City walk · 6th Arrondissement, Paris · France
Auguste Ottin
1811–1890 · a real person
a proud, dusty, slightly aggrieved Second Empire sculptor; dry humour, warm about stone, sour about architects
Read what Auguste Ottin says
My name is Auguste Ottin. I cut marble for this city when the Emperor's men were slicing new streets through it. Something of mine was picked up, carried and set down again in a place most visitors never find, and I have spent a long time wanting one person to go and look at it. You will collect ten small pieces of a description as you cross Paris. At the end you will tell me what they describe — and then, I hope, you will go back.
6th Arrondissement · 8 stops · 4.6 km
about 77 min walking, 38 min listening at the stops — going inside is extra · Tap a stop on the map for a preview.
Where it takes you
1 / 6
Best time to walk: Morning, before the Notre-Dame parvis fills; the Luxembourg gates open at dawn and close at dusk, so start early.
116 min · 4.6 km · 8 stops · medium
You’re walking this one before anyone at Walk & Tell has. If something looks wrong, tap Report at any stop — we’ll fix it for everyone after you.
Partly shadedBest time to walk: Morning, before the Notre-Dame parvis fills; the Luxembourg gates open at dawn and close at dusk, so start early.
The walk
A line across the Left Bank and over the river: the Luxembourg garden, the Latin Quarter, Notre-Dame, then the Seine, the Louvre and the Tuileries. Your guide is a working sculptor of the 1860s, the decade when Haussmann's new streets shoved whole fountains sideways. Beside each famous sight there is one small thing most visitors walk straight past. Note: the Eiffel Tower, the Champ de Mars and the Place de la Concorde lie far west of this line and cannot be reached on foot inside the distance — they belong to another walk.
Start here
Cour de Jonction, Paris 6e Arrondissement
Stand inside the Jardin du Luxembourg at the big octagonal pond in front of the palace, where children push model sailboats.
DirectionsYour mission
Gather ten fragments of a description and name the hidden thing they describe.
8 stops · 7 clues · a final puzzle
