There are so many tours to choose from in Paris… Whether you want to be whisked off on your adventure by bike, boat, balloon, Segway or foot (I have yet to find a horseback tour, but I’m sure someone, somewhere is cooking one up), a tour exists to help make that dream come true.

Having that many options at your fingertips can be overwhelming. That’s why we make it our duty here at Haven in Paris to scour the city tirelessly for the very best tours to recommend to our clients. I’ve been lucky enough to meet more than my fair share and have compiled a list of four of my favorites, chosen because they are so original, in depth and because the people behind them are amazing characters themselves!

Musée D’Orsay (Manolo Blanco)

Time Travelers Tours

Sara Towle’s “Time Travelers Tour” StoryApp (downloadable to the iPhone) is one of the most original Paris tours I’ve experienced. This labor of love started out as a book geared towards children and has evolved into an fully interactive, fact-filled, historical adventure through Paris. The first tour in the series, “Beware of Madame la Guillotine”, reveals the stories behind the landmarks and personalities associated with the French Revolution. It’s perfect for adults and children alike (I had a great day out following the tour with my husband)!

You can download the Time Travelers Tour App for your iPhone here or here.

French perfume and a lovely hotel particulier - Bee.girl; Meredith Tucker

Chris Lomon – Secret Paris Shopping and Walking Tours

Chris specializes in bespoke walking and shopping tours of Paris. His love for the city and natural curiosity for everything it has to offer is evident. He’s practically an encyclopedia of addresses and historical facts and has a special knack for uncovering hidden gems and unlocking closed doors. During our tour, I mentioned my passion for architecture, and Chris promptly sweet-talked his way into a 17^th century Hotel Particulier nearby, which now houses government offices so I could take a peek at the amazing courtyard and marvel at a special floating stone staircase (he also filled me in on the sordid history of the hotel’s original owner, most intriguing!)

Contact Chris directly here

Gwenael Piaser

Context Travel

The wonderful people at Context Travel are the experts when it comes to in-depth tours in almost any category. Their guides are often graduate students or experts in their field, and their tours are distillations that will inform and expand your knowledge of art, history, architecture, food and wine. An evening spent on their “Musee D’Orsay and Paris in the 19^th Century” tour has forever changed the way I look at the art and artists of that era. Not only did I learn about the life and times of the epoch, I was also taught how to examine the works and give context to their creation. Now I walk through the museum with a smile on my face and the satisfaction that I know so much about the masterpieces housed in those hallowed galleries.

Contact Context Travel directly here

Juliette Satidi

Progressio – French Niche Fragrances Perfume Testing

Ok, this is more of a lesson than a tour, but since you get to visit some of the most exclusive perfume houses in Paris (and because it so darn fun), I thought I’d add it to my list of favorites. Progressio’s resident expert, Teresa, gives you a full history of the French perfume industry and the basics of scent construction before putting your nose to the test through a heavenly perfume “sampling.” There is also a short language lesson, which teaches you the French phrases and words that will have you shopping for perfume like a local.  My favorite parts though, were the visits to the specialty perfume houses of Paris. These beautiful little boutiques are filled with formulas so well crafted, they are like liquid works of art, and because many of the fragrances are only sold in these boutiques (you can’t find them anywhere else), they’re almost as rare!

Contact Progressio directly here

What about you? Do you know of any great tour services, or original ways to experience everything Paris has to offer?

Related Links

• For more recommended Paris service providers (tours, chauffeurs, concierge, massage, yoga…) check out Haven in Paris’ recommendations here
• Looking for a personal shopper, we love Linda Harrad and Lilye (Shopping by Lilye)
• For friendly Paris bike and segway tours with English-speaking guides, check out Fat Tire Bike Tours

Written by Ariel for the Hip Paris Blog. All photos by Michael Tucker. For our amazing rentals in Paris, Provence & Tuscany check out our website Haven in Paris.

Boat ride on the Seine; photo by Maggie Battista

I’m dreaming of Paris. Again. This happens when I’m in the States.

