The Paris I’d send my best friend to.
You’ve read the threads and saved the lists. Below is one day in the 9th that I walked myself. Scroll it, then let me build yours around your dates.
Your own itinerary, built around your dates: from €187 for 3 days.
Choose your days09:00 · Coffee
Hôtel Pigalle
The hotel's big ground-floor room is a slightly theatrical café, the sort the 9th does better than anywhere. Banquettes so low your knees end up near your chin, and a wavy pink neon mirror you'll keep glancing at. In the morning it belongs to the neighborhood.
10:15 · Museum
Musée de la Vie romantique
Five minutes away, a painter's house at the end of a cobbled lane where George Sand and Chopin came for dinner. Small, free for the permanent collection, with a garden that feels a long way from Pigalle. It fills the morning without filling you up before lunch.
12:00 · Lunch
Tsubame
A tiny Japanese counter that people working around Pigalle keep to themselves. The room is small and fills at lunch, which is why you're here at noon sharp. For many it's the best lunch box on the Right Bank, and you won't think about food again until evening.
13:30 · Walk
Rue des Martyrs
The street the neighborhood shops on every day: bakers, cheesemongers, fishmongers, small shops in between. Take it downhill toward Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, slowly, with nowhere to be.
16:00 · Tea
T'Xuan
A Chinese tea salon on a street of office buildings, which is exactly why it feels like a hideout. Unhurried, gentle, and with one detail I love: a single wine on the list, and a serious one. Look for it.
18:30 · Wine
Soif
A neighborhood wine shop that also pours and runs tastings. The right in-between hour: back up the hill, a glass, and the street filling with people coming home from work.
20:30 · Dinner
Pétrelle
The table for big nights. Candlelight everywhere. A room that looks like a collector's home. An evening menu in four movements you'd happily take again in reverse, and one of the deepest wine lists in Paris.
23:00 · Nightcap
Hôtel Pigalle
Back where the day started. The pink neon looks different at night, and so does the room.
The next morning
That was one day. Yours gets the best-friend rule.
Every place in your itinerary is one I’d send my best friend to. Some I’ve walked myself, like the eight above. The others are checked before you leave: opening hours and closures, for your dates. Three, five or seven days, at your pace, where locals actually go.
5 days of Paris, built around you: €336
One price for the whole trip, however many of you travel.
Arno DekkerSee a full 5-day itinerary
Paris · 17th arrondissement · places I’d send my best friend
“Tell me what’s off and I redraw it until it feels right, before you leave.” — Arno
Every stop has a plan B. A stop and its plan B both closed? WhatsApp me a photo: within the hour (9am–9pm), you have an open place less than 15 minutes’ walk away.
Paid on Gumroad, by card. Order at least 4 days before you leave. Ordering close to your trip? You have your itinerary two days before you leave at the latest. Prices in euros, before tax; VAT is added at checkout where it applies. Receipt by email. A question first? detours.agency75@gmail.com
After you pay
- TodayAn 8-minute form (flights, hotel, pace, tastes, what to skip). Then a 20-minute video call, if you want one. Skip it and I build from your form.
- 72 h after the call or formI email you a private link and a password. Your whole itinerary opens on your phone. Tell me what’s off and I redraw it until it feels right, before you leave.
- 2 days before you leaveI check everything again (strikes, closures, opening hours) and email you your link: your itinerary is confirmed.
- In ParisA stop and its plan B both closed? WhatsApp me a photo: within the hour (9am–9pm), you have an open place less than 15 minutes’ walk away. Complice: message me anything, 9am–9pm.
More than 7 days€75 per extra day
Wrote your own itinerary? I check it and send it back to your phone within 72 hours of your email. No call.€49
What you won’t do in Paris
Compare ten lists on the sidewalk. Guess which line is worth it. Walk twenty minutes to a closed door.
I do that part once, before you leave.
I’m Arno. I live in Paris, in the 17th. Some of the places I send you to, I’ve walked myself, like the day above. The others are checked before you leave. Every one is a place I’d send my best friend.
What if a place is closed when you get there?
Every stop has a plan B five minutes away. A stop and its plan B both closed? That’s my mistake, so I fix it. WhatsApp me a photo: within the hour (9am–9pm), you have an open place less than 15 minutes’ walk away. Every time, on every day you bought. On Flâneur, it’s the one reason to WhatsApp me.
What if it rains?
When rain spoils a stop, its plan B takes you indoors: shops and small places to wait it out.
What if the itinerary isn’t quite right?
Tell me what’s off and I redraw it until it feels right, before you leave. You mark the stops to change on your phone, send them once, and get a new version. In Paris, a Flâneur itinerary stays as it is; with Complice, I adjust it with you on WhatsApp.
Can I get a refund?
No refunds. Instead, I keep working. Tell me what’s off and I redraw it until it feels right, before you leave. In Paris, a stop and its plan B both closed? WhatsApp me a photo: within the hour (9am–9pm), you have an open place less than 15 minutes’ walk away.
Why trust a stranger?
Fair question. I’m just starting out, so I have no reviews to show you yet. What I can show you is the day above: eight stops I walked myself. My notebook holds 1,300+ Paris places, and your itinerary only gets the ones I’d send my best friend to.
Do you make the reservations?
No, reservations stay in your name: each day comes with the exact links, and I tell you which places to book ahead.
What about allergies, special diets or fears?
Tell me in the form or on the call: vegetarian, gluten-free, allergies, claustrophobia, vertigo, a fear of anything. I build your itinerary around it, or I tell you upfront if a place doesn’t work.
What happens after I pay?
Gumroad sends you the 8-minute form. Then a 20-minute video call, if you want one. Skip it and I build from your form. The form covers the logistics, so the call can be about you: what you loved on past trips, what you’d skip, your pace. 72 hours after your call (or after your form, if you skip the call), I email you a private link and a password. Your whole itinerary opens on your phone. Two days before you leave, I check everything again (strikes, closures, opening hours) and email you your link: your itinerary is confirmed.