Photo from my last visit to Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 2017
I’ve visited Paris five times in the past, but about a week ago, I took a private guided tour of St-Germain-des-Prés without even leaving my bed! How was this possible? Well, Travel Me Paris offers tailor-made tours of Paris with professional Personal Travellers (official, certified tour guides) who livestream the private tour so you can enjoy it from the comfort of your home. It was perfect timing because I had recently broken my leg in a ski accident and since I was confined to the bedroom, the two and a half hour tour was a welcome distraction.
How it works:
- Choose your Parisian experience from an array of interesting themes and neighbourhoods: Travelme-paris.com
- Select the date and time for your tour (you can book more than one tour!)
- Press Book Now and then proceed to the Check Out
- You will receive an email confirmation with a link to your personal tour
- The day before your tour, you will receive an email reminder
- The day of your tour, you will receive a final reminder with the link to connect to the livestream, approximately 10 mins prior to the start time
- Your Personal Traveler will greet you and take you on a guided experience that you will not soon forget! Feel free to ask questions and allow yourself to be charmed by the beauty and history of the City of Light.
I chose The Famous Left Bank experience with Delphine and had a wonderful time rediscovering “la fameuse Rive Gauche.” We started out in a little garden outside of the Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés where we popped inside for a quiet moment, we strolled past the neighbourhood’s two most renowned brasseries; Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots, once frequented by some of the world’s most celebrated writers and philosophers. We spotted the popular Brasserie Lipp and ducked down a little side street behind Le Procope, the oldest Parisian restaurant (founded in 1686) where Voltaire once dined. Delphine guided me into the Passage des Arts, a historic passageway where we found La Jacobine, a little unpretentious restaurant and tea room.
My expert tour guide Delphine from Travel Me Paris
We also visited the Jardin du Luxembourg, le Musée du Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Palace, built for Marie de’ Medici, the widow of King Henry IV, but now home to the French Senate. We admired the Hausmannian buildings surrounding the Place de Furstenberg, walked past the Église Saint-Sulpice and we ended our visit at, perhaps ironically, the Place du Québec in front of an impressive bronze sculpture/fountain by Quebec sculptor Charles Daudelin, that was gifted to the city of Paris in 1984 by the Quebec government. It gives the impression that slabs of the sidewalk are bursting open, representing the breaking up of the ice floes in spring on the Saint Lawrence River. It was quite the climatic final scene on which to end our tour!
Screen grab from the end of our tour at Place du Québec in Paris
The tours cost approximately $200 each, but are well worth it. There is no limit to the number of people you can have watch the tour with you. It would make a great gift for anyone who is housebound, travel-wary or even as a group activity.
Note: the experience was offered to me by Travel-Me Paris in order for me to share my experience with you – all opinions are my own.
