Today we take a list of ten very popular things to do in Paris. And then Marie Segura, the co-founder of the My Private Paris tour agency, breaks them down into underrated or overrated. (And you can read it all here)

Hope this helps you to plan your next trip. Enjoy!

My Private Paris is a local deluxe agency, crafting itineraries for tours in Paris and beyond. See what they offer here. 

Enjoying what we’re doing here at The Earful Tower and keen to see more? Become a Patreon member here to support it and to discover our exciting extras.

Music: Pres Maxson. 

Let's visit the Louvre with author Elaine Sciolino. Today, we chat about her upcoming book Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum. The book pulls back the curtain on a building many think they know, but which still contains endless secrets and untold stories.

And if you think you recognise Elaine’s name and voice, perhaps you heard her on the pod before! Elaine, the former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times, has featured The Earful Tower in the past discussing her books about the Seine River and the Rue des Martyrs. In fact, she was the second-ever guest on the show, back in 2017.

Elaine used her extensive experience as a reporter to influence how she wrote this book. She decided the best approach was to explain the Louvre museum “through the prism of someone who’s not an art historian and who’s not a tour guide. I decided to just report the Louvre and talk to everybody that I possibly could.”

And, my goodness, the surprises Elaine uncovered will knock your socks off: spending the day with the museum’s permanent on-site fire fighters, a secret World War Two bunker and long-forgotten graffiti inscribed by the builders of the Philippe Auguste wall.

For Louvre novices who are in danger of having an exhausting and frustrating experience trying to see and do everything, Elaine offers this advice “Find your Louvre identity, find what kind of a visitor you are… And once you decide that it makes it a lot easier, because you forgive yourself for not being perfect…You go each time with a different identity, like you go each time and discover a different work of art.”

Elaine confesses that she wasn’t always the biggest fan of the museum, “the Louvre is a challenge, it’s too big…it’s too crowded, it’s an impossible museum. You have to find your way in. So that’s what I tried to do.” Having visited the building hundreds of times in the course of writing the book, I wondered if Elaine was all Louvre-d out or did she intend to go back? “Oh no, I have to go back. I have to keep going back.”

Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum is released on 1 April 2025. You can pre-order it here.

A fun extra the end of the episode, Bertrand d’Aleman from My Private Paris tells us about a current exhibition at the museum: The Louvre Couture. This is an exploration of how the vast breadth of decorative art contained within the walls of the museum has informed the world of high fashion. The Louvre Couture exhibition runs from 24 January - 21 July. Book your tickets here.

Artwork mentioned in this episode: Mona Lisa (also known as La Joconde) by Leonardo da Vinci; Man with a glove by Titian, Portrait of a Man (also known as La Condottiere) by Antonello da Messina; The death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. Thanks to Hannah Coyle for additional reporting.

Enjoying what we’re doing here at The Earful Tower and keen to see more? Become a Patreon member here to support it and to discover our exciting extras.

This season of The Earful Tower is brought to you by My Private Paris, an award-winning travel company creating deluxe itineraries for Paris and beyond. See what they offer here and be sure to let them know that you came from The Earful Tower.

It's time for a day of stained glass windows and gothic churches, featuring a visit to three key churches and cathedrals.

We begin this day trip with Chartres, a little town to the south west of Paris. Trusty tour guide Bertrand d’Aleman, from award-winning travel company My Private Paris, explains how we're in the midst of a gothic church (and stained glass window) revival.

We took the train to Chartres, then spent half a day exploring the cathedral and the town. Then we headed back to Paris for a skip-the-line look at Sainte Chapelle and lastly Notre Dame.  

My Private Paris is a local deluxe agency, crafting itineraries for tours in Paris and beyond (including, of course, Champagne). See what they offer here. Here is their full-day trip to Chartres, though this particular excursion was unique to us.

Music: Pres Maxson. 

This week The Earful Tower is going to the opera. To prepare, I talked to superstar Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg, who is in Paris to perform in Orlando at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

She helped me to demystify the opera.

Find Siobhan Stagg on Instagram to follow her artistic adventures - and find her on Spotify here.

Want more from The Earful Tower? Become a Patreon member here to support it and to unlock extras.

This season of The Earful Tower is brought to you by the award-winning travel company My Private Paris, which specializes in tours in Paris, day trips outside Paris, and travel itineraries. See what they offer here. This week's fun bonus included a chat with Bertrand about his favourite Paris view.

Get more from The Earful Tower by becoming a Patreon member, or a Substack member, or exploring the official site here.

We filmed a "viral" video with the US ambassador to France, Denise Bauer, in her official residence in Paris.

