Cultural Tours in France

Why not discover Paris’s rich cultural history with an expert guide on one of our Cultural Walking Tours?

Localers’ varied choice of cultural tours is a wonderful opportunity to discover the cultural capital of the world with an expert guide. Whether you want to brush up on your art history at one of the city’s extraordinary art museums, or follow in steps of your literary hero, Localers has got culture covered.

Discover the world-renowned Louvre Museum with an expert on the Private Louvre Tour. Learn how the former Palace of the French monarchy became one of the largest museums in the world. See its world-class art collection with an expert art historian. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, David’s The Coronation of Napoléon − these are the masterpieces not to be missed!

The Musée D’Orsay Private Tour is an exceptional opportunity to discover an extraordinary art collection. The largest collection of realist, impressionist, and post-impressionist artwork can be found housed in this former train station, a fin-de-siècle architectural jewel. Take an astonishing private tour of the modern masters from Edouard Manet to Claude Monet, and from Vincent Van Gogh to Paul Gauguin − their secrets will be revealed on this in-depth tour. Discover the impressive building which houses these works; from the ornate dinning room, and extraordinary ballroom, to the spectacular views of Paris from the train station clocks, this is a date with 19th century Paris not to be missed!

A Day in Versailles proposes both a tour of the astonishing Palace of Versailles and the Marché de Versailles, a sublime food market that takes place in the centre of the historic town. Mixing both local life and history, your professional guide will give you a tour of the food market before whisking you off to the lavishly decorated palace to see Marie Antoinette’s perfectly preserved bedroom and the extraordinary Hall of Mirrors, among other fascinating treasures. Finish your walking tour with a visit to the gorgeous gardens.

The Paris Literary Tour is a chance to relive literary history with a writer and literary expert. Following a set theme based on bohemian Paris, this walking tour follows in the footsteps of the romantics, the lost generation, and the beat generation. Encompassing all things bohemian, your guide will evoke characters as diverse as Honoré de Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Victor Hugo, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and Jack Kerouac among others.

Opéra Garnier & Covered Passages is a chance to see a hidden world unique to Paris. Discover 19th century shopping malls, known as the Covered Passages, with an expert historian. Elegantly designed, in iron and glass, these 19th century arcades hide a wealth of fascinating shops, cafés, and antique stores. You will end you tour of hidden Paris with a visit to one of the world’s most beautiful opera houses, the Opéra Garnier.

What makes Localers’ cultural tours different?

Passionate historians: Passionate historians lead Localers’ cultural tours. They will show you their favourite secret spots, which are off the beaten track and far from the tourist traps. Each guide has been chosen according to his/her specialism, whether it’s Thomas for literature, Albert for underground Paris, Charlotte for 20th century design and Flea Markets, or Mael for French cuisine, we have a network of 60 experts who will show you everything you need to know about Paris.

Our museum guides are official accredited: When it comes to museums in France, the law is pretty strict. Even if you are fortunate enough to have a PhD in art history from Cambridge you can’t just lead tours of museums in France. Rather, you need to have an official tour guide diploma or be accredited by the museum. It’s for this reason Localers only works with officially accredited guides to lead our museum tours. That might make us a little bit more expensive than our competitors but at least you know that everything we do is above board and according to the law.

Skip the line tickets: We are fortunate enough to be one of the most visited countries in the world, but this comes with drawbacks: really long queues at most of our must-see destinations. We provide skip the line tickets which are provided for all of our tours and covers both museums and attractions. They come in handy when you are trying to avoid that two-hour long queue.

Tickets included in the price: With Localers there are no sneaky add-ons or unexpected bills. Everything is included in the price.

Our guides are locals: Our guides aren’t just history scholars or food experts; they are also storytellers who are excited to show you around. For them learning about the history of the city is just a part of the larger whole, understanding a city means getting under its skin and experiencing what it has to offer. Localers provide a unique opportunity to meet charismatic and passionate people who live and breathe Paris. There is no better way to discover a city than through the eyes of a local.

Tour groups are small when not private. We ensure that our tour groups never exceed the maximum of 8 people. You will never find Localers leading large tour groups kitted out with microphones and headsets. Smaller groups are aimed to be comfortable and exclusive − not many people want to compete to hear what your tour guide has to say. In addition, very few tour companies offer private tours of Paris and our insistence on small groups is a unique and original aspect that maintains quality and exclusivity for the traveller.