Private Paris in a Day Tour: Montmartre to the Seine

Montmartre in the Morning

Your private tour of Paris begins at the base of Montmartre. Take the funicular up to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, where the view opens across the zinc rooftops, church domes, and far-off silhouette of La Défense. From there you'll wind through Place du Tertre, past the open-air painters and the old windmills, including Le Moulin de la Galette. Your host shows you the studios and cafés where Picasso, Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec spent their years on the hill.

The Louvre, Straight to the Masterpieces

With tickets already in hand, you'll walk past the line and into the Louvre's glass pyramid entrance. Your host leads you through the galleries to the works worth seeing up close: the Mona Lisa's oil-on-poplar panel, 77 centimeters tall behind its protective glass; the armless Venus de Milo; Winged Victory poised at the top of the Daru staircase. By the time most visitors have found the right wing, you'll already be standing in front of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous canvas.

Notre-Dame and the Island Where the City Began

After a break for lunch at your own pace, you'll rejoin your host on Île de la Cité. The scaffolding still wraps the spire, and the new oak frame is visible from the parvis. Your host walks you through what survived the 2019 fire and what was rebuilt from the ground up. From there, pass the Gothic exterior of Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution. The stone walls of the Conciergerie and the spire scaffolding of Notre-Dame sit barely two hundred meters apart.

Pont Neuf to the Latin Quarter

Cross Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in Paris, and continue into the Latin Quarter. The bouquinistes along the Seine still sell the same secondhand prints and yellowed paperbacks they've stocked since the 1800s, and the café terraces here face the street, not the tourists. Your host walks you past the Sorbonne's entrance and through the passages that most visitors never find on a map.

The Seine at Golden Hour

Your private Paris day tour ends at the Eiffel Tower viewpoint, where your host hands you a flexible ticket for a one-hour Seine River cruise. From the deck, the Grand Palais dome catches the late sun, the gold roof of Les Invalides sharpens against the sky, and the bridges of central Paris pass one after another beneath you.

Please note:

Louvre Museum entry (€28 per person) is included in this tour's price.

Visitors under 18 and EEA residents under 26 can visit the Louvre free of charge with valid ID and proof of residency, outside of a group tour.