Paris: WWII Occupation & Liberation Walking Tour

Highlights

• Start at 11 Rue des Saussaies, wartime headquarters of the Gestapo in Paris
• See the Ritz, Le Meurice and the Crillon, requisitioned by Nazi commanders
• Compare each site today with archival photos from the Occupation years
• Extend to 4 hours to reach the Marais, the Shoah Memorial and Hôtel Lutetia

Description

Between June 1940 and August 1944, Paris lived under Nazi occupation. On this guided walking tour, follow that story where it happened, from the fall of the city to its liberation.
Meet your guide at 11 Rue des Saussaies, the building where the Gestapo interrogated and tortured members of the Resistance; inscriptions carved by prisoners survive to this day. A short walk brings you to Place de la Concorde, where German troops paraded in June 1940 and where some façades still carry the bullet marks of the final battles of August 1944. Facing the square, the Hôtel de Crillon was requisitioned as a German headquarters from the very first days of the Occupation.

At Place Vendôme, hear how Hermann Göring installed himself at the Ritz among looted artworks while Coco Chanel lived controversially under the same roof. On Rue de Rivoli, stop at Hôtel Le Meurice, headquarters of the German military governor, where General von Choltitz refused Hitler's order to burn Paris. Along the way, learn what daily life became for Parisians: curfews, blackouts, rationing, and the constant presence of the occupier.

Continue past the Louvre and its glass Pyramid. Hear how the museum was emptied of its masterpieces before the invasion, and how curator Rose Valland secretly recorded the looting of Jewish-owned art collections.

At each stop, your guide shows archival photographs of the exact spot as it looked in 1940–44. The 2-hour tour ends at the Préfecture de Police, where the Paris uprising began on 19 August 1944, and where the Saint-Michel fountain nearby still bears the scars of the fighting that freed the city.

Choose the extended 4-hour option to follow the complete story of wartime Paris. Cross into the Marais and the Pletzl, the historic heart of Jewish Paris, where your guide addresses the persecution and deportation of Jewish Parisians with care, and pause outside the Mémorial de la Shoah and its Wall of Names.
Then cross the Seine to the Luxembourg Gardens, seat of the Luftwaffe command in France, and to 48 Rue du Four, where Jean Moulin united the Resistance at the founding meeting of the Conseil National de la Résistance in May 1943. The tour ends at Hôtel Lutetia, headquarters of German counter-intelligence during the war, and in 1945 the reception centre for survivors returning from the camps: the place where the story of the Occupation closes.
The tour takes place entirely outdoors, with no tickets needed and no queues. Please note it covers sensitive historical topics; parental discretion is advised.

WWII Walking Tour (2 hours) - Standard Group

Extended WWII: The Complete Story (4 hours) - Standard Group

WWII Walking Tour (2 hours) - Private Group In French

Extended WWII (4 hours) - Private Tour in English

Extended WWII (4 hours) - Private Group in French