We had a wonderful 16 day vacation in France (Paris, Normandy, Brittany), and could not have been happier with My Private Paris/France before and during our vacation. We worked with Valentine & Wendy to arrange all the details and itinerary. The tours, drivers and transfers were all first class. Every one of our guides was knowledgeable, pleasant and professional. Alain in particular stood out as he helped bring us to a remote area of Normandy so my wife could visit the home where one of her ancestors lived. Our guide and driver Corrine was also fantastic as she shared her local knowledge as we touted Brittany and Normandy. Do not hesitate to book with this team, whether for just a day visit to Paris or a multi-week adventure across France. read more

We signed up for the full-day Versailles Tour with transportation from our hotel in the 7th arrondissement. Exactly at 0800 our guide, Quentin, arrived at our hotel with our driver in a new Porsche Panamera sedan for our trip to Versailles. Quentin was personable, friendly, and a wealth of information about Versailles. He handled all the arrangements and escorted us throughout virtually all of the accessible areas of the palace. He had also arranged for our lunch at Ducasse (yes, an Alain Ducasse restaurant located within the Versailles palace - see separate review of the restaurant, under Ore - Ducasse au Chateau de Versailles - spoiler - very, very good). Quentin had an amazing range of knowledge about the palace and about the furnishings and artwork throughout. He was highly informative without overloading us with too much detail, and where appropriate, he simply got us to another amazing location and let us look around for ourselves. His special guide permit allowed him (and us) to enter many of the rooms that require separate tickets to enter, and we bypassed some bunches of visitors through doors only accessible by licensed Versailles guides. We visited on a cold January day (high was 40F that day) and that kept the crowds away. Quentin kept exclaiming that he had never seen so few visitors in Versailles. That was great for us, as we never felt crowded and in fact were all by ourselves in some of the rooms of the palace. Following a great lunch, Quentin escorted us to the Petite Trianon and to the fantasy village built for Marie Antoinette. Quentin pointed out how the palace, the Parc de Versailles, the landscaping were all carefully designed to awe visitors. Most visitors would never know how the hill that leads from the palace down to the statute of Apollo is designed to trick the eye and make new surprising vistas appear as you progress. Or how the lake was designed to make it feel much longer and farther through subtle engineering. We also would never have known all the inside meta-symbology is spread throughout the palace and the art. All the associations with Apollo for Louis XIV (the "Sun King") hidden within the columns, wall and ceiling decorations mean a lot more when you know why they are designed that way. After a full day of Versailles palace, Petit Trianon, and Marie Antoinette's fantasy village, we were glad to see our driver waiting for us on a street right next to the fantasy village, so we didn't need to hike a mile back to the palace parking areas. We had a nice ride back to our hotel. Highly recommended - we had an exceptional time. Quentin was a wonderful tour guide, and we appreciated his excellent English and encyclopedic knowledge of Versailles and the history of the French aristocracy. read more

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My wife and I took the Notre Dame - The Full Experience tour with Marie. Booking the food tour was very easy through the website, we were contacted immediately through email by Bertrand confirming our information. The food tour started at 10am. My wife and I were in a group with two others and our tour guide, Marie. The tour was thought through well. The idea was basically to eat like Parisians for the day which I was super excited about. Also, Marie grew up in Paris, and moved around to multiple arrondissements which is really helpful because each area is different, and she has experienced cultures of each of the areas. We started off with breakfast at a local coffee shop. We grabbed a quick coffee and went on our way. On the tour there was a variety of sweets and bakery items for breakfast. In between each of our visits to each of the local shops, Marie covered some of the history of Paris. After breakfast, we took a longer walk, seeing some sights around the area. We then went to pick up a baguette, cheese, and meat for our lunch. At the cheese shop, we were able to sample a variety of cheeses along with purchase multiple cheeses for our lunch which was to come. We ended up at a local wine shop that only sold organic wines. Marie prepared the cheeses and meats and the wine shop owner selected a wine for us. He also showed us how to properly drink the wine. He was quite the character. Lots of opinions and was very straightforward. I thought he was great! I'm not a huge fan of wine, but wow was the wine he chose for us good. I had wine again tonight, and it definitely did not taste as clean and pure as the wine he served us. We sat in the wine store and had bread, cheese, meats, and wine for the remainder of the tour. The tour cost a little less than $100 per person, but if you are a foodie I think it's definitely worth it. I mean you get to eat like a Parisian for a day. I would have never found some of those little stores that Marie had led us to. Marie was also very friendly and made everyone feel very comfortable. It was like we were among friends. During the whole tour, we did not feel rushed. We took our time at each of the different locations and really enjoyed ourselves. I would definitely recommend this food tour for those who enjoy food and are adventurous. This was definitely one of my favorite things we have done on our trip to Europe. read more

