Hidden Gems of Paris: Secret Streets & Local Stories

Paris keeps its best rooms behind doors you would never think to open — and in two and a half hours, your guide opens them one by one. Step off the Grands Boulevards and the city changes key: you slip into the passage Jouffroy, then the passage des Panoramas, and the noise of the boulevard falls away behind you. For two and a half hours, on foot, you follow the city's back doors. The elegant Galerie Vivienne. The sale rooms of the Hôtel Drouot, the most famous auction house in Paris, when they're open. The Palais Brongniart, once the city's stock exchange. The Salle Ovale of the Bibliothèque nationale. Then up to the rooftop of the Galeries Lafayette, where Paris spreads out beneath you — and a coffee and a macaron to linger over while it does. You end in the gardens of the Palais-Royal, the courtyard Emily in Paris made famous, and step out onto Place Colette beside the Louvre. Private, unhurried, and nowhere near the crowds.