GUIDE PARIS
ISABELLE COCATRIX : GUIDE PARIS : WALKING TOURS AND MUSEUMS
You can book your tour using the confirmation email you will receive before your arrival, or with our team who will be happy to assist you and take care of your booking.
We look forward to showing you our selection of unique and enriching tours.
ON THE FOOTSTEPS OF "QUARTIER LATIN" AND "SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS CELEBRITIES : HOTEL DE LILLE SPECIAL TOUR
The « Quartier Latin » has always been the cradle of the parisian culture. « La Sorbonne » University, founded in the 13th century, and renown high schools made it famous worldwide.
Great authors were inspired by its medieval streets and its unique atmosphere ….The neighbour « Saint-Germain-des-Prés » district is more linked to the literary world since it became, between two wars, the favorite living and working place of many American and French writers. Jacques Prévert, Raymond Queneau and André Breton used to meet Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller in the publishing companies which all opened in the area.
After war, the « existentialist » group led by the mythic couple Sartre-Beauvoir colonized the legendary brasseries « le Flore » and « Les Deux Magots », Aragon and his muse Elsa Triolet often joined them…
In the late evening, they gathered in the Tabou, the cabaret where Boris Vian and Miles Davis were performing, to listen to jazz music and dance the be-bop. During the next decades, other celebrities like the French singer Serge Gainsbourg, the emancipated writers Françoise Sagan and Marguerite Duras or the award-winning Patrick Modiano contributed to the everlasting fame of the area.
This itinerary will take you to the most celebrated places of the Quartier Latin and St Germain-des-Prés to better understand why the hotel de Lille named its rooms after these iconic figures of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. They indeed made this area unique and perenially fashionable.
Duration of the tour : 3 hours – Price up to 6 people : 300€
THE ROARING TWENTIES IN SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS
In the 20’s, many American artists moved to Paris. They were attracted by a new breathe of freedom while the prohibition was rampant in US. Most of them settled on the left bank where the artistic community had moved after the Montmartre years. This itinerary will take you on the footsteps of Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Man Ray, Josephine Baker to relive their Parisian life by discovering their living and working places from Saint-Germain-des-Prés to Montparnasse.
Duration of the tour : 3 hours – Price up to 6 people : 300€
PARIS EST UNE FÊTE
This tour is dedicated to Hemingway and his Parisian years. He moved to Paris with his first wife when he was 21 and settled on the left bank. He was then a journalist writing for the « Toronto Star » and was attracted by Paris, symbol of freedom and modernity after the Great War. He met in Paris other great writers such as Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Henry Miller and Ezra Pound and worked on his writing style with them. He was also encouraged by influent personalities like Sylvia Beach and Gertrude Stein. His novel « the moveable feast » is a true gift to the city of Paris. Let’s celebrate it through this tour on the footsteps of Hemingway parisian years.
Duration of the tour : 3 hours – Price : 300€
SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS : BIRTHPLACE OF THE EXISTENTIALISM
In between war, Saint-Germain-des-Prés welcomes a great number of literary and artistic talents such as André Breton, Jacques Prévert, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Raymond Queneau and Albert Camus. They all live in the area, very modestly, in attic rooms or in the hotel, gather in the cafés « Flore » or « Les deux Magots » to work and write papers against the German occupation. In the evening, they meet again in the existentialist « caves of Saint-Germain » (meaning formar wine cellars) to listen to jazz musicians. This permanent feast will continue after war in the famous « cabarets rive gauche » where many French talented singers performed for the first time : Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Juliette Greco …
The existentialism is a philosophical and literary movement which finally became a way of living and thinking. Let’s discover it through this itinarery.
Duration of the tour : 2 hours – Price : 200€
SAINT-GERMAIN ARTY
If you like modern and contemporary art, this tour allows you to discover the best of Saint-Germain in each domain.
The tour includes a visit of a private art school where great modern artists such as Giacometti, Fernand Léger, Modigliani studied for they didn’t want to attend the « too academic » Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. The visit allows you to discover the most famous art galleries of the area : Jeanne Bucher, Denise René, Galerie Maeght which still propose some of the greatest signatures of the 20th century but also galeries who prefered to focus on living artists.
For design lovers, the tour may concentrate on visits of private showrooms displaying vintage and contemporary furniture.
For antique lovers, the tour may concentrate on visits of antique dealers. Your guide will adjust the tour to your tastes.
Duration of the tour : 3 hours – Price : 300€ - Maximum 6 people
SAINT-GERMAIN GOURMET
The tour consists of an historical approach of the district including the visit of Saint-Germain-des-Prés church and major sites of the French Revolution. It also includes a few gourmet stops in renown food stores such as Pierre Hermé, Poilane, Patrick Roger and the Grande Epicerie de Paris. The tour ends with a cheese and wine tasting in the covered market.
Duration of the tour : 3 hours – Price : 300€ (+ 25€/pers for the tastings).
