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The Secrets of Paris

Where Revolution Meets Romance on the Seine

Long before the Eiffel Tower pierced the sky, a Celtic tribe called the Parisii settled on a muddy island in the Seine. Romans came and built Lutetia. Medieval kings raised cathedrals. Revolutionaries toppled monarchies. Artists reinvented beauty.

Paris has been burned, besieged, occupied, and liberated — and each time it emerged more luminous. Your mission: walk through 2,000 years of history, solve 10 riddles, and discover the secrets hiding in plain sight.

10
Stops
~2h
Journey
10
Riddles

How to Play

  1. Tap a stop to read its story
  2. Solve the riddle — tap your answer
  3. The truth (+ hidden history) is revealed!
  4. Tap the 📍 address to navigate via Google Maps
The Age of Faith
The Cathedral That Took 182 Years

In 1163, Bishop Maurice de Sully dreamed of a cathedral so grand it would dwarf every church in Christendom.

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Notre-Dame de Paris
Gothic · 1163–1345
📍 6 Parvis Notre-Dame, 75004 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
You stand on the Île de la Cité, the ancient heart of Paris. Here, where Celtic Parisii once worshipped, Bishop Maurice de Sully laid the first stone in 1163. It took nearly two centuries to complete — generations of masons who never saw the finished work. The flying buttresses were a radical innovation: they allowed walls of glass where there had been only stone. In April 2019, the world watched in horror as fire consumed the spire and roof. The oak framework, known as "the Forest," dated to the 13th century. Reconstruction is underway, and Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024.
🧩 Riddle
Notre-Dame’s medieval oak roof framework had a nickname. What was it called?
💡 Need a hint?
Thousands of oak trees were used, creating something dense and vast...
🎉 The Answer
B. The Forest
Called "la Forêt" (the Forest) because each beam came from a different tree — roughly 1,300 oak trees were used. Some beams dated to the 12th century, making them over 800 years old when the 2019 fire destroyed them.
The Crown of Thorns
A Chapel Built for a Relic

King Louis IX paid more for a crown of thorns than he did for this entire chapel.

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Sainte-Chapelle
Rayonnant Gothic · 1238–1248
📍 10 Boulevard du Palais, 75001 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
Louis IX — the only French king made a saint — purchased what he believed was Christ’s Crown of Thorns from the Emperor of Constantinople in 1239. The price: 135,000 livres. Building Sainte-Chapelle to house it cost just 40,000. Step inside the upper chapel and 1,113 stained glass panels ignite in color — 15 meters high, depicting 1,113 scenes from the Bible. It is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful rooms on Earth.
🧩 Riddle
King Louis IX paid far more for the relic than for this chapel. How much did the Crown of Thorns cost compared to the building?
💡 Need a hint?
The relic cost more than triple the chapel’s construction...
🎉 The Answer
C. More than triple
The Crown of Thorns cost 135,000 livres — more than three times the 40,000 livres spent building Sainte-Chapelle itself. The relic survived the 2019 Notre-Dame fire and is now kept safely.
From Fortress to Art
The Palace That Became the World’s Museum

Philippe Auguste built a fortress. Napoleon filled it with the plunder of empires. Today it holds 380,000 objects.

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Musée du Louvre
Medieval Fortress · 1190 / Museum · 1793
📍 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
In 1190, King Philippe Auguste built a fortress here to defend Paris from Viking raids. Over six centuries, it transformed into a royal palace. When the Revolution erupted in 1793, the new Republic threw open the doors: the king’s private art collection now belonged to the people. Napoleon looted masterpieces from across Europe to fill its galleries. Today, the Louvre holds over 380,000 objects — you could spend 100 days and still not see everything.
🧩 Riddle
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911. How long was she missing before being recovered?
💡 Need a hint?
The thief hid it in his apartment in Florence for quite some time...
🎉 The Answer
C. Over 2 years
Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman who had helped build the painting’s glass case, hid inside the Louvre overnight and walked out with the Mona Lisa under his coat. She was missing for over 2 years (August 1911 to December 1913) before Peruggia tried to sell her to a gallery in Florence.
Royal Gardens
Where Queens Walked and Heads Rolled

Catherine de Medici created a garden of beauty. Two centuries later, it witnessed the bloodiest chapter of the Revolution.

