Parisian WWII History, the Eiffel Tower and a Seine Cruise
Updated: Oct 2
Our last day in Paris ended up being one of my favourite days of the trip.
It was pretty simple, even though we walked about 10 km. And it had such a good mix of Paris history, familiar landmarks, and river views. For the first time in the city, we definitely felt like we were in Paris.
We started at Hotel Berne Opera, rushing down to the breakfast area, which had a bunker feeling to it because it's in the basement. That actually set the tone more than I expected, because our morning was built around a WWII Occupation and Liberation tour.
After breakfast, we grabbed a cab to 11 Rue de Saussaies, the meeting point for the tour I had booked through GetYourGuide.
Starting the Morning with a WWII Occupation and Liberation Tour
Our tour was supposed to start at 11 Rue de Saussaies at 9:00am, but our guide, Charles, let us know he was running late. Since we had a bit of time, we walked down the street and found an art gallery stoop to sit on. Then, once he arrived, he had us walk right back to the original meeting point.
When he explained the history of the location, it made sense that he chose it as the starting point. During the German occupation of Paris, from 1940 to 1944, Rue de Saussaies became associated with Nazi security services and interrogations. Our guide made us stop and look at that doorway differently.
The great thing about this tour is that it was private. We didn't pay for a private tour, but it was just us on the walk. That was the strength of the tour. We were informed about the history of occupied Paris and where it happened. It happened in offices, hotels, streets, apartments, and ordinary-looking buildings that still stand today.
Charles took us through the story of Paris under occupation, then slowly moved the tour toward liberation. Dean was locked in the whole time. He was absorbing the details, asking questions, and staying close enough to catch everything.
I, on the other hand, was doing my best but kept ending up out of the loop. Between the traffic, walking behind the two of them, and the accent, I was lost. I did glean some from the tour, but it was basically just me following two men engaged in deep conversation for 3 hours.
I did really enjoy seeing the city and feeling its texture on the walk. We even got to walk the right bank and see all the souvenir stands lining the Seine.
Walking from Place de la Concorde by the Hotels
From Rue de Saussaies, we walked toward Place de la Concorde. It’s one of those places in Paris that already carries layers of history. Long before WWII, it was tied to the French Revolution. it’s almost too much history in one square.
From there, Charles took us past the Ritz. During the occupation, prominent Paris hotels were taken over by German authorities and officers. The Ritz has long been associated with that period, and other grand hotels in the city also became part of the occupation infrastructure.
Seeing these hotels, we much would have preferred to be staying in them, despite the sordid history. That part of the tour was strange to process. These buildings are polished and beautiful. People go in and out with luggage, shopping bags, and dinner reservations. But during the war, many of those same kinds of buildings were attached to power, surveillance, and fear.
This is why I think a WWII tour is worth doing in Paris, even if you don’t think of yourself as a history buff. Despite the city's fame for romance, art, gardens, and pastries, there’s also a heavier Paris underneath, and it changes the way you move through the city once you’ve heard about it.
A guided walk helps connect places that would otherwise just be pretty streets on a map.
Crossing the Seine and Hearing About Liberation
After the section on occupation, the tour shifted to liberation. We crossed the Seine to the Left Bank and walked past the Louvre.
I remember spotting the Eiffel Tower in the distance and feeling grateful in a practical travel sense. There was a landmark. There was the general direction. Paris can be disorienting, so seeing it gave me a direction for after the tour.
The liberation of Paris happened after more than four years of occupation. French Resistance fighters, the French 2nd Armored Division, and Allied forces were all part of the city’s liberation. Paris was officially liberated on August 25th 1944, a date still marked across the city on plaques and monuments.
One of the most interesting stops on our tour was a building connected to the Resistance. Today, it looked more like an apartment building than anything else. Two young men were entering and Charles asked if we could go inside. There was a poster dedicated to the resistance and our guide mentioned that he had never been inside before, so it was a real treat for him too.
We ended near a plaque connected to the liberation of Jewish people. That was a quiet, sobering end to the tour. The Nazi occupation brought persecution, deportation, collaboration, resistance, and survival into the daily life of the city.
A good tour doesn’t flatten that into a neat story. Charles did a really good job. He was personal, thoughtful, and clearly cared about the subject. Dean was engaged from start to finish, which says a lot because it was a three hour long walk and a lot of information.
