Paris is the most photographed city in Europe and one of the least looked at. Visitors arrive with a list of five monuments, spend their days travelling between them, and see the streets in between through a bus window or a metro map.
Those streets are the city. A quest is a way to spend a couple of hours in them with a reason to look closely: a route on your phone, played in teams, where each stop holds a question that can only be answered by standing there. Paris supplies an unusual amount of material, because so much of its history is inscribed directly onto its surfaces.
What is written on the streets
The old street names. Before enamel plates, street names were carved directly into the stone at corners. Many are still legible above the modern signs, sometimes with a different name.
The Arago medallions. Small bronze discs set into pavements across the city, marking the line of the Paris Meridian. They are easy to walk over for years without noticing.
Fragments of the medieval wall. Sections of the twelfth-century city wall survive in courtyards and against school playgrounds, most visibly in the Marais.
The plaques. Names and dates marking where people died in August 1944, fixed to walls all over the centre. Once you start noticing them, the Liberation stops being an abstraction.
The covered passages. Nineteenth-century glass-roofed arcades in the second and ninth, most of them quiet, several of them beautiful, and almost none of them on a standard itinerary.
How a quest runs
You choose the start point and time. The story loads on one phone per team and sends you to the first location, where the app asks something the place answers: a date over a doorway, the number of figures on a fountain, a name carved into stone.
Correct answer, next stop unlocks. Wrong answer costs points, not the game. Two hours later everyone reaches the same finish with a score. Details on the how it works page.
Choosing an area
The Marais is the best single choice: medieval street plan, seventeenth-century mansions, courtyards, and enough density that a route never needs the metro.
The Latin Quarter for Roman remains, narrow streets and university history, though busy in the evening.
Montmartre for the village layout and the views, with the caveat that it is properly steep and extremely crowded near the basilica.
The passages and the Palais-Royal for a route that stays under cover for much of its length – the best option in poor weather.
Pick one arrondissement. Paris is big enough that a route spanning two becomes a metro journey with questions attached.
Practical notes
Sunday mornings are the quietest time in the centre and the best time to play. August empties the city of Parisians and fills it with visitors, which is a mixed trade.
Most museums close on either Monday or Tuesday. If a route is part of a day that includes one, check first.
For a group, split into teams of four to six all playing the same route. Our groups and companies page covers larger bookings, and our piece on group activities has more on choosing by size.
Frequently asked questions
What is a quest in Paris?
A self-guided route through one part of the city played on a phone in teams, where each location holds a puzzle that must be solved on the spot before the next unlocks. No guide, no fixed departure.
How long does it take?
Around two hours of play covering two to four kilometres within one area. Allow three hours in total including gathering and a finish.
Do you need to speak French?
No. Games are available in several languages, and the answers are things you look at rather than read aloud.
Which area is best for a first visit?
The Marais. It is central, walkable, full of visible history, and unlike the Latin Quarter it does not empty into tourist restaurants after six.
Is it suitable for children?
From about eight years old with an adult in the team. Avoid Montmartre with young children – the gradient and the crowds are a poor combination.
What about rain?
Light rain is fine and cafés are everywhere. In heavy rain, a route through the covered passages is the obvious answer.
Playing in Paris
See what is currently running on our locations page, or tell us about your group through the contact page.
