Description
This WWII Occupation walking tour in Paris follows the story of the city under Nazi rule, from its fall to its liberation, on the very streets where it happened. It starts at 11 Rue des Saussaies, a former Gestapo headquarters where inscriptions carved by prisoners can still be seen.
From there the route reaches Place de la Concorde, where some façades still show bullet marks from the last battles, and the grand hotels taken over by German commanders:
- Hôtel de Crillon, requisitioned from the first days of the Occupation
- Place Vendôme and the Ritz, with its tales of Göring and Coco Chanel
- Hôtel Le Meurice, the seat of the military governor, where General von Choltitz would not carry out the order to burn Paris
- The Louvre, emptied of its masterpieces, and Rose Valland's secret record of looted art
At each stop the guide holds up archival photographs of the same spot as it looked then, and explains daily life under curfews, blackouts and rationing. The shorter walk finishes at the Préfecture de Police, the place where the August 1944 uprising started. The 4-hour option goes on to the Marais and the Mémorial de la Shoah, the Luxembourg Gardens, 48 Rue du Four, where Jean Moulin gathered the Resistance, and finally Hôtel Lutetia, which in 1945 welcomed survivors back from the camps.
The tour is entirely outdoors, with no tickets or queues. It deals with sensitive subjects, so parental discretion is advised, and it is not suitable for wheelchair users.