The Tour

On this guided tour, I’ll take you on a journey through the history of an eclectic community, its atmosphere and one of the most bustling neighbourhoods in the capital today. The history of Paris’s Jewish community is not confined to the Marais, but this neighbourhood remains the focal point of Jewish life in the city. The Pletzl, as the Jewish quarter of the Marais is also known, is still its beating heart and a living guardian of a rich linguistic, human and migratory history.

To understand this community and its impact on Paris and French history, we’ll need to travel back in time. We’ll begin by exploring the neighbourhood’s grand townhouses, which bear witness to medieval Paris. Then, starting at the Museum of Jewish Art and History, we’ll follow the route of the twelfth-century city walls and imagine what life might have been like for the Jewish community in medieval Paris. Next, in the heart of the Pletzl, we’ll look at how the French Revolution transformed the Ashkenazi Jewish community across Europe, and how its members embraced revolutionary ideals throughout the nineteenth century.
Finally, we’ll discover the Yiddish bakeries and falafel shops of Rue des Rosiers, the synagogue on Rue Pavée and the Shoah Memorial. Along the way, we’ll bring to life the stories of remarkable figures such as Rashi of Troyes, Alfred Dreyfus, Léon Blum, Marc Chagall and Marie Curie.
The tour also includes a tasting of Yiddish pastries from Florence Kahn’s bakery (not kosher). This delicious break is an opportunity to reconnect with another form of heritage: Yiddish and Ashkenazi cuisine.
Whether you’re passionate about cultural heritage, curious about the history of the Jewish diaspora or simply a food lover, this tour is for you.