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.
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 Tuileries and Palais Royal
3-Hour Garden Tour (350€, 1-6 people)
We explore the Tuileries, the birthplace of the French formal garden style. Commissioned by Queen Catherine de Medici during the French Renaissance, the garden became an iconic expression of royal control over the landscape as well as a training ground for generations of gardeners, notably André Le Nôtre who in the 17th century transformed the garden into the one we know today. We learn about the Carrousel Gardens (redesigned by Jacques Wirtz) and the sculptures in the open-air museum. We then continue on to the adjacent Palais Royal gardens, also built in the 17th century but radically transformed in the 18th century into a fashionable shopping district. As we stroll the arcades that surround the garden, we visit the trendy boutiques and learn about the cafés that once inspired French revolutionaries.
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 Rodin Museum and Gardens
3-Hour Museum and Garden Tour (entrance fee included)
(350€, 1-6 people)
Bi-Monthly on Tuesdays at 2pm
Auguste Rodin is one of the most celebrated modern sculptors who lived and worked in an 18th-century mansion, still known today as the Hôtel Biron. When built in the 1730s, the mansion was at the edge of the city, allowing its owners to enjoy the pleasures of both town and country. The museum showcases Rodin’s sculptures in marble, bronze, and plaster, as well as paintings and drawings, including works by his contemporaries Monet and Van Gogh. We learn about Rodin’s career, his techniques, and his influence on other artists. We discuss the museography of the museum, both studio and home to his own collections, and we devote special attention to how Rodin placed his sculptures, such as the Gates of Hell and The Thinker, in the garden. Renovated by landscape architect Jacques Sgard, the garden features over 100 varieties of roses.
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.
The Butte Chaumont and La Villette
3-Hour Garden Tour (350€, 1-6 people)
This walking garden tour brings us to the intersection of landscape design and urban renewal. Starting out at the Butte Chaumont, we explore one of the greatest examples of the picturesque in 19th-century Paris, and one of the earliest examples of an urban renewal project. A former site of medieval gallows and gypsum quarry, the 62-acre, crescent-shaped park boasts walking bridges, hidden grottos, and a stunning rock formation. Next we move to La Villette, the result of an international competition by the City of Paris to develop a modern park on the site of the former meat-packing district. The winning design by Bernard Tshumi completely revised the essential geometries underlying landscape architecture – lines, planes, and dots – and transformed them into what is now home to a museum, the Cité de la Musique (Christian de Potzamparc), a temporary exhibition hall and Jean Nouvel’s Paris Symphony Orchestra building.
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.
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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