Passy

What if, behind the very proper façades of the 16th arrondissement, there lay a neighborhood of hermits, miraculous springs, monks’ wines, penniless writers, and wildly visionary architects? From Rue Raynouard to Avenue Mozart, this walking tour through the Passy district takes you from a former hamlet of woodcutters to a Paris of secret cellars, private mansions, and Art Nouveau marvels.

What remains of the thermal springs where Lavoisier, Benjamin Franklin, or Rousseau once came to heal? Where is the Wine Museum hidden in former medieval quarries, and what wine did monks offer to Louis XIII on these hills once covered in vineyards? The audio guide leads you down the discreet Rue des Eaux, behind doors that most passersby never notice.

You’ll also discover a literary and slightly rocambolesque side of Passy: Honoré de Balzac’s house, where the writer lived under a pseudonym and used two separate exits to escape his creditors; a village church that became Notre-Dame-de-Grâce de Passy; and the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, a modern hive where thousands of people create the country’s “soundscape” every day.

Further along, the walk shifts into the realm of Art Nouveau: Hector Guimard’s Castel Béranger, the Francis Poulenc Conservatory alive with rehearsals, the elegant Hôtel Mezzara, then Avenue Mozart and the extraordinary Hôtel Guimard, which the architect had dreamed of giving to the state as an Art Nouveau museum. Why was this project never completed? And which façade details will you surely miss if no one points them out?

Between architectural stops, the audio guide also invites you into a more spiritual and intimate Passy: the Sainte-Thérèse chapel with relics of Thérèse of Lisieux, Rue de la Source leading to once-famous miraculous waters, and a chic village atmosphere where you can walk in the footsteps of Jackie Kennedy, famous musicians, and people seeking health, faith… or simply tranquility.