1793, the machine then stood on the square from 11 May 1793 to 9 June 1794, and it came back on 28 July 1794 for Robespierre. The Luxor obelisk, more than three thousand years old, is the oldest monument in Paris: raised on 25 October 1836 in front of Louis-Philippe and an enormous crowd, it had been chosen precisely because it offended nobody, neither royalist nor revolutionary. Work to redesign the square runs until 2029, so depending on the site this stop may be moved or made on foot.

Tuileries garden, the break

The break falls in the middle of the tour, in the garden redesigned by André Le Nôtre in the 1660s, a man born in 1613 into a family that had already been tending these terraces for two generations and who took charge of them himself in 1637. That wide open space in front of you was once a wall: the Tuileries Palace, burnt in May 1871 and pulled down in 1883, closed the view between the Louvre and Concorde. The break depends on the garden's opening hours; the kiosks and cafés you will find there are independent of Wander, open on their own hours, and nothing to eat or drink is included in the price.

Louvre, Cour Carrée and pyramid

A fortress in the twelfth century, then a royal palace, then a museum: the Muséum central des arts was inaugurated on 10 August 1793, one year to the day after the fall of the monarchy, and only really opened to the public that November. On 21 August 1911, a Monday and a closing day, a former glazier of the museum lifted the Mona Lisa off the wall, removed the frame and the glass, slipped the poplar panel under his smock and walked calmly out; the painting stayed missing until December 1913, and it was that theft which made it world-famous. We stay in the courtyard: entry to the museum is not included in the price.

Pont Neuf, the Notre-Dame forecourt and the ride back

The Pont Neuf is, with some irony, the oldest bridge still standing in Paris: begun under Henri III in 1578, interrupted by the Wars of Religion, finished in 1607, and the first built with no houses on it, with pavements to keep pedestrians clear of the mud and the horses. The storytelling ends in front of Notre-Dame, near the star marking point zero of French roads, from which road distances to Paris are measured. The cathedral surroundings are a building site until 2028: access to the star itself is not guaranteed and the final stop may be shifted by a few dozen metres. We then ride back together to the departure point in the 7th, where you hand back the bike.

Practical details
Duration
About 3 hours including stops and the break, for around 14 kilometres, the ride back to the departure point included
Level
Easy, almost entirely flat, but you need to be able to ride a bike and to be comfortable in Paris traffic: the route uses streets open to traffic. Open to adults and to teenagers able to ride independently, minors remaining the responsibility of an adult present on the tour; helmet provided, and compulsory for under-12s under French road rules (article R. 431-1-3)
Meeting point
Paris 7th arrondissement, exact meeting point confirmed in writing; the storytelling ends in front of Notre-Dame and the group rides back together to the departure point, where the bike is handed back
Group
Maximum 5 participants per guide; beyond 5 we may be able to run a second group at the same time, subject to our availability and at the same price per person, which we confirm to you in writing
Languages
French or English, tell us which 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. 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

Do I need to be a good cyclist?

You need to be able to ride a bike and to be comfortable in Paris traffic: the route uses streets open to traffic, shared with cars, buses, scooters and pedestrians. The electric assist takes care of the effort, including on the few climbs, but it is no substitute for being at ease in the saddle. We take a few minutes at the start to get you comfortable on the bike, the guide adapts the pace to the group, and the route favours cycle lanes and quiet streets as much as possible. This is not a tour on which to learn to cycle.

Do we go inside the monuments?

No. The stories are told from the street, the forecourt or the bridge, where the view is open and the group stays together. No entrance fees and no interior visits are included in the price. The break is taken in the Tuileries garden, subject to the garden's opening hours; the kiosks and cafés there are independent of Wander, open on their own hours, and nothing to eat or drink is included.

How does booking work?

You send us a request with a date, a route and a number of participants. That is not yet a firm booking: we come back to you within 24 to 48 hours with a slot, a meeting point and the exact price, all confirmed in writing before any payment. Because the tour is supplied on an agreed date, there is no right of withdrawal once it is booked (article L. 221-28, 12° of the French Consumer Code); postponement and cancellation terms are set out in our terms and conditions.

Where does the tour end and where do I hand the bike back?

The storytelling ends in front of Notre-Dame, then the group rides back together to the departure point in the 7th arrondissement, where you hand back the bike and the helmet. That return leg is included in the three hours and in the fourteen kilometres quoted. The exact arrangements, including the meeting point and the expected finishing time, are confirmed to you in writing before any payment.

What happens if it rains?

A little rain does not stop us; the route is simply adapted. If conditions would make the outing uncomfortable or unsafe, we let you know as early as possible and offer you either a new date or a refund, on the terms set out in our terms and conditions.

Other rides
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. The writers' Left Bank, from the Île Saint-Louis to Saint-Germain-des-Prés Seven stops between the Île Saint-Louis and the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where people sculpted, wrote, drank a great deal of coffee and put the world to rights out loud. About three hours on an electric bike in a small group, with a break halfway round; anything you order there is at your own expense.

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