Free self-guided walking tour of Paris: Podtour's free audio route

What Podtour's free route is

It's a whole route, not a taster. Eleven stops on the island where Paris was born, told by a single voice, as if a good guide had come along just for you. Podtour researches the stories from its own sources, and every legend is told as a legend. It's made to the same standard as our paid routes.

Every stop is heard outdoors, from the street: there's no need to go inside a monument or buy a ticket. Podtour works offline, so you download the route beforehand and don't depend on mobile data. It comes in English and Spanish.

The route: the Île de la Cité, from the Pont Neuf to Notre-Dame

The thread running through it is unexpected: the last day of Jacques de Molay, the Templars' final grand master, told backwards. You start at the tip of the island, where he was burnt at the stake one March evening in 1314, and finish in front of Notre-Dame, where his sentence had been read out that same morning. In between, the island's great landmarks turn up one by one, each with its own story.

• Stops: 11.
• Distance: about 1.3 km, all flat.
• Listening time: about 33 minutes (estimate); walking time, about 17.
• Start: Square du Vert-Galant, at the tip of the island.
• Finish: the square in front of Notre-Dame, at point zero.

The stops, in a sentence each:

1. Square du Vert-Galant, the tip of the island. A fire at dusk, and a witness who saw the grand master ask to die facing the Virgin.
2. Pont Neuf: the bronze king. Henri IV on horseback, what metal the statue came from and what turned up inside the horse.
3. Pont Neuf: the Bridge of Tears. Why the "new bridge" is the oldest still standing in Paris, and how it became a stage for quacks and showmen.
4. Place Dauphine, the judge's two islets. A square given away with strings attached, and the royal garden from which the burning was decided.
5. The Conciergerie from the Quai de l'Horloge. Marie Antoinette's prison, and a figure that punctures the idea of a waiting room for the guillotine.
6. The Tour de l'Horloge: the king's clock. One of the first public clocks in Paris, with its clockmaker living inside.
7. The Sainte-Chapelle above the palace railings. A glass reliquary for a crown that, with other relics, cost half the kingdom's yearly income.
8. The Cité flower market. How flowers came to the island: by Napoleon's decree.
9. The Hôtel-Dieu from the cathedral square. The hospital for the poor opposite the cathedral, and the straw a king gave it.
10. In front of Notre-Dame: the morning of 18 March. The sentence, a retraction nobody expected, and the famous curse, put in its place: as legend.
11. Point zero. The spot from which France measures its roads, with a medieval gallows in its past and a medallion that isn't the one you think.

What free walking tours in Paris usually cover

In English and Spanish, the range of free walking tours in Paris is huge. The usual ones run with a guide in person, in a group, at a set time, with a tip at the end. The most common is the historic-centre walk: the Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Pont Neuf and the Louvre, in about two and a half hours. Next come Montmartre and the Latin Quarter. On the two big platforms where we counted travellers' reviews, those three themes account for the great majority.

Less prominent, there are also free tours on mysteries and legends (some after dark), the French Revolution, the Second World War in the Marais, the area round the Eiffel Tower and Père-Lachaise cemetery. They're generally outdoor walks: going inside depends on tickets and opening times.

Our free route covers familiar ground, and we won't pretend otherwise: the Cité is the heart of the classic free tour as well. What's different is the way you walk it, with one thread from start to finish, and that you do it when it suits you.

Where free walking tours rarely go

In the tours we looked at, some areas and themes barely appear, and to us they're among the best of Paris. That doesn't mean nobody runs them, but they're not the norm. Here are some of our routes:

• Notre-Dame and the Île Saint-Louis. The neighbouring island, almost absent from the free tours we saw, with its floods, its poets and the notary the Seine carried away.
• The Palais-Royal and the Place des Victoires. A cardinal's garden where 14 July caught fire.
• Mysteries of Old Paris: from the Grève to the Innocents. Mysteries do have free tours; this route puts a date on every legend and carries on to Les Halles and a vanished cemetery, an area that rarely features.
• The Canal Saint-Martin and the Grange-aux-Belles and Belleville, from the Boulevard to the Viewpoint. Paris beyond the classic circuit: a canal that escaped a motorway, and the last barricade of 1871.
• The Père-Lachaise of Memory. There are free tours of its famous graves; this route goes from Oscar Wilde to the Commune and the Spaniards of Mauthausen, memories that rarely come up.

What a free walking tour does better (and when each one suits you)

A good free-tour guide offers things no audio can. They're there in person, you can ask them anything, they adapt the walk to the people in front of them and, if you're travelling alone, they're company. If you fancy meeting people or you're full of questions, it's a great choice.

An audio route wins on other things. You start when you arrive, stop when you like, replay a stop or have a coffee halfway without losing the thread, and you don't have to fit in with anyone's timetable. Our routes are also short and packed: between half an hour and forty minutes of stories in a kilometre and a half or so.

They're not mutually exclusive. You could do a free tour on day one to get your bearings, then head off on your own to the neighbourhoods that interest you.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the free route cost? Nothing. It's free and complete, with no tip and no pay-what-you-like.

How long does it take? About 33 minutes of audio and about 17 minutes' walking, over a little more than a kilometre. It's designed for anyone with about an hour to spare, and you can pause it whenever you want.

Do I need to go inside anywhere? No. You hear everything from the street. The Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame can be visited inside separately, on their own terms, but the route doesn't depend on it.

Are there steps or hills? The route is flat. The first stop is in a riverside garden reached by a flight of steps; if you prefer, you can listen from above, by the statue of Henri IV. Place Dauphine has cobbles.

Which languages is it in? English and Spanish.

Plan your trip

If you're planning your trip, have a look at our Paris travel guide.