Tours

WWII in Paris: Nazi Occupation & Resistance

The French Revolution in Paris

Revolution & Resistance: Paris History for Teens

Paris remains mostly unchanged since it was occupied by the Nazis during most of World War II. The ghosts of those years still haunt the streets if you know where to look, and they have fascinating stories to tell, about both the astonishing extent of French collaboration and the extraordinary bravery of those few who resisted.

We’ll stroll for about 2.5 miles (4km) through the center of Paris: starting on the Place Saint-Sulpice, we situate ourselves in 1940 Paris as the war breaks out; at the Hotel Lutetia, we look at the Nazis in Paris and French collaboration; on rue du Four, we track the coalescing of the French resistance around de Gaulle; towards Boulevard Saint Germain to the animated Latin Quarter, we explore life during the Occupation, including food, fashion, and art; on Place Saint-Michel, skirmishes break out after the D-Day landings in the summer of 1944; on the Île de la Cité, we stop to dive deep into the liberation of Paris and the role played by the police at the Prefecture, then past Notre Dame to the Deportation Memorial; ending at the Shoah Memorial, and France’s slow acknowledgement of its role in the Jewish Holocaust.

3 Hours

Much of central Paris remains relatively unchanged since 1789, when the French Revolution is most often said to have kicked off with the storming of the Bastille, beginning one of the most complex, fascinating periods in world history – one that still elicits strong  and often opposite reactions, serving as a fascinating mirror of many of the political and social philosophies still at the center of our debates today.

We’ll stroll for about 2 miles (3km) through the center of Paris: starting near the Place de la Bastille, we’ll drop into the financially chaotic 1780s, where the American Revolution is inspiring liberal nobles, and then storm the Bastille; we’ll explore the Place des Vosges and the French aristocracy, including their views of Marie Antoinette, then exit through a spectacular put little-known passageway from the era; at Saint-Paul Saint-Louis Church, we’ll look at the revolutionary antipathy for the Catholic Church, then enter in search of the missing heart (literally!) of Louis XIV; along to the Hotel de Ville, we’ll write the extraordinary Declaration of the Rights of Man, then walk in the footsteps of the angry Parisian women who marched to Versailles and changed history; from there we’ll zip over to the gorgeous Palais Royal, a radical red light district during the Revolution, where political parties begin to coalesce; then in the Tuileries Gardens, we’ll look at the former palace, from which the royal family attempts to make an ill-fated escape, and the National Assembly, where Robespierre and others are becoming increasingly violent in achieving their “Regime of Virtue”; and, finally, in the Place de la Concorde, we’ll invent the guillotine and chop off an astonishing number of heads.

3 Hours

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