Tour

The trendy youth of Paris is always in search of new, authentic places to live and hang out in. In the Parc Buttes Chaumont, they have found such a place. Around the 'French central park', you will find the densest concentration of hipsters and chic bohemians pushing strollers in their new playground. Of course, they have good reasons for their preference: this neighborhood, one of the greenest in Paris, and is certainly the best in town for quality of life. Sharing an aperitif in and around Les Buttes Chaumont is the one of the best way to watch the bohemian world of Paris go by. 

Your private guide will take you all the way to the terrace of the authentic Guinguette (historic wine garden), after you have explored the hills and caves of this idyllic park. Enjoying a relaxing aperitif at the famous Rosa Bonheur, is the best way to cap off your enchanting journey through a local Parisian neighborhood. 

Price per private group of 1 to 4:

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There is no better way to rest and recover from the many museums and intense life of downtown Paris than taking a break in northern Belleville. This recently gentrified neighborhood has a long, eventful history.

We start our tour at the top of Belleville, which boasts the most impressive vantage point on the City of Lights, and dive into this tour, a full immersion into a genuinely popular Paris. There, your private guide will share with you the historic and present anecdotes of everyday life in the area. Narrow streets and tiny inner courtyards will give you a glimpse into the authentic lifestyle that the trendy new generations are constantly reinventing.

Even though this is still officially Paris, you will feel and sense a very different rhythm around the area of the park. Half cosmopolitan and half hip the area hosts a large variety of cultures. On this tour you will have the opportunity to discover one of the finest Turkish pastry shop and a chocolate shop that was recently named the best in France. To add to the difficulty of choosing between deliciousness, it stands opposite the finest delicatessen shop and Corsican grocery in Paris. 

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After this mouth-watering break, you will enter the romantic and picturesque park of Buttes Chaumont. This popular park was designed in the late nineteenth century, with winding paths, caves, bridges, and waterfalls, to distract Parisians with a glimpse of the wild. 

This little known gem of Paris hosts the main point of our tour: the terrace of Rosa Bonheur. This guinguette, or “wine garden,” is the perfect place to remember the atmosphere of the 19th century, as you observe local inhabitants in quest of nature and fantasy.

Recently restored and designed by contemporary artists, the Rosa Bonheur holds onto its legacy but also boasts its own hip ambiance to accompany the wine garden—complete with  a bar and also a deli. Here they prepare before your eyes a selection of traditional snacks (quiches, patés, cheese platter…) and tapas to celebrate your apéritif hour.

While you enjoy a kir (white wine with black-currant liqueur), a Pastis (anis flavored aperitif), a cocktail, a glass of wine, or champagne, your private guide will share secrets, recipes, traditions, and anecdotes about each of these drinks.

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A Proud Nation of Wine Drinkers

“Regional comparisons suggested differences in health within France, which raised questions about the relevance of this research within the context of wine as a "national" beverage. As wine distribution became national in the latter part of the nineteenth century, wine was more available as the national drink. To show that the healthy effects of wine might be found on a French national level, medical wine advocates readily compared France as a wine-drinking country with Germany, a land of beer drinkers, England, a country of tea-sippers and the United States with a predilection for cocktails and whisky. Not surprisingly wine was far less harmful. In a widely cited study of soldiers marching after consuming either wine or beer, it was shown that wine drinkers were less fatigued and sang cheerfully as they marched along while beer drinkers were sluggish afoot and exhausted at the end of the day. France had lower cancer rates than countries where hard liquor prevailed, such as the United States. And the French character was much more cheerful than the sober and frigid British. Although a healthier France was identified with winegrowing regions, wine was portrayed as a national resource that contributed to the development of a distinctive national culture”.

Alcohol, a social and cultural History, “Mon docteur le vin”, wine and health in France 1900-1950, Kim Munholland.

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-Edith Piaf's first concert hall.

-Parc de Belleville: the largest panoramic vantage point on Paris.

-Genuine narrow streets of Belleville.

-The most authentic street-art spots in Paris.

-Buttes Chaumont garden.

-Guinguette Wine Garden 

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