French Revolution Tour in Paris: Private Historical Walking Tours

French Revolution & Napoleon Full Experience

We are also Napoleon specialists, offering a range of Napoleon tours in Paris, from 2.5-hour to full-day tours.

If you want an experience of the whole period from the French Revolution to Napoleon, you should follow these tours (order matters):

• (1) Le Marais (North Bank) French Revolution Tour Extended
• (2) Saint-Germain-des-Prés (South Bank) French Revolution Tour
• (3) The 3- or 4-hour Napoléon Tour (or even the Napoleon full-day tour if you also want to see Napoleon's Louvre and Napoleon's tomb in the Invalides)

Please note that our "South Bank to Right Bank French Revolution Tours" are partially redundant with our Napoleon tours.

This French Revolution Tour is also a very nice tour of the famous Marais district.

Duration - Distance

• Duration: +/- 2.5-hour
• Distance covered:  +/- 2.5 km (1.56 mi)

Itinerary

• Start: Place de la Bastille.
• Place des Vosges
• Rue Saint-Antoine
• Saint-Paul Saint-Louis Church
• Hôtel de Ville de Paris

Storming of the Bastille.

Themes of the Tour

The tour begins in Place de la Bastille, where the medieval armory fortress of La Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789, and subsequently demolished within five months.

Most historians consider this event to be the beginning of the French Revolution.

The church of Sainte-Marie de la Visitation (converted into a Protestant temple by Napoleon Bonaparte after the 1801 Concordat), the rue des Tournelles, and the rue Saint-Antoine will help us recognize exactly where the Bastille was located.

When it was built between 1370 and 1382 as part of the medieval wall of Paris's defense system, the Bastille was initially called the Château Saint-Antoine. Parisians would then call it the Bastide Saint-Antoine, then La Bastille.

The tour continues in parts of Paris nearly unchanged since the French Revolution with rue Saint-Antoine and the Place des Vosges. 

Place des Vosges, the oldest of the five royal squares of Paris, was renamed in 1800 (when Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul) in honor of the département of the Vosges, which was the first to pay its taxes and also the first to send national volunteers to the army (Volontaires nationaux) when the country (fatherland) was declared in danger (la patrie en danger) on 11 July 1792.

In the center of the square is a marble sculpture of Louis XIII on horseback. This is a replacement one; the original, made of bronze, was destroyed and subsequently melted down on August 11, 1793. Whenever possible, we will enter, a little later, the courtyard of the Hôtel Carnavalet, a magnificent Renaissance private mansion that is now the Musée Historique de la Ville de Paris, which holds a very rare and exceptional bronze sculpture of the Sun King that escaped destruction during the French Revolution.

In Place des Vosges is also the house of Victor Hugo (now the Maison de Victor Hugo museum). His last novel, Ninety-Three (Quatrevingt-Treize), is dedicated to the 1793 Terror, the bloodiest period of the French Revolution.

Le cabaret de la rue du Paon illustration from one of the original editions of Victor Hugo's novel « Quatrevingt-Treize », 1793, with Marat, Danton, and Robespierre. Photo Musée Carnavalet / Maison de Victor Hugo.

The tour then explores the impact of the French Revolution on the Roman Catholic churches, featuring the remains of Saint-Paul Church and a brief stop at the Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis Church, whenever possible.

The hearts of the Sun King and his father Louis XIII were kept there; during the French Revolution, they were sold to a painter, Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin, to be used in preparing his paints. His painting "Vue de Caen" (in Pontoise Museum) most probably contains micro fragments of the heart of the Sun King.

The tour continues with a charming square built just a few years before the French Revolution and the Saint-Paul Fire Station, where, every year, one of the famous Bal des Pompiers du 14 Juillet (firefighters' ball or Bastille Day ball: the night from July 13 to 14) is organized.

Then come the remains of the "Prison de la Force," where the crowd butchered Marie Antoinette's close friend, the Princesse de Lamballe, on September 3rd, 1792.

