The new way to dodge the crowds in one of Europe’s busiest cities

“Look, we’re only 300 metres from one of the busiest squares in Paris, but there’s no one here,” says guide Cecilia Garcia Riglos.

She gestures to the surrounding garden, a mini wonderland starring boulders and a bubbling brook with birdsong backing vocals. Nearby, the Eiffel Tower’s Trocadero Place swarms with forward-focused camera clickers, but as Riglos says: “No one is looking to the right.”

But here we are, deep in the right – literally the Right Bank in Passy. It’s so far west it’s almost falling off the Parisian postcodes. “What would you go there for? And you can quote me on that,” says my Parisian friend, snorting out her cafe au lait in protest.

Concurring, former resident and Almost French author Sarah Turnbull wrote of Passy’s quiet, wealthy, family-oriented atmosphere: “I longed for a quartier with more life, more diversity, more noise.”

But less noise is what I’m seeking, road-testing Intrepid’s new overtourism-combatting tour, which redirects visitors to lesser-known areas. I’m also about to have my frequent-Paris-exploring socks knocked off.

At our Musee de l’Homme meeting point, it’s clear most missed the memo that the 16th arrondissement (area) is ringard (uncool), with the masses magnetically pulled instead to the 7300-tonne iron tower that’s about to stalk me all morning.

Mademoiselle Eiffel flirts with suggestive glimpses at our first stop, Cimetiere de Passy, tucked behind a retaining wall. It’s a fascinating homage to old Parisian names including artist Edouard Manet and pentatonic scale master Claude Debussy.

En route to our un-signposted clandestine garden (in Rue de Tasse), Riglos sniffs towards a staircase, saying of the above Avenue de Camoens TikTok spot: “This is where we don’t take you. That’s the opposite of what we’re about.”

Sigh. It’s a reluctant reveal, but voila, I give you Bir-Hakeim Bridge esplanade, below the Line 6 Metro. Arguably the spot with the most iconic view in Paris, it is, unbelievably, completely empty. While this is a solid left hook of a surprise, it’s still not the knockout punch.

The route we’re taking includes neoclassical architecture deviations among the handsome Haussmann facades, like cinematic Alboni Square bedecked with lantern-style streetlights. Then there are the Trocadero gardens, with Renaissance stone ruins from Catherine de Medici’s palace. There’s also the triple threat (museum, restaurant and wine tasting) Le M. Musee du Vin while I am falling in love with stone-walled Rue Breton.

The highlight is a coin toss between the reception desk at Maison de Balzac museum and the Marché Couvert de Passy. The former is the novelist Honore de Balzac’s debt-collector-dodging hideout, and if the rose-strewn gardens with seating nooks is what 1840s poverty looked like, sign me up. But at the reception window is the persistent eye poker’s most unexpected cameo, upstaging the view of Balzac’s house by seemingly sitting on it with her iron skirt.

In the tourism version of a bonus set of steak knives is the Marché Couvert de Passy along lively pedestrian Rue de l’Annonciation, sealing the Passy deal. Who knew about the bounty within? Certainly no visitors – this is locals-only shopping for flowers and oysters, or pulling up bar pews to worship the buckwheat, gluten-free crepes at Creperie Chez Marie-Do’s counter, or tasting Le Fort des Rousses Comte paired with Jura wine at the Fromagerie de Passy’s Cheese Bar.

If there’s one thing Paris doesn’t need, it’s another patisserie. But Manuela Corossacz disagreed, starting Golosa Patisserie three years ago. “I wasn’t frightened because probably I’m a little bit crazy, I love challenges and because I’m sure you won’t find another pastry like this one in Paris,” she says. Her confections now have a cult-like following, and the highlight isn’t necessarily the yuzu Japanese-inspired cheesecake or Portuguese pastel de natas, but Manuela herself, having cast off a 20-year managerial role at Chanel knitwear to see the dough rise on her passion for global flavours.

Delivering in just two hours more revelations than a score of visits, the tour has ricocheted Passy to the top of my Paris list. “We’re spreading tourism beyond the same few streets, supporting local business and seeing the city through the people who really know it,” says Riglos.

THE DETAILS

TOUR
The Paris Uncommon Day Trip is one of a trio of new tours (including Venice and Barcelona) in Europe’s most visited cities €55 ($90) for adults. See urbanadventures.com