I just returned from a month-long trip to France. I traveled up and down the south of France, exploring most of Provence while fighting the devious Mistral winds. I spent a fabulous girls weekend in Normandy, sipping cidre and finally visiting Mont Saint Michel. And I drank small cups of espressos and not-so-small glasses of red wine all over our favorite city, Paris. I’m home in cold, rainy New England, missing out on too many fun November events across the pond. Here’s a peek into what I’m missing:

1. I really wanted to learn how to make macarons in Paris, and La Cuisine Paris offers a wonderful class on the subject. I’m living through their wonderful posts on their Facebook page.

Basquiat artwork; photos by mauidw and Eduardo Nasi

2. I adore the artist Basquiat, and spend tons of time in his old stomping grounds, downtown New York City. I was hoping to make it to the new exhibit at the Paris Musee de Art Moderne. The show is on through January 30, 2011, so perhaps you’ll be able to see it and report back?

3. I miss my lazy walks around Paris, the type where I walk and eat and walk and eat, and then eat some more. I have been dying to go on one of the cuisine-inspired walks hosted by the fabulous guides at Context Travel. I did get to hug Lily, Context’s Paris representative, at a meet-up in Paris, but never got to go on one of her walks. Ahh, next time… because that Bobo Palate class looks so fun!

Beaujolais Nouveau; photos by DH and Oncle Tom

4. The Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in a couple weeks. I’ve always celebrated this grand moment, on the third Thursday in November, in the States, but thought it would have been so special to celebrate it, and drink loads of red wine, in the city I so strongly correlate with red wine. I won’t skip the wine, but will miss the momentous moment in Paris.

5. I had hoped to make it up to London on this trip, but the weather (and silly strikes) simply weren’t in my favor. We have a great like-minded group of pals up in London renting some pretty special flats. I was totally hoping to stay with One Fine Stay.

Paris at sunset; photo by RavenFire

6. When I return from trips, I always cart back food and photos. Sometimes the photos are on my camera, sometimes they’re in little portrait books or photo books I gather from galleries or museums. It’s just my luck that the moment I’m back home, the annual photography fair, Paris Photo, is happening. If you go, pick up a photo book for me, please?

7. I love a good Monet exhibit and I’m missing the one at the Grand Palais right now. Make sure to book tickets in advance, as I hear it’s tougher to get into than Frenchie – which is also on my list for my next trip!

I’m a little bit sad about it all, but I have to look at the bright side. First, I got to spend a month in France. (So stop complaining, right?!) Second, perhaps you’re visiting soon and would love to update me on these chic events? Of course, if you need an apartment, you know where to look. (Haven in Paris is featuring some hot special offers with up to 35% off!) Make sure to report back to me on how fun all of this truly was… Perhaps I can live vicariously through YOU this season?

And if you can get into Frenchie, well, don’t tell me that. I’ll be way too jealous!

Frenchie restaurant; photo by Hotel Paris Rive Gauche

Related Links:

• Haven in Paris, for lovely Paris apartments for your visit, and great hot special offers
• La Cuisine Paris, for Paris food classes
• Musee de Art Moderne, for that cool Basquiat exhibit
• Context Travel, a link to all their cuisine classes
• One Fine Stay, our London pals who offer lovely flats up across the pond.
• Paris Photo, the annual photography fair in Paris
• Grand Palais, their website where you can see all current exhibits
• Frenchie, the link to the famed hard-to-get-into restaurant — but don’t go without me!

Every season ushers in a series of new exhibits in Paris and one of the most talked about this autumn is certainly “Claude Monet 1840-1926″ at the Grand Palais. Slightly skeptical due to all the buzz, I visited the show last week to see if it was actually worth all the hype… and left two and a half hours later completely enchanted by the artistic impressions of the master impressionist.

The retrospective is certainly a must for impressionist art-lovers, bringing together over 200 works from 70 international collections, it offers a once in a lifetime chance to see so many of his paintings united side by side. Many of the works come from the Musée d’Orsay, however, dozens come from North America, where an avid appreciation of the Impressionists developed much ahead of France.