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Jardin des Tuileries
Renaissance · 1564
📍 Place de la Concorde, 75001 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
Catherine de Medici commissioned these gardens in 1564, importing Italian garden design to France. For two centuries, only royalty strolled here. Then came 1789. On October 5, a mob of women marched through the Tuileries to Versailles, dragging King Louis XVI back to Paris. The adjacent Tuileries Palace became his prison. On August 10, 1792, Swiss Guards defending the palace were massacred here — 600 soldiers killed in hours. The palace was later burned during the Paris Commune of 1871. Only the gardens survived.
🧩 Riddle
The Tuileries Palace was destroyed during a violent uprising. In which year?
💡 Need a hint?
A workers’ revolt that briefly seized control of Paris after the Franco-Prussian War...
🎉 The Answer
D. 1871
The Paris Commune of 1871 set fire to the Tuileries Palace, the Hôtel de Ville, and other government buildings. The palace ruins stood for over a decade before being demolished in 1883. Only the gardens remain.
The Reign of Terror
The Square Where a King Lost His Head

Originally named Place Louis XV. Then Place de la Révolution. Then Concorde — because Paris needed to forget.

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Place de la Concorde
1755 · Revolution
📍 Place de la Concorde, 75008 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI was brought to this square. The guillotine stood where the obelisk now rises. His last words were drowned out by a drum roll ordered by his captors. Over the next year, 1,119 people were executed here — including Marie Antoinette, Danton, and eventually Robespierre himself. After the Terror, the square was renamed "Concorde" (harmony) in a desperate attempt to heal. The 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk, a gift from Egypt in 1833, replaced the guillotine — chosen specifically because it had no political meaning.
🧩 Riddle
The ancient obelisk now standing in Place de la Concorde was a gift from which country?
💡 Need a hint?
A North African nation with pyramids and pharaohs...
🎉 The Answer
C. Egypt
The Luxor Obelisk is 3,300 years old, originally from the temple of Ramesses II. It took 4 years to transport it from Luxor to Paris (1829–1833). The tip was gilded with gold leaf in 1998.
The Impressionist Revolution
The Train Station That Became a Temple of Art

A railway station too short for modern trains, saved from demolition to house the greatest collection of Impressionist art on Earth.

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Musée d’Orsay
Beaux-Arts · 1898–1900 / Museum · 1986
📍 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75007 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
The Gare d’Orsay opened in 1900 for the World’s Fair, designed by Victor Laloux. By 1939, its platforms were too short for modern electric trains, and it was abandoned. It served as a film set, a parking lot, and an auction house. In 1977, President Giscard d’Estaing saved it from demolition. Today, it houses the world’s greatest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art: Monet’s cathedrals, Renoir’s dancers, Van Gogh’s self-portraits, and Degas’s ballerinas.
🧩 Riddle
Before becoming a museum, the Musée d’Orsay building served as what?
💡 Need a hint?
Trains arrived here for the 1900 World’s Fair...
🎉 The Answer
C. A railway station
The station’s giant clock still works. Behind its translucent face, you get one of the most Instagram-famous views of Paris — the Seine and Sacré-Cœur framed through the clock dial.
The Iron Revolution
The Tower They Wanted to Tear Down

Built as a temporary exhibit for the 1889 World’s Fair. Artists called it a disgrace. It was supposed to stand for just 20 years.

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Eiffel Tower
Industrial · 1887–1889
📍 Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
Gustave Eiffel’s iron tower was meant to last 20 years, then be dismantled. A petition of 300 artists and intellectuals called it "a disgrace to Paris" — Guy de Maupassant allegedly ate lunch at its restaurant because it was the only place in Paris where he couldn’t see the tower. What saved it? Radio. The military installed antennas at the top, making it too useful to destroy. Today it’s the most-visited paid monument on Earth — 7 million visitors annually.
🧩 Riddle
The Eiffel Tower was saved from demolition because it proved useful for what technology?
💡 Need a hint?
Marconi’s invention that transmitted signals through the air...
🎉 The Answer
C. Radio
The tower is repainted every 7 years, requiring 60 tonnes of paint. It was originally painted reddish-brown. It also grows about 15 cm taller in summer due to thermal expansion of the iron.
Napoleon’s Glory
The Arch That Outlived an Empire

Napoleon ordered it to celebrate his victories. He never saw it finished. His funeral procession passed under it 5 years after completion.

