Orientation Tour

Duration 2 hours

We’ll start our tour at the nearby church and listed to stories about Henry III and his mignons, his close group of young men on whom he lavished gifts and favors to the of the whole of Paris.

Then on to Place de Vosges one of the most beautiful square in Europe built by Henri 4th and completed in 1612. after passing an area near the Porte of Bastille know for cruising in the 16th and 17th century. He we admire the equestrian bronze of Louis 13th, the King whose most intense emotional ties were with a series of handsome men. Louis 13th, his wife Anne, and Cardinal Richelieu all became central figures in Alexander Dumas' novel, The Three Musketeers.

As you continue, you will discover Men's gay fashion, leather boutiques and home design stores scattered between beautifully restored mansions including the jewel like Musee Carnavalet. At the end of the stroll you will pass by clubs and bars, the Jewish Quarter, a renowned Gay book store.

We'll end the tour with a walk around the main gay meeting spots of the Marais around rue des Archives and see the popular bars, restaurants and boutiques. If open we might also see the only remaining 15th century medieval church and Cloister in Paris before dinner at .a wonderful gay restaurant where everyone makes friends.

From 109€pp based on 2 with dinner included in the Marais

 

From Pere Lachaise to Montmartre

Duration 2 or 4 hours

No gay visit to Paris is complete without paying homage to Oscar Wilde and Proust in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise.It is perhaps the most famous cemetery in the world and is the last resting-place of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Isadora Duncan, Sarah Bernhardt, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Colette, and many other famous men and women. This 108-acre museum of French history with its magnificent sculptures and tombs is used as much as a park as a cemetery.

After visiting Père-Lachaise Cemetery, we will metro over to Montmartre. We will pass the famous “Moulin Rouge” – renowned for the “Can-Can” and Toulouse Lautrec on our way to take a coffee break at the café where the very successful movie “Amélie”, about a Parisian waitress, was filmed. The movie won several Césars(French movie awards) and was nominated for a number of Oscars. The movie is, for the most part, set in Montmartre.

The great impressionist artist, lived in Montmartre and his painting of the Sunday afternoon dance in the acacia-shaded courtyard of the dance-hall “Moulin de la Galette” is one of his happiest compositions. The windmill from which it gets its name is still standing. Monet, Degas and Van Gogh all lived or worked on the “Butte”.

Then off to see “Au Lapin Agile”, which actually began as a cabaret for hashish users, but became the meeting place of the fathers of Modern Art. Just before World War I many artists and writers such as Picasso, Modigliani, Utrillo, Derain and Apollinaire lived nearby and would meet here.

We will pass the last vineyard of Montmartre on our way to La Basilique du Sacré-Cœur where he Revolutionary movement of the Paris Commune of 1871 and its merciless repression was the origin for its construction. The steps of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur affords a spectacular and romantic view of Paris.

Finally, off to the main square of Montmartre, the Place de Tertres, which is famous the world over for its outdoor cafés and artists, and a reminder of the creative community of artists that lived and worked here.

You will finish off the tour with a commentated wine tasting and a gourmet dinner nearby and if lucky at the table of the French Gay icon, Dalida.

 

"Wilde" Times on the Left Bank

Duration 2

“Paris was where the twentieth century was” exclaimed Gertrude Stein as to explain the unprecedented gathering of artists in the early decades of the last century.

“The city I love best in all the world”, declared Hemingway, became his home for 7 years and also his subject matter in his famous “A Moveable Feast”.

Like so many writers and painters, you will also be delighted by the same charming streets and cafés of the “left bank” of Paris. We'll visit some of the favorite haunts of Oscar Wilde and the generation of writes he inspired and influenced. You'll see the Latin Quarter known for its bookstores, schools, churches, jazz clubs, Roman ruins, publishing houses, and boutiques, which characterize bohemian Paris and formed the setting for Puccini's opera, "La Boheme".

We will start near the original home of Sylvia Beach's bookstore Shakespeare and Company. She is particularly associated with Hemingway and the publication of James Joyce's "Ulysses". Nearby lived Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Tokas who opened their home to famous expatriates, writers and artists, including Hemingway and Picasso. We'll pass through the area of Saint-Sulpice church: a magnificent architectural masterpiece, where Hemingway
lived with his second wife, as did Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

The “Deux Magots” and “Café de Flore”, probably the best known cafés of Paris became the meeting places of Faulkner, Picasso, Joyce, Gide, and Apollinaire. You'll also see the Procope the oldest cafe in the world, and one of Wilde's favorite. It was the meeting place of Benjamin Franklin, Danton, Robespierre, Marat, and Napoléon.

We'll see where Wilde ended his days on rue des Beaux Arts and then finish up for lunch in a restaurant which is housed in the 3rd oldest building in Paris and secret Paris institution frequented by government officials, magistrates from the nearby courts and other well know personalities. The building is classed as a historic monument and is the most important remains of the Hotel des Abbees de Fecamp and the third oldest in Paris on rue Hautefeuille dating back to 1292. During the renaissance the building was reconstructed with interior wooden arabesque sculptures and molding and for exterior ornaments the Fleurs de Lys with a Salamander, a symbol favored by Francois 1.

From 99€pp based on 2 with lunch for the morning tour included or wine and cheese tasting in the afternoon

 

A unique visit to the Louvre

Duration 2 hours

The beautiful plates and bowls of classical Greece which portray male love were produced in an age when the term "homosexual" was not applicable. Most men were bisexual and male love in Greece was most often love between a man and a youth, though relationships with overly young boys were frowned upon then as they are now. The youths who attracted men's attentions ranged in age from adolescence to early manhood, as can be seen from the images that have come down to us on Greek pottery and sculpture. There were exceptions such as the relationship between Alexander the Great and his boyhood friend Hephaiston and the mythical hero of the Trojan war, Achilles, and his best friend and lover, Patroklos.

The Greek male was expected not only to marry and raise children, but also to be available for friendship and love with worthy youths, not to the exclusion of marriage but as its necessary complement. The underlying philosophy was that the adult lover gave the youth all that was good and noble in him to help his passage into manhood. That a man should be attracted both to lovely women and to youths was seen as natural and normal. It was a male dominated society with the women tending the children at home and the men training at the gymnasium, developing their bodies and discussing ideas. The word gymnasium derives from 'gymnos' naked, reflecting the fact that all sports were performed unclothed, which naturally created an erotic mileau. It is sometimes forgotten that the culture and beliefs of this far-off time are very different from our own which have evolved through a different set of necessities and circumstances, in particular the repressive Victorian Age.

Step back and revisit this bygone age at the Louvre with our expert guide and see some of the most erotic works of art ever created under whatever pretense was given but more often than not, just for the love of beauty.