My Private Paris - Historical Tours Near Me

Bertrand responded to us promptly by email, after we had registered on the easy-to-use My Private Paris website. He eased our minds concerning flexibility if COVID caused a delay in our trip. Bertrand then worked closely with us to arrange a private tour of the Louvre with our requested guide, Laure. We had read a great review of one of Laure's previous tours, yet, this tour still exceeded our expectations. We had provided Bertrand with a requested list of ten works in the Louvre collection that we wished Laure to describe and interpret during our private tour. Our list ranged from some of the Louvre's most popular works, to some works much more obscure. With her tremendous depth of art history knowledge, she tailored our tour to interpret the requested list of works, matching the information she provided to our level of knowledge, thus resulting in a remarkable bespoke tour. She provided a wonderful world cultural journey through the Louvre along a far-flung path, a path required in order to cover the unique subset of the total collection on our list. Without breaking a sweat (or we suspect needing to do much homework), Laure optimized our travel route through the enormous museum. She also added several works along the way which acted as segues among the various art genres and time histories of the works on our list. She interpreted the artworks and connected the dots between world history and French history, and she made connections between France's historical and current place in the world. The result lead to an interpretation which provided a glimpse into the soul of the French people. read more

Had a wonderful time. Great company. We did the Versailles and Giverny tour. It was even better than expected.

My husband and I took a tour with Marie at the end of December and absolutely loved it! I believe it was the three hour Notre Dame area tour, but it ended up being a leisurely four hours. It was a small tour with only myself and my husband and one other couple led by Marie. She did a fantastic job of making us feel comfortable, giving interesting non-food history, and of course, guiding us through so many yummy foods. Marie moved at a great pace, not too fast so we could take everything in and not too slow so that we were never hungry! Throughout the tour, we visited a few places that I had already been wanting to visit (for example, the Berthillon ice cream shop and Shakespeare & Company), but overall, most places Marie showed us were new to me. I loved the tour because I believe that taking without it, my husband and I wouldn't have found and experienced many of the treats or learned as much background behind them. We visited two cheese shops, a butcher shop, two bakeries, and several specialty pastry shops (merveilleux and choux). Marie was welcoming, knowledgeable, and personable. I really felt that the tour was worth every cent of the price. Marie took care of ordering and paying, so all we had to do was enjoy the food! At the conclusion of the tour, once we had acquired cheese, cured meats, and bread, Marie took us to a lovely organic wine shop where we enjoyed our very Parisian lunch accompanied by delicious wine. I would highly recommend taking a tour with Marie and hope to be able to go on another food adventure with her company the next time I visit Paris! read more

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Experience and intelligence clearly make a difference! The entire My Private Paris team, starting with Marie and Bertrand, are top notch! My family & I did 4 different tours, and all were amazing, lifetime memories. What make Marie, Bertrand and the My Private Paris team different is their 10+ years experience, and quality educations. Night & day comparison to a cheap walking tour with an inexperienced guide, where you never know the quality (we used to try these. not any more). I especially appreciated how they customised the experience to our particular interests, and enthusiasm. I will use My Private Paris in the future for every trip, and send all my family & friends their way. I wish they operated in Italy & Japan! read more

Wonderful!!! I reached out to My Private Paris with a unique and exciting surprise tour idea with lots of moving parts for my husband's 50th birthday and Marie and her team helped me realize it in the best possible way while also staying completely on my budget! It was so much fun and an incredible memory for us. If you're looking for a knowledgeable professional also with a great spirit of fun, I highly recommend My Private Paris! Many thanks again Marie, Bertrand and Niaouli!! read more

We recently took a trip to Paris and used My Private Paris. We wanted a tour company that would allow us to customize our tour which they readily did. We had several ideas of things we wanted to see while in and around Paris. Alexandre was my contact person and he was absolutely fantastic to work with. I sent our first tour ideas to him and he got right to work on it. We kept coming up with more ideas which I emailed to Alexandre and he continued to work on the itinerary adding the new places. He was so patient even with the changes we would make - which were several. When we left for Paris I was completely at ease knowing our itinerary was in place. The whole trip worked out exact as planned. We even added another place we wanted to see during our trip and Alexandre was able to work it out for us. He was very easy to reach during our time in Paris which was also comforting. Our tour guides while there were Florent and Lucien. Both were very nice and so very knowledgeable. We truly cannot say enough about this company and Alexandre, Florent and Lucien as well as the drivers. This s a very long review but, everyone needs to know how fabulous this company is!!! read more