I was rather lucky to tour the exhibit with artist Marie Theres Berger who gave us some wonderful insight into the works on display, the artist’s career and his personal life. The show was beautifully curated, with the works organized thematically instead of purely chronologically, demonstrating how Monet’s style evolved through his subject matter, often revisiting the same subjects years later, such as the stormy Normandy coastline. Visitors can also admire Monet’s experiments with light through his famous series, including the lofty haystacks and the façade of the Rouen Cathedral painted at different times of day.

My favorite part of the exhibit was probably the section dedicated to people, because this was the most surprising, the artist being first and foremost revered for his landscapes and flowers. Figures were merely a continuation of his study of light and color, nevertheless, it was fascinating to see his depictions of his first wife, the very pretty Camille, and his artist friend Frédéric Bazille in the various Déjeuner sur l’herbe.paintings and other scenes, giving us a little peak into Monet’s private life.

The one disappointment of the exhibit (besides the crowded traffic jam at the very beginning of the show) was the poor representation of his later works. The last room of the show, dedicated to the end of his life, is rather sparse and the painting not among his best. I guess visitors will just have to go to the Orangerie Museum afterwards to admire his large water-lily tableaux there!

The exhibit runs through January 24^, it is highly advisable to purchase advance tickets to the exhibit and to aim to go either first thing in the morning or in the evening to escape the intense crowds. Context Travel is organizing very small group tours of the exhibit led by art experts on Monet.

Related Links:

• Context Travel’s walking tour of the Monet exhibit
• FIAC, Paris’ big contemporary art fair is also happening this week
• Cutlog, the newest contemporary art fair, is taking place at the Bourse du Commerce

Written by Lily Heise from Context Travel. Looking for a fabulous vacation rental in Paris, Provence, or Tuscany? Check out our website Haven in Paris.

Erica Berman

The lucky guests were to hear all about David’s decadent new dessert cookbook and the inevitable trials and tribulations of his life  amongst the frenchies. We also got to learn about Meg and her culinary adventures. Meg is a Paris food writer and is currently in the final stages of developing (along with quite an impressive team) a new Paris foodie website, “Paris by Mouth” to be unveiled on June 1…..more on that soon on the HiP Paris Blog! As my friend Claudia from Miami is in town doing decorating wonders for a client, I invited her to join in the fun. It was an evening of fabulous food and conversation galore – one to remember and hopefully repeat. Below Claudia reminisces about this unique Parisian experience.  Enjoy! – Erica

Our friends over at Context Travel are offering awesome discounts on some wintery walks this month. Tell them Haven in Paris sent you and get 15% off on these tours:

Photo: Erica Berman

So bundle up and hit the streets! To reserve your tour today, call +33.1.70.61.07.66 or email info@contexttravel.com.

About Context Tours: Context is a network of around 200 scholars and experts who lead walking seminars on a variety of culture-related topics. All walks are capped at 6 people, creating an intimate learning experience. To celebrate the holiday season, Context Paris is happy to offer clients of Haven in Paris a 15% discount on any of these walks taking place over the holidays.

Written by Tory Hoen for the HiP Paris Blog. Looking for a fabulous vacation rental in Paris, Provence, or Tuscany? Check out Haven in Paris.

photos courtesy of laduree.fr & chocolatezoom.com

There are many ways to experience Paris, but one of the more decadent ones is, simply, to follow the chocolate. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing just that when I tagged along on Context Tour’s “Chocolate Walk,” a chocoholic’s dream that took me to many of the Left Bank’s most delicious (and gastronomically prestigious) addresses.

We began the tour in front of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, where our docent, Camille Labro, pulled an actual cocoa pod (which she had recently brought from Brazil) out of her handbag and gave us a quick rundown on the plant’s important role in world history.  Over the next few hours, we would learn the ins-and-outs of chocolate production and consumption, from its historical roots in South America to its modern incarnations in Paris and throughout the world.

Labro, a food writer whose career has taken her from Berkeley to Provence to New York to Paris, is one of the four docents who lead Context’s “Chocolate Walk.” And while her route was well mapped out, she assured us, “all of my tours are customized.” True to her word, she allowed plenty of time for us to follow our individual gastronomical and cultural whims, whether that meant lingering over a truffle or taking a moment to marvel at a row of smoked Spanish hams in a nearby shop window.

