Paris and the United States: The Birth of Two Sister Republics

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Place de la Concorde

  Begin where the United States officially entered European diplomacy. In 1778, in an apartment of the Hôtel de Coislin, American envoys and French representatives signed the first treaties of the new republic: alliance and commerce with the Kingdom of France. Looking at the façades of the Hôtel de la Marine and its neighbor, you can imagine Franklin and his colleagues climbing these stairs, turning a risky rebellion into a recognized nation and opening two centuries of Franco‑American friendship.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 2
  Jardin des Tuileries

  Around the former Tuileries Palace, you follow the dramatic shift from absolute monarchy to the search for a constitution. In 1789, economic crisis and war debts, including the cost of supporting the American cause, push France into the Estates‑General and the famous Tennis Court Oath. Deputies promise not to separate until France has a new political framework. A few months later comes the Declaration of the Rights of Man, echoing American revolutionary language. Here, the “American experiment” helps French reformers imagine a nation without a king.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 3
  Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore

  At the Hôtel de Noailles, you meet one of the key families linking Paris to the American Revolution. Members of the Noailles family are close to Lafayette, the young aristocrat who crosses the Atlantic to fight beside George Washington. This stop allows you to connect noble salons in Paris with battlefields in Virginia and the diplomatic efforts that follow. For American visitors, it is a chance to see how French elites debate liberty, monarchy and reform at the very moment when the United States is inventing its own republican institutions.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 4
  Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore

  Saint‑Roch looks like a quiet church today, but it stands at the heart of political storms. During the 1790s, the neighborhood around the church is a key theater for revolutionary clashes, and later for Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise, when he uses artillery around Saint‑Roch to crush a royalist uprising and defend the new republic. This stop shows how the energy unleashed by 1789 transforms military careers, religion and politics. For American guests, it resonates with debates at home about strong leaders, popular sovereignty and the dangers of revolutionary violence.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 5
  Palais-Royal

  At the Palais‑Royal, politics enters the streets. In July 1789, Camille Desmoulins climbs onto a table in the gardens and calls Parisians to defend the National Assembly against royal repression. People grab green leaves as a shared symbol and soon march toward the Bastille. Cafés, galleries and arcades become spaces where ideas about citizenship, representation and liberty circulate among ordinary people. For Americans, the Palais‑Royal feels like a European echo of colonial taverns and meeting halls where the spirit of 1776 was forged from conversations, pamphlets and public speeches.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 6

  This stop explores the American story seen from Paris through the lens of Louisiana. The vast territory, once French, then sold to the United States in 1803, embodies the shift from European empire to American continental expansion. In Paris, decisions about Louisiana’s fate are linked to revolutionary wars, Napoleonic ambitions and financial needs. For American visitors, this is where their map of the Mississippi valley crosses the French political map. The discussion highlights how Franco‑American relations shape borders, commerce and the balance of power in North America.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 7
  Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection

  You finish at the Bourse de Commerce, formerly the grain market, under a striking rotunda. In 1783, Paris celebrates the Treaty of Paris and the end of the American War of Independence here, with music, dancing and toasts to the young republic. Later, the architecture inspires Thomas Jefferson and influences designs in Washington. In 1790, Parisians hold a solemn ceremony here for Benjamin Franklin, with his bust draped in black. Ending the tour in this space, you feel how the American Revolution was admired, remembered and reused in French political imagination.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness

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