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Arc de Triomphe
Neoclassical · 1806–1836
📍 Place Charles de Gaulle, 75008 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
In 1806, fresh from victory at Austerlitz, Napoleon commissioned a triumphal arch on the scale of ancient Rome. It took 30 years to build. Napoleon was exiled, defeated, and died on Saint Helena long before its completion in 1836. In 1840, his remains were brought back to Paris, and the funeral cortege passed under the arch he had ordered. Beneath it lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, with an eternal flame rekindled every evening at 6:30 PM since 1923.
🧩 Riddle
The eternal flame beneath the Arc de Triomphe has been rekindled every evening since which year?
💡 Need a hint?
It honors soldiers from the Great War, a few years after the armistice...
🎉 The Answer
C. 1923
The flame has never been extinguished since November 11, 1923. Even during the Nazi occupation of Paris (1940–1944), French veterans continued the nightly ceremony. It is rekindled every day at 6:30 PM.
Atonement and Art
The White Church on the Hill of Martyrs

Built as penance for France’s sins. On the hill where the Commune made its last stand and where Montmartre’s artists reinvented modern art.

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Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Romano-Byzantine · 1875–1914
📍 35 Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
After France’s humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the bloody Paris Commune of 1871, the National Assembly voted to build a basilica of "national penance." They chose Montmartre — the highest point in Paris, and the hill where Communards had made their last stand. The white travertine stone actually cleans itself: it secretes calcite when it rains, keeping the facade perpetually white. Below the basilica, the streets of Montmartre became the birthplace of modern art — Picasso, Modigliani, and Toulouse-Lautrec all lived and worked within steps of this spot.
🧩 Riddle
Sacré-Cœur’s white stone has a unique property. What happens when it rains?
💡 Need a hint?
The stone has a chemical reaction that keeps the building gleaming...
🎉 The Answer
B. It secretes calcite and self-cleans
The travertine stone from Château-Landon quarries secretes calcite when wet, creating a white coating that actually makes the basilica whiter over time. Most buildings darken with age — Sacré-Cœur gets brighter.
The Temple of Giants
Where France Buries Its Greatest

Originally a church, transformed by the Revolution into a secular temple honoring the nation’s greatest minds.

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Panthéon
Neoclassical · 1758–1790
📍 Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris
▸
📖 The Story
Louis XV vowed to build a magnificent church if he recovered from illness. Architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot delivered a masterpiece of Neoclassical design, completed in 1790 — just as the Revolution erupted. The new Republic seized it, stripped the religious decorations, and inscribed above the entrance: "Aux grands hommes, la patrie reconnaissante" (To great men, the grateful homeland). Voltaire and Rousseau were among the first interred. In 1851, physicist Léon Foucault hung his famous pendulum from the dome, proving the Earth’s rotation. Today, 80 national heroes rest in the crypt — including Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, and Josephine Baker.
🧩 Riddle
A physicist hung a pendulum from the Panthéon’s dome to prove what?
💡 Need a hint?
Something about our planet that people could finally see with their own eyes...
🎉 The Answer
B. The Earth rotates
Foucault’s Pendulum (1851) was a 67-meter wire with a 28-kg brass bob. As it swung, the floor beneath it appeared to rotate — visible proof the Earth spins on its axis. A replica still hangs in the Panthéon today.

📋 Paris Must-Do List

Tap any address to open Google Maps

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Luxembourg Gardens
23-hectare garden with sailboats on the pond, Medici Fountain, puppet shows, and the most coveted green chairs in Paris. Where Parisians go to breathe.
📍 Rue de Médicis, 75006 Paris
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The Catacombs
Bones of 6 million Parisians arranged in underground tunnels beneath the city. Transferred from overflowing cemeteries in the 1780s. Book tickets online to avoid the 2-hour queue.
📍 1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, 75014 Paris
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Opéra Garnier
The inspiration for Phantom of the Opera. Chagall painted the ceiling in 1964. The grand staircase alone is worth the visit. Guided tours available daily.
📍 Place de l’Opéra, 75009 Paris
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Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen
The world’s largest antique market. 2,500 dealers across 7 hectares. Furniture, vintage fashion, vinyl records, art deco treasures. Open Saturday–Monday.
📍 Rue des Rosiers, 93400 Saint-Ouen
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Shakespeare and Company
Legendary English-language bookshop facing Notre-Dame. Writers have slept among the shelves since 1951. Browse, read, buy — and visit the upstairs reading room.
📍 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris
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Seine River Cruise at Sunset
Bateaux Mouches or Vedettes du Pont Neuf. See every major monument lit golden from the water. One hour, unforgettable.
📍 Pont de l’Alma, 75008 Paris
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Musée de l’Orangerie
Monet’s Water Lilies in two oval rooms designed by the artist himself. Intimate, uncrowded, unforgettable. In the Tuileries gardens.
📍 Jardin des Tuileries, 75001 Paris

"Paris is always a good idea." — Audrey Hepburn
"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." — Ernest Hemingway

Est. 3rd Century BC — Lutetia Parisiorum
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