Our first stop was Debauve & Gallais, a maison de chocolat founded in 1800, which claims to have been the chosen chocolate supplier of various French kings.

Upon entering the shop, housed in an old pharmacy, we could not resist their famous pistoles, chocolate coins crafted in remembrance of Marie Antoinette. We sampled a variety of flavors, most memorable of which was the chocolat de santé, or “health chocolate,” whose cocoa content was 99%. Though not easy on the taste buds, this particular pistole certainly conveyed the essence of unadulterated cocoa.

Our second stop was the sensational Pascal Caffet on rue Jacob. After tasting their Caramel Poire, caramel and pear liqueur surrounded by 70% Venezuelan dark chocolate, I quickly understood why this chocolatier has been distinguished as a “Meilleur Ouvrier de France”—a title bestowed upon food producers who uphold the highest standards in gastronomic quality and integrity.

From here, we made our way down the winding streets of the 6^th arrondissement, dodging in and out of shops to taste and gawk to our hearts’ delight.

No chocolate tour would be complete without a sampling of the famous French macarons, the preferred dessert of many French royals (long before they became favorites of hungry tourists). We hit up the elegant Ladurée to sample classic flavors—chocolate, salted caramel, rose-infused—and later made our way to the much-loved Pierre Hermé boutique to taste macarons with a modern twist. So, who makes the best macaron? The debate rages on. We will have to continue researching.

photo courtesy of: mieletcannelle.wordpress.com

Our final stop was the sleek shop of Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini, whose address on the Rue de Seine felt more like an haute-couture clothing boutique than it did a chocolate house. Elegantly displayed in glass cases, his products evoke high art—though their visual appeal should not stop you from devouring them with abandon.

After a few hours of chocolate touring, I had expected to feel—at best—lethargic and—at worst—fatally ill.  On the contrary, I am now completely convinced of the cocoa plant’s much lauded benefits: mood elevation, anti-oxidizing powers, anti-bacterial effects, and all around magic. At the conclusion of the tour, I was left with the feeling that all was right in the world. An afternoon of chocolate will do that to you.

The approx. 3-hour walk takes place in the 6th arrondissement. Prices are 90€/person or 410€ for a private tour. Tours are limited to 6 guests.

The Chocolate Walk is just one of the many themed tours offered by Context Travel, whose docents are experts in various fields including art, architecture, history, theology, cuisine, shopping, and lifestyle.

photo courtesy of laduree.fr

For more information on Context’s Parisian tours, you can visit their website at: http://www.contexttravel.com/paris/.

Walking Seminars:

Context’s walking seminars of Paris are much more than a typical walking tour. Their network of historians, architects, curators, writers, sommeliers and chefs help the intellectually curious traveler understand and investigate Paris on a deeper level. They have a diverse weekly calendar of small group walks (limited to 6 people) or they can organize any of their walks for a private party to suit individual schedules.

The three-hour walks of museums, art galleries and other monuments are complemented by thematic explorations of the city. Some of the Paris highlights include:

* Louvre: French Masters – delve into awe-inspiring paintings accompanied by an art historian, curator or artist
* Le Restaurant: A Paris Invention – understand and enjoy the evolution of restaurant dining along with a food historian at Lapérouse Restaurant
* Marais Mansions – explore the Golden Age of sixteenth century architecture with a Parisian architect
* Medieval Life & Society – relive the Middle-Ages through the eyes of a medievalist
* Paris Food Crawl – get a behind the scenes visit of boulangeries, fromageries and specialty shops led by a food writer
* City of Light at Night – explore the evening ambiance of Paris while strolling along some of the city’s beautifully lit streets

Context also offers private half and full day excursions from Paris (Chartres, Reims, Vaux le Vicomte, Rouen and Giverny). In addition, they can develop custom tours catering to their clients travel requests in and outside Paris.

For full details please see: www.contexttravel.com/?ref=HIP
Or contact us at info@contexttravel.com
from abroad: +1 215 609 4471 (this is a U.S. number that rings in France)

within France: 01 72 81 36 35