A plaque in rue du Roi de Sicile indicates exactly where the Princess de Lamballe was murdered.

Some of the very few timber houses of Paris and some of the most famous Renaissance and Baroque hôtels particuliers (private mansions) of the Marais are also planned to be on the itinerary.

• The Hôtel de Ville stands in Place de l'Hôtel de Ville (called Place de Grève before 1802), which had been the traditional place of public executions since the Middle Ages.
• France's last execution by dismemberment, that of Robert-François Damiens for attempted regicide, was performed there in 1757, only 32 years before the French Revolution. Poisoner François-Antoine Desrues was torn asunder alive and then burned alive there in 1777, only 12 years before the French Revolution.
• So, following tradition, many executions were carried out there during the Revolution with the then-modern and much more humane guillotine.

• It was from the Hôtel de Ville de Paris that many parts of the July 13 and 14, 1789 riots, including the assault on the Invalides and the Bastille, were organized.
• On the 17th of July, only three days after the storming of the Bastille, Louis XVI came to the Hôtel de Ville to try to calm down the situation.
• Following the takeover of the Hôtel de Ville on the night of August 9 to 10, 1792, Danton and Hébert established a new insurrectional Commune, and the assault on the Tuileries Palace on August 10 then provoked the fall of the French Monarchy.
• It was in the Hôtel de Ville that Robespierre was arrested on 9 Thermidor year II (27 July 1794). The day after, he was beheaded without trial on Place de la Concorde.

This French Revolution Tour is also a very nice tour of the famous Marais district with an extension to the Île de la Cité (where Notre-Dame Cathedral stands).

Duration - Distance

• Duration: +/- 3-hour
• Distance covered: +/- 3.5 km (2.18 mi)

Itinerary

Same as the 2.5-hour Marais French Revolution tour but continues with:

• Notre-Dame Cathedral
• Conciergerie

In this tour, we only see Notre-Dame from the outside. For a full Notre-Dame tour, go to our Notre-Dame Cathedral Tour, Inside and Outside webpage.

Themes of the Tour

Similar to the 2.5-hour Marais French Revolution, but adding a walk to Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Conciergerie.

Notre-Dame was considerably damaged during the French Revolution. Still, it is also where Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in December 1804, an event often cited as marking the end of the French Revolution.

The Conciergerie was Marie Antoinette's last prison before she was beheaded.

Including four medieval towers, it is what remains of the Royal Palace abandoned by Charles V after the Parisian uprising of 1358, led by the Provost of the Merchants of Paris, Étienne Marcel.

An episode after which King Charles V commissioned the construction of the Bastille for his own protection against the Parisians!

The Conciergerie was not only the prison of Marie-Antoinette but also that of all the "suspects" waiting to be judged by the Revolutionary Tribunal (French: Tribunal Révolutionnaire), which stood just beside it. The Girondins, Charlotte Corday, Danton, Madame Élisabeth (sister of Louis XVI), Hébert, and Robespierre were also imprisoned before being finally sent to the guillotine.

The Tribunal Révolutionnaire stood from March 10th, 1793, to May 31st, 1795. Even its infamous leader, Fouquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor (French: Accusateur Public), was finally sent to the guillotine on May 7th, 1795, after a 9-month stay at the Conciergerie prison. Executed in Place de Grève (in front of Hôtel de Ville), he was one of the very last of the 2807 victims of the Tribunal Révolutionnaire.

We do not enter Notre-Dame Cathedral or the Conciergerie.

This Revolution Tour suits history buffs but is also a must for first-timers, as it covers a large part of the most famous area of historic central Paris.

This tour is more specifically designed for American citizens.

