French Revolution & Protest Walking Tour

Skip the headlines, walk the march. One hour walking tour, 230 years of Parisian revolt.

Duration

1 hour

Group size

Up to 100 guests

Language

English

Meeting point

Meet next to Bastille Station Metro lines 1, 5, 8 on the corner outside the Banque of France

Pace

Easy pace

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 7 days before the tour starts

1. Place de la Bastille, 75004 Paris (15 min)

   See where the Bastille fortress stood until crowds stormed it on 14 July 1789, and spot its outline still marked in the pavement. Learn why the July Column honours the 1830 revolution, not 1789, hear about Napoleon’s elephant fountain from Les Misérables , and find out why unions still start their marches here.

2. Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine (8 min)

   Look down the street of Paris’s most rebellious workers’ district, whose craftsmen stormed the Bastille and toppled the monarchy in 1792. Hear the stories of the barricades of 1848 and 1851, including the archbishop shot while trying to make peace and the deputy who died defying Louis-Napoléon’s coup.

3. Boulevard Beaumarchais (10 min)

   Walk the main corridor of modern Paris marches, named after the playwright whose Marriage of Figaro mocked the aristocracy before the Revolution. Learn how a Paris demonstration works today, from routes negotiated with the police to union trucks, the black bloc and shops boarded up on march days.

4. Boulevard du Temple (10 min)

   Discover the “Boulevard du Crime,” once lined with melodrama theatres, and stand opposite the window at number 50 where Fieschi fired his 25-barrel “infernal machine” at King Louis-Philippe in 1835. See how that attack led to sweeping press censorship, and hear the story of the first human ever photographed, on this very boulevard.

5. Place de la République (10 min)

   Finish at the square Haussmann redesigned to control the rebellious east of Paris, now its main rallying point. Explore the Monument to the Republic and its bronze panels of French history, and learn how the square became the heart of modern protest, from the 2015 vigils and Nuit Debout to today’s marches.

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