Walking tours in Paris that connect historic garden design, city planning and architecture.
Join us on a Picturesque Voyages garden tour and learn how gardens and squares influenced the design of Paris and the history of France. Each season offers new possibilities to appreciate landscape architecture and the changing colors of the city’s exceptional trees and flowers.
Interested in Impressionist Gardens in and around Paris? See our page dedicated to tours to Giverny, Auvers-sur-Oise, Rodin Museum and more at this link.
Then & Now: Each tour begins with an iBook presentation of images selected from historical archives, providing a comparative context for viewing Paris today. After the tour, you can add your own photos to create a personal souvenir of your Picturesque Voyage.
Picturesque Voyages Tours Adhere to Recommended Health and Safety Guidelines
- Masks can be provided upon request.
- Tours are limited to 6 people. Family groups may be larger.
- All garden and walking tours maintain social distancing standards.
Custom tours are our specialty. Contact us to plan a personalized itinerary for a most memorable, life-long learning experience.
The Palais Royal & Les Passages
3-Hour Walking Tour (350€, 1-6 people)
For more than 200 years, the Palais Royal has been at the avant-garde of French society. Home to cardinals, princes and kings, this complex of buildings that surrounds interlocked courtyards and gardens is a green haven in the center of the city. The space offers a unique opportunity to learn about French history while strolling the arcades, following in the steps of philosophers, revolutionaries, and entertainers. The garden tour invites a leisurely stroll, visiting boutiques and learning how the garden inspired the development of the 19th-century passages—covered streets designed for easy shopping. We may also visit the elegant Passage Vivienne, the Passage de Panoramas and the Passage Joffroy.
The Luxembourg Gardens
3-Hour Garden Tour (350€, 1-6 people)
Beloved by residents and students on the Left Bank, the 25-acre garden is an early example of the French formal garden and includes an orangery and orchard. Queen Marie de Medici commissioned the garden on what was then a suburban site, introducing the latest innovations from Italy, including fountains and a grotto that can still be seen today. While strolling the garden, we visit the grotto, orangery, and orchard, and discover some of the 125 sculptures, many dedicated to the queens of France.
The Gardens of the Marais
3-Hour Walking Tour (350€, 1-6 people, excluding entrance fees)
One of the oldest and best-preserved neighborhoods of Paris, our tour of the Marais focuses on the historic gardens located behind the facades of the 17th and 18th century townhouses. We begin our visit at the Place des Vosges, the first royal square of its kind in the city and later home to author Victor Hugo. We will learn about the square as an example of Renaissance city planning and explore its importance for the building of town houses, such as the Hôtel de Sully, whose still extant garden includes an orangery. We then continue to explore urban gardens along the Rue de Rosiers, the heart of the Jewish quarter, including the recently opened Jardin des Rosiers-Joseph-Migneret. We conclude our tour at the National Archives. Formerly the Hôtel Soubise, this townhouse is an outstanding example of 18th-century architecture and interior decoration. After viewing the interiors, we will visit the surrounding gardens designed during the First Empire.
Parc Monceau and Nissim de Camondo Museum
3-Hour Garden and Museum Tour (350€, 1-6 people, excluding entrance fee)
The Parc Monceau is one of the most stunning examples of the picturesque-style gardens that survived the French Revolution. Commissioned by Louis XVI’s cousin, the Duke du Chartres, the garden’s winding paths and wide lawns are interspersed with fake ruins, gothic archways, and a miniature pyramid that served as an ice house. Our private tour will explain the meaning of these buildings, as well as the history of the park in the 19th century, where artists such as Claude Monet painted in what was the first public park redesigned under the Second Empire. Today’s strollers enjoy the many remarkable trees and sculptures dedicated to writers and musicians including Chopin and Maupassant. We then move on to the Musée Nissim de Camondo, a private house museum dedicated to 18th-century art and interior decoration, featuring collections that are in perfect harmony with the park.
Albert Kahn Museum and Gardens
3-Hour Garden & Museum Tour (350€, 1-6 people, excluding entrance fees)
This tour explores the fascinating history of French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn on a visit to his splendid gardens and former home, both recently restored and reopened to the public. In 1895, he bought a hôtel particulier in the nearby suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and over the next thirty years Kahn bought up parcels of land to create his own garden. Kahn planned a ‘garden à scenes,’ four interconnected areas that would reveal great periods of garden history and reference his youth in Alsace.
Custom Garden Tours Upon Request
There are approximately 450 gardens in Paris. In addition to our regularly scheduled tours we can arrange a visit to the the following:
Our tours specialize in historic landscapes but also recognize the diversity of garden cultures in and around Paris.
Kitchen Gardens: the roof top permaculture gardens at the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville and Galeries Lafayette.
Botanical Gardens: Specialized tours to gardens of particular botanical interest include the Jardin des Plantes, Paris or the Serres Auteuil.
Buttes Chaumont & la Villette: This tour explores the intersection of landscape design and urban renewal at the Butte Chaumont, one of the greatest examples of the picturesque in 19th-century Paris, and one of the earliest examples of an urban renewal project and La Villette, a 20th century garden.
Modern Gardens: Promenade Plantée (precursor to the High Line in New York City); the Parc de Bercy, located at the former wine center of Paris; Gilles Clement’s Jardin En Movement, one of the first sustainable gardens at the Parc André Citroen.
We are also happy to arrange tastings and other sensorial experiences to complement any of our garden tours.
Send us an email or call us to arrange a tour to best accommodate your interests.
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