Lunch at Le Raspail and Walking Toward the Tower
After the tour, we needed food. We ate lunch at Le Raspail, sitting next to one another on the bench side of the patio. We both had steak, which tasted a little weird. I don’t remember it as a slow, lingering lunch. It was more of a reset. Then we kept walking toward the Tower.
This is the thing about planning one last day in Paris. On a map, everything can look manageable. By the end of the day, we had walked about 10 km. It was easy enough for us, but our feet did get tired. Good shoes are crucial, timing matters, and breaks save the day.
If I were turning this into a one-day Paris itinerary, I’d keep the shape of it entirely. A morning guided tour works well because your brain is fresher. Lunch needs to be close to where the tour ends, like ours was, just across the street. Then the afternoon can be for one major landmark and one seated activity.
The Eiffel Tower
Before the cruise, we got to have that classic moment of reaching the Eiffel Tower. No matter how many photos I’ve seen, it still has an effect in person.
The history of the Eiffel Tower is also more interesting than its postcard image suggests. It was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle and was not universally loved at the time. It was meant to show off French engineering, and over time it became the symbol everyone now associates with Paris.
Funny how now everyone plans their trip around seeing it, when initially it was controversial.
Taking a Seine Cruise with Bateaux Parisiens
Once we reached the Tower, we looked down to the river and there was Bateaux Parisiens. A river cruise was included with our Wingbuddy tour and it was exactly the right idea and also not quite enough rest. The cruise was about an hour, which sounds lovely, but if you’ve walked all morning you'll realize one hour off your feet barely makes a dent.
Still, it was beautiful. A Seine cruise gives you Paris without asking much from you. You just sit there and let the city pass by. After a heavy morning learning about occupation and liberation, it felt good to see the city from the water. The mood shifted.
From the boat, we saw the Tower, the Louvre, and Notre Dame before heading back. Notre Dame is especially moving from the river. Even after the 2019 fire, it remains one of the great landmarks of Paris, and seeing it from the Seine gives you a sense of how central it is to the city.
The Louvre from the water also feels different than the Louvre from the courtyard. That’s what I loved about this day. We got a new perspective for seeing and feeling Paris. The morning tour gave us the twentieth century. The river cruise quietly gave us older Paris too.
When the cruise ended, we did not pretend we had the energy to wait in line to try to ascend the Eiffel Tower. Just seeing it that close in person was enough to satisfy our lust for iconic sights. We were still too tired to stand for long, so we caught a cab back to the hotel.
Booking Your Own Seine Cruise
Even if this cruise wasn't included in our tour, I would have gravitated to this type of activity. There are so many options on GetYourGuide for river cruises in Paris. They're reasonably priced. The link in the section above takes you to the one we went on with Bateaux Parisiens Each option has a different starting location, so it's worth doing your research. Here are a few good options:
Dinner at Brasserie Jaja and an Early Night
Honestly, one of the best practical things about Paris was how easy it was to catch cabs. We'd soon find out how spoiled we were there (in Nice we couldn't catch a cab to save our lives), but Paris felt refreshingly manageable. On a day with a lot of walking, that helped us manage.
That night, we ate at Brasserie Jaja. By this point, I desperately wanted something different to eat. Somehow, I ended up having fried chicken again, which made it the fourth day in a row. It's kind of funny, now.
When I travel sometimes only one thing on the menu seems edible. The dinner was still a nice final meal. The touring was done. The walking was done. Paris had been wonderful that final day.
We didn’t try to squeeze in one more view or one more late-night drink. We went back to the hotel and had an early night because our alarm was set for 2:00 am. Our airport transfer was at 3:15 am, which is a time that should not exist on vacation. The next day Air France Upgrades made for a good start to our time in the South of France.
Would I Plan this Day the Same?
If I were doing this day again, I’d keep the same basic plan. A WWII walking tour in the morning, lunch, the Tower, and a Seine cruise is a strong extra-day itinerary for Paris. It gives the day shape without requiring museum tickets or a tight schedule.
I’m glad we did it the way we did. The walk made the city feel connected.
Paris is beautiful when you’re looking up at monuments, but it becomes more meaningful when you understand what happened on the streets beneath them. Our last day gave us both. History in the morning, river views in the afternoon, and just enough exhaustion to sleep for a few hours before the airport alarm went off.
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