Gay Paris Tour 2025

$200 Early Booking Discount May 31

“It was one of the best trips we have ever taken. Professor Lear is knowledgeable, personable, and funny, and his explanations cover a wide range of topics, including things that get left out in most tours.” — Bennet Marks

Paris Tour Itinerary

Next tour: May 5 - 12, 2025

LGBTQ+ History and Art Tour of Paris

Click here to view full tour itinerary

Gay Paris Pricing

About this trip
Was it a mockery of the Last Supper? Or an updated Feast of the Gods? Whichever it was, it was the most inclusive opening ceremony of the Olympics ever! And the most inclusive Olympics too, without a doubt—which might remind us that Paris (for all its reputation as a chilly, distant city) is one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly cities on earth. And it has been, since France became the first country to legalize same-sex relations in *1791*!

Gay Paree!
So come put the gay back into “Gay Paree” on this tour, and learn about France’s LGBTQ+ history and art, from the Court at Versailles to the Paris runways! Join our founder, Professor Andrew Lear, gay historian and master guide, and Paris’ most charming city guide (whom many of you know from our COVID-era virtual lectures) Edith de Belleville, for this really exceptional week soaking in Paris’ amazing LGBTQ+ history and of course enjoying its many charms—the food, the wine, the shopping, and, to put it in one word, the ambience…

Is it time to go to Paris?

Frankly, it’s always a good time to take another trip to Paris. And how much fun it is to learn about a whole new side of this amazing city—its rich LGBTQ+ history, which you might have suspected was there but nobody would ever tell you about in detail. Come with us to see new sides of places you may well have been (like the Louvre) and places you probably haven’t been (like the Loire valley castle where Leonardo da Vinci lived with his great crush, assistant, and model, GianGiacomo Caprotti). And learn all kinds of stories about amazing Parisians like the real Cyrano de Bergerac (no, he wasn’t in love with his female cousin!), Louis XIV’s gay (and perhaps gender-fluid!) brother, Oscar Wilde of course—but also Proust and the aristocratic dandy and poet on whom he modeled the Baron de Charlus, Nijinsky, Gertrude Stein, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin and a phenomenal line-up of designers from Coco Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, and Pierre Cardin.

 

Always more to see in Paris!

We will spend 5 days in Paris, visiting neighborhoods—the Left Bank, the Marais, the Place Vendôme—monuments—the Opéra, the Palais Royal— cemeteries—Père Lachaise and Montmartre—and of course museums—the Louvre, the Museum of Romantic Life, the Carnavelet (Paris City Museum), and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum. We will take you to some great meals, and you will have free evenings to explore the city’s restaurants and a free afternoon for more museums and shopping. And then we will spend 2 days in the glorious Loire Valley, soaking in the beauty of the countryside, visiting castles, drinking wine…. And finally, you can return to Paris or spend one more day with us visiting Proust’s village (where Swann’s Way is set) and the unbelievably beautiful cathedral of Chartres on our way back north.

In short, make your next trip to Paris with us, and experience this ever-fascinating city a new and fabulous way.

And by the way, if you have never been to Paris, this is a great introduction to the city as well, as we hit most of the famous highlights, just from an LGBTQ+ angle!

To learn more, contact us at info@oscarwildetours.com or (646)560-3205.

Group Size: Maximum 16

Please note that this tour involves walking tours of cities and museums.

For more information about pricing CLICK HERE

Learn Paris’s Gay Stories:

* The “Gay Secrets” tours of the Louvre Museum And Père Lachaise Cemetery

* Oscar Wilde’s Paris years, from his favorite café to his tomb

*Lesbians of the Left Bank tour

*The Gay Marais

*Several less-known but fabulous museums

*2 days in the Loire, with 3 of its great castles

*Great food, great cheese, great wine, great pastry, great chocolate

*And options, including Proust’s village of Illiers-Combray, the cathedral of Chartres, with the most beautiful stained glass in the world, and the Orsay Museum

Travel Insurance Recommendation

We encourage you in the strongest terms to buy travel insurance.
We highly suggest you please contact our travel agent partner Tom Vise tomv2012@comcast.net to get a great rate and also help with travel arrangements, including travel flights and pre and post tour hotel rooms.

Click To View Our Gay Paris Itinerary

Frequently Asked Questions

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Who Is our guide?

On this tour, you will be accompanies both by our founder, Professor Andrew Lear, and our favorite Paris guide, Edith de Belleville.

Edith de Belleville is a native Parisian woman who was an attorney for many years.  But her passion for Paris and its history led her back to university (at the age of 50) to get her official tour guide license. Now she shares  her beloved city with visitors in French, English, and Spanish. Edith also teaches Paris’s Jewish heritage to future tour guides at Gustave Eiffel University.

Professor Lear holds a B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from UCLA. He has published a widely praised book on male-male love in ancient Greek art, as well as a number of important scholarly articles in this area… READ MORE

What's Included?

Our tour starts and ends at our Paris hotel. It includes hotel accommodation; all breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 1 cocktail; services of escort and local guides; admission to all sights on the tour, and transportation to them (by taxi, minibus, and train).

What meals are included?

Breakfast is included every day in our tours, and on most days we include either lunch or dinner, according to the itinerary. On this tour we include all breakfasts, 5 lunches, and a cocktail (while we leave your evenings free for your own culinary explorations).

What is the level of the hotels?

Our hotels are chosen for excellent 4* quality, historic charm, and central location.

Is this a good tour for single travelers?

Singles are very welcome! Our groups generally consist of a mix of couples and singles, and there is generally a nice group ethos, so no-one will ever feel left out. Single rooms are available, with a supplement; we are also happy to try to find you a room-mate if you would prefer.

Is this tour designed for first-time visitors?

We try to design our tours both for repeat and first-time visitors. We include a number of lesser-known sights, but also major sights—which we see from the perspective of their often ignored gay history.

Who is this tour a good fit for?

Our tours focus on LGBT history and art and are designed for groups of LGBT people. They are however open to the LGBT-friendly as well.

Is this a good tour for people with difficulty walking?

All of the main sights in the tour are visited on foot, on walking or museum tours. There may be uneven ground, for instance in archaeological sites, and steps in some museums or historic houses. The amount of walking is not, however, excessive: we rarely exceed 2 miles a day. We travel from site to site by train or minibus (also sometimes by taxi in Paris).

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