Stroll in the Ile-de-la-Cité of Paris, 800 year history

As our walks are extensively documented, we have chosen to “hide” some of this information “behind the map”, so as not to overload your screen. All the information you need for your walk, however, is contained “on” or by clicking the map and the markers. It may not seem possible, but that’s the reality. See below.

Points of interest numbered 1, 2, etc., in the order in which they appear on route 1 or 2 of your chosen walk. You can scroll through their photos on your screen by dragging them (with your mouse or finger, or by clicking on the arrows to the right or left). Clicking on the photo opens the detailed article (from our database) for the point of interest.

You’ll get the name and address of the Point of Interest or Relaxation Break in a window. Click on “More information” to open the full database article. “Booking” to get the link to book a ticket to enter at the Point of Interest, if it exists.

Click on the map control buttons of the column on the left of the map (Centrer la carte sur votre position – Center the map on your location

Only to be used in Paris or surrounding area.

Button at top left of map. Allows you to easily read street names and follow the route of your walk.

There are 9 buttons you can use to interact with the map data.

• The 2 first from the top are Zoom buttons.
• Button 3 is too search for a location on the map.
• Button 4 is the full screen button.
• Button 5 is to share and download.
• Button 6 is the “exploration” button. First, you get all the points on the map, sorted by family. Clicking on the “eye” removes/recalls all markers in the family from the map. If you click on the “magnifying glass”, you zoom in to see the markers superimposed. Clicking on the family name brings up a drop-down list of all markers in the family. Clicking on the marker (Point of Interest) name opens a window at the marker’s map point (identical information to Map – Click on markers above).
  
• Button 7 is for additional information. Clicking on the “eye” removes/recalls the corresponding markers from the map. If you click on the magnifying glass, you zoom in to distinguish any markers that may be superimposed.
• Button 8 to center the map on you present location
• Button 9 to measure distances on the map
• Button 10 and 11 : your need a spécial account address

You can choose to walk in one direction or the opposite direction. Or even from any Point of Interest: simply move to the address of the Point of Interest you choose as your starting point.

You can also indicate your location in Paris on the map at any time by clicking 8th map control buttons of the column on the left of the map (Centrer la carte sur votre position – Center the map on your location

Only to be used in Paris or surrounding area You can then easily reach the address of the starting point “Point of interest 1” of the walk,

Note that your cell phone should have its function “location” activated if not automatic.

You can also use your “Click to show your location” button to easily track your progress during your walk. Use the zoom button at the top right of the map to make it easier to read the street names.

Note that your cell phone should have its function “location” activated if not automatic.

If you activate the “Click to show your location” on the map of the walk and you are away from Paris, you will get the map corresponding to the location were you are at the moment – not the map of Paris

Clicking on each marker

You get the name of the Point of Interest, and a window with its address and the beginning of its “short description”. Clicking on the window again, you get the complete Point of Interest data sheet.

If some markers indicate a number (2, 3 , etc.) ?

Click on the marker, zoom will be automatically activated and Points of Interest that were hidden (because they were too close each other on the map) will appear.

Relaxation breaks are indicated by the symbol Pause (2 vertical red bars).

Points of interest and Relaxation breaks are indicated on the map.

Distances between them is short. Zoom the map to get the streets to follow.

Visiting Paris means visiting world-famous monuments, museums, churches and cathedrals. These visits generally last between 1h30 and 3 hours. We believe that after spending so much time in a confined environment, in the midst of often large crowds, most visitors long for a walk to free themselves and relax. That’s why we’ve chosen to offer short, useful and not “random” walks around the city, right after a visit to a museum or monument.

As a result, most of our city tours begin (or end) at or near monuments or museums.
Finally, the end of the walk is “somewhere” near a key point of interest and/or near the start of another of our walks.