Duration - Distance

• Duration: +/- 3-hour
• Distance covered:  +/- 4.5 km (2.8 mi)

Itinerary

• Start: Couvent des Cordeliers
• Métro Odéon
• Cour du Commerce-Saint-André
• Procope Café
• Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church and district
• River Seine Crossing Scenery
• Louvre
• Palais Royal
• Saint-Roch Church
• Tuileries Garden
• Place Vendôme and Hôtel de Bourvallais
• Rue Saint-Honoré
• Royal Warehouse (Hôtel de la Marine)
• Place de la Concorde (formerly Place de la Révolution)

Saint-Roch Church, 13 Vendémiaire, Year 4 (5 October 1795). This battle in the streets of Paris established the Directory. It was a major factor in the ascent of Republican General Napoleon Bonaparte's career. 

Themes of the Tour

The origins of the French Revolution. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and US independence. The Marquis de Lafayette, also known as "The Hero of the Two Worlds" (Le Héros des Deux Mondes).

At Saint-Germain-des-Prés, we will discover Procope Café at 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, which was a meeting point for many French Revolution or US independence figures. 

Just behind is the Cour du Commerce-Saint-André, a famous landmark of the French Revolution with at n° 9 the workshop of Tobias Schmidt, piano maker. It is here that the infamous Guillotine was manufactured, and experiments were made on sheep in April 1792. The first human executed with the Guillotine was Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, a French highwayman, on the 25th of April 1792.

Just opposite, at n° 8, was the printing office of L’Ami du Peuple, the most influential political newspaper of the French Revolution, created and published by Jean-Paul Marat.

Georges Danton was an exceptional orator who uttered many still-famous sentences. For example, this one, speaking of the Revolution at the Legislative Assembly:

“Il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, Toujours de l'audace !" (We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring!).

Many historians consider this declaration by Danton the trigger of the 1792 September Massacres, a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris. Specialists generally believe that between 1000 and 1700 prisoners were killed from September 2 to September 6.

The Prison de l'Abbaye (named for its proximity to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés) is still remembered for the brutality and cruelty of its executions: More than 300 people were killed, among them 168 by direct order of the infamous Stanislas-Marie Maillard. 

The Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, which was strongly damaged during the French Revolution, is on the tour itinerary. One of its altars pays tribute to all its clergymen butchered in September 1792.

Also on our itinerary, the Pavillon de Flore, one of the only two remains of the Palais des Tuileries, where the apartments of the Princess de Lamballe were before August 10, 1792. Princess de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette's close friend, is the most famous victim of the September Massacres; she was butchered in the Marais (see Marais French Revolution Tour).

The place where the Club des Jacobins was is on our itinerary. Still, nothing remains of it as its building (a former church) was destroyed in 1795 to create a public market called "9 Thermidor Market," nowadays Marché Saint Honoré. 

Close to it, we won't see the building of the Convention (assembly), which Napoleon destroyed to open the rue de Rivoli; only a commemorative plaque remains.

But Robespierre's house on rue Saint-Honoré, which saw so many condemned persons passing on their way to the guillotine on Place de la Concorde (including Marie Antoinette and Robespierre himself), is still there.

The Vendémiaire Coup and Napoleon Bonaparte's ascension to power,  his marriage with Joséphine de Beauharnais, etc., are also usually part of the tour

Warning: Part of this Tour is Redundant With all our Napoleon Tours

This tour is the same as the 3-hour Left to Right Bank Revolution Tour but with one extra hour, which includes the Luxembourg Garden and Sorbonne areas.

This French Revolution tour is more specifically designed for American citizens.

Duration - Distance 

• Duration: +/- 4-hour
• Distance covered:  +/- 6.3 km (3.9 mi)

Itinerary

• Start: Close to Luxembourg Garden (Jardin du Luxembourg)
• Palais du Luxembourg (French upper house)
• Petit Luxembourg
• Théâtre de l'Odéon
• Sorbonne

It then continues with the itinerary of the 3-hour Left to Right Bank tour.

This tour is the South Bank part of the 4-hour South Bank to North Bank French Revolution Tour. It is also a very nice Saint-Germain-des-Prés Tour starting close to the impressive Jardin du Luxembourg  (Luxembourg Garden).   