This episode is a behind-the-scenes from the video, plus a general chat about what has been going on here at The Earful Tower. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• Our YouTube video
• The fascinating Pamela Harriman
• Lina's "Scoop du jour" column (read it on Patreon here, Substack here)
• Le Dali restaurant at Le Meurice

This season of The Earful Tower is brought to you by the award-winning travel company My Private Paris, which specializes in tours in Paris, day trips outside Paris, and travel itineraries. See what they offer here. This week's fun bonus included a chat about a stunning church in central Paris that never has a queue out the front. 

Get more from The Earful Tower by becoming a Patreon member, or a Substack member, or exploring the official site here.

This week has been full of reflections as I celebrated my ten year anniversary of moving to Paris. Life has changed dramatically in those ten years and building the Earful Tower has been a major part of that.

Little did I know, all those years ago, how much I had to learn about this beautiful, complicated city. It felt only right to contemplate upon what I have learnt over this decade and, to be completely honest, not all of it is totally positive. Acting as your "eyes and ears" in Paris has had its ups and down and now feels like the right time to share some of that on this week’s podcast.

This season of The Earful Tower is brought to you by the award-winning travel company My Private Paris, which specializes in tours in Paris, day trips outside Paris, and travel itineraries. See what they offer here. This week's fun bonus included a chat about the most expensive street in Paris on the Monopoly board game.

Get more from The Earful Tower by becoming a Patreon member, or a Substack member, or exploring the official site here.

IT'S BACK AGAIN! 

Every year we make a bucket list of things we want to try for the first time in Paris. In this episode, you'll hear Oliver and Lina sharing their top five things they want to do this year in Paris.

Why not write your own list and join us?

The full list is on our official website here.

This season of The Earful Tower is brought to you by the award-winning travel company My Private Paris, which specializes in tours in Paris, day trips outside Paris, and travel itineraries. See what they offer here. 

Get more from The Earful Tower by becoming a Patreon member, or a Substack member, or exploring the official site here. 

Short answer: yes. Paris is worth visiting in the winter months. 

In this episode, Oliver and Lina explain why, based on their combined 22 winters in Paris. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• Ice Skating at the Grand Palais
• A chat with Chef Tony Xu from Shang Palace (see our video here)
• The Petit Palais museum

At the end you'll hear from Marie Segura from My Private Paris talking about the Phantom of the Opera and at the Palais Garnier, which is incidentally a lovely way to while away a winter day. 

This season of The Earful Tower is brought to you by the award-winning travel company My Private Paris, which specializes in tours in Paris, day trips outside Paris, and travel itineraries. See what they offer here. 

Get more from The Earful Tower by becoming a Patreon member, or a Substack member, or exploring the official site here. 

It's time for a day trip to Vaux-le-Vicomte!

This week, I'll show you how to visit the magnificent chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte with Bertrand d’Aleman from award-winning travel company My Private Paris.

We took a private van from Paris, then spent half a day exploring the chateau and its grounds. This was a family-friendly visit (two families on board!) but the episode is aimed at everyone and anyone. 

My Private Paris is a local deluxe agency, crafting itineraries for tours in Paris and beyond (including, of course, Champagne). See what they offer here. Here is their  full-day trip to Vaux le Vicomte plus Fontainebleau.

Music: Pres Maxson. 

Paris is home to over 100 museums, from world-renowned art galleries to quirky, hidden gems. In this episode, we highlight 5 underrated museums you won’t want to miss, each offering a unique glimpse into Parisian history and culture.

Discover the Bibliothèque Nationale Richelieu, where centuries of knowledge await. This historic library houses treasures like a rare Gutenberg Bible and an original manuscript of Les Misérables. Then, explore the newly renovated Musée Carnavalet, a free museum dedicated to the history of Paris, complete with a beautiful Art Nouveau shop and a charming courtyard café.

Next, step into the elegant Musée Jacquemart André, an aristocratic mansion on Boulevard Haussmann that showcases Italian art and a stunning fresco. For something truly unique, visit the Musée des Moulages, a museum of dermatological casts housed in one of Paris’ oldest hospitals. Finally, don’t miss Musée de Montmartre, where iconic artists like Renoir once worked, and the beautiful gardens are just as impressive as the exhibits.

This episode is brought to you by My Private Paris, the award-winning travel company offering private tours in Paris, day trips around France, and custom travel itineraries. 

Become a member of The Earful Tower on Patreon or Substack for bonus content, early access, and invites to exclusive events. Members can read the full "Top 20" list of our tips for Best Museums in Paris, one for every arrondissement.