The itineraries of our walks are then mapped out so as to pass by “secondary” Points of Interest (compared to the “great Monuments” and Museums) often overlooked in guidebooks and by “human” guides. They are, however, historically just as interesting as what you’ll see in the official places. Their number is such that they are often located within 100 m of each other! We have weel over 300 of them in our database. There are more than 2,000 in the whole of touristic Paris. So there’s still a lot of work to be done.

As a result, most of our city tours begin (or end) at or near monuments or museums.
Finally, the end of the walk is “somewhere” near a key point of interest and/or near the start of another of our walks.

In Paris, there are dozens of museums, monuments, churches and other unique addresses that are the envy of the world. According to the experts, there are more than 2,000, but only less than 100 with a truly international reputation. These are the “points of interest” we call “main”. The others can (wrongly) be described as “secondary points of interest”.

We have chosen to list them in our own documented database. All these points of interest are grouped and organized by type. You can consult them in the “All you can see” category on our home page.

Along each walking itinerary, anything of interest (historical, anecdotal, practical, etc.) to a tourist is mentioned, documented and reported using a document stored in our database.

We have one sheet for each Point of Interest. It contains everything that might be useful for a curious tourist. It could be a historical fact, anecdote or practical information. It can be the opening hours of museums, monuments or shops, the address of course, with a telephone number if available, GPS coordinates to help locate it, and possibly prices. A short description for those in a hurry, and a detailed description with links to other documents where necessary.

Yes, and it’s free. All you have to do is enter “Tout ce que vous pouvez voir” What can be seen” on the  “All you can see” on the www.visitingparisbyyourself.com home page.

You’ll find a fact sheet on each “Point of Interest”, with historical, anecdotal and practical information. We haven’t yet reached 2,000 listings, just over 300 in English and as many in French for non-French-speaking tourists.

The number is growing as we create new articles, walks and stays in Paris.
This database feeds the other sections of our site: “Preparing your stay”, organizing “1 to 10-day stays”, “Where to stay” and, of course, “Walks”, “Shopping”, “Relaxation breaks” and “Cruises” as well as “Book a visit”, “Create my free taylor-made trip”, “Photos-Souvenirs of Paris”.

The original idea was to regularly section off the walk itineraries with addresses of cafés, restaurants, etc. where you could relax and unwind. And of course to locate them on the itinerary so as to “program” on the strolls and according to the probable time the stopping points for a, a coffee at 10 a.m., lunch at 12 or 1 p.m., a sweet at 4 p.m., etc. But we then added a “quality/price” criterion to give even more useful information, especially as Paris is a tourist city and therefore susceptible to tourist abuse. In this way, we are fighting for fair prices and a positive image of Paris.

First of all, we list almost all the merchants operating in a neighborhood or within 50 to 100 m on either side of a walk route. For each of them, we check their presence and presentation on the Internet, if they exist, as well as their comments. Around 50% do not pass this stage of our investigations.

We only keep (with a few rare exceptions) merchants who have been rated with (verified) comments by their customers. Ratings are usually displayed on a scale of 1 to 5. We eliminate all ratings below 4 (with a few exceptions, to indicate where not to go). The merchants on our lists therefore have scores between 4.0 and 5.0.

It’s easy. All you have to do is stop at a Point of Interest or Relaxation Pause and note its postal address or GPS coordinates, which are clearly indicated in the documents provided. Then, of course, return to the same point (or the next one) when you resume your walk. So you’re in control of your time and your schedule.

Each walk has been designed with an order of appearance for each point of interest or relaxation break on the itinerary to be followed. But there’s no reason why you shouldn’t take your walk in reverse order.

Of course, it all depends on how brave you are and how tired you are. It’s all the easier, and without wasting time, as each new walk generally begins where (or close to) the previous walk ended.

The number of Visiting Paris by Yourself walks available on our site is steadily increasing. We started with 5 walks. We’ve now passed the 10 mark. We think that twenty or so walks would provide a sufficient network for the tourist part of Paris. Click on “List of VPBY walks on our site” (URL) for the latest update.