This French Revolution tour is also recommended for  American (US) citizens.

Duration - Distance

• Duration: +/- 2-hour
• Distance covered:  +/- 4.5 km (2.8 mi)

Itinerary

• Start: Jardin du Luxembourg
• Palais du Luxembourg (French upper house)
• Petit Luxembourg
• Théâtre de l'Odéon
• Cour du Commerce Saint-André
• Procope Café
• Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church and district

Themes of the Tour

All those of the South Bank part of the 4-hour South bank to North bank French Revolution Tour:

Marat's Assassination, Charlotte Corday, Danton, Robespierre, Club des Cordeliers, Guillotine invention, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, US independence, September Massacres, Napoleon Bonaparte Coup, Queen Marie Antoinette, Olympe de Gouges, Luxembourg Prison, Directoire Coup, Metric System, etc.

In Paris

• Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de la Ville de Paris. This museum is dedicated to the history of Paris, including the French Revolution period. Situated in the Marais, if open, it can be visited before or after a Marais (Bastille) French Revolution tour.
• La Conciergerie: the prison of Marie-Antoinette before her execution. The 3-hour Marais (Bastille) French Revolution tour ends there. In this prison, the "suspects" were held before being judged by the infamous Revolutionary Tribunal (French: Tribunal Révolutionnaire), which stood just beside it.
• Les Invalides. There is Napoleon's tomb, but also one of the most prominent army museums in the world. A significant section of the Musée de l'Armée is dedicated to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. It is also one of the main French Revolution sites: On the morning of the 14th of July, the mob attacked the Invalides to take guns and cannons, then they went to the Bastille for the powder...
• L'hôtel de la Marine: from its balconies, the revolutionary officials controlled the guillotine executions at the Place de la Concorde. It is also the former Royal Warehouse, from which the Diamant Bleu (the Blue Diamond, now known as The Hope, in Washington) was stolen during the French Revolution.
• The Louvre Museum: Some artifacts and furniture of Marie-Antoinette, including her nécessaire de voyage (vanity case); a gallery is also dedicated to Napoleon I.   

Paris off the Beaten Track

• Couvent des Carmes (now the Catholic Institute of Paris): one of the main sites of the September 1792 Massacres was the gardens of the convent.
• Hôpital de la Salpêtrière: another main site of the September 1792 Massacres.
• Place de l'Île de la Réunion (then part of Place du Trône Renversé, with today's Place de la Nation). Even if the Place de la Concorde, the Bastille, and the Hôtel de Ville are the most famous places of guillotine executions, it is there that the largest number of French Revolution beheadings were perpetrated.
• Picpus Cemetery. There are the remains of 1,306 victims executed between 14 June and 27 July 1794, during the height and final phase of the Reign of Terror. Among them is Alexandre de Beauharnais, the first husband of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, and so the grandfather of Napoleon III. For other reasons, Lafayette is also buried there. The French Society of the Cincinnati (whose first president-general was George Washington) pays tribute to him there every 4th of July.
• The Chapelle expiatoire, which stands on the grounds where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were buried after they had been guillotined. During the Restoration, Louis XVIII ordered their remains to be transferred to the Basilica of Saint-Denis and commissioned the Expiatory Chapel. Every year, a commemorative mass is celebrated in the chapel on the Sunday closest to 21 January, the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI.

In Versailles

• Château de Versailles: The destination of the Women's march, October 5, 1789. A pivotal event in the French Revolution. In the Park of Versailles, there is also Petit Trianon, a small palace given by Louis XVI to Marie-Antoinette in 1774 and where she commissioned the Hameau de la Reine (the Queen's Hamlet), her famous private village.    
• The Royal Tennis Court (Versailles). It is the place of the oath during which 578 deputies of the Estates General swore not to be separated until they had given a constitution to France, one of the main milestones of the French Revolution.

In the Rest of France

• Musée de la Révolution Française: 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south of Grenoble (on the famous Route Napoleon).