Paris · its history and its architecture, building by building

Your city is your whole world.
Live it to the fullest.

What happened behind every front in Paris, and how each one was built, on a living 3D map where all 128,175 buildings are dated. Guided walks talk you round with a voice in your ear, and a pocket mode speaks up only when a landmark is near.

Try it free, no download

Opens in your browser. Works offline once loaded. No account, nothing tracked, nothing sent anywhere.

Watch Paris get built

Two thousand years, in the time it takes to boil a kettle.

Every building rises in the order it was built, coloured by its year, from the island out to the ring road. Drag through the centuries, or let them play.

  • The whole city, or the block you are standing on
  • Lenses for mansard roofs, towers, everything before 1800
The living map, from about 1100 to today. Data: Apur, the Paris planning agency.

Start here · the eight-minute film

Six decisions made Paris look like Paris.

An island, four rings of walls, a straight line drawn over four centuries, Haussmann, the show-off years around 1900 and a height rule written after a fright, played out on the living map in eight minutes.

OneThe river and the island52 BC to 1100
TwoThe rings1190 to 1860
ThreeThe royal axis1560 to 1989
FourHaussmann’s surgery1853 to 1914
FiveThe 1900 moment1889 to 1914
SixHeight and the ring1920 to today
Watch the film in the app
A building page in Flâne: Pont Neuf, with a hook line and a look-for list
Pont Neuf page with the then-and-now slider

Every building is a door

Tap any building on the map. Its whole story opens.

1,415 buildings open to a page of their own, with the year and the architect, a timeline of what happened there and the trace it left, three things to find with your own eyes, and old photographs beside new ones.

The cannonball of 1830 is still in the wall of the Hôtel de Sens and the shell marks of August 1944 are still on the École des Mines, and the app shows you where to look.

  • Search in plain words: “medieval churches in the Marais”, “art deco pools”
  • Save a place, or add it to a walk of your own in one tap

Then and now

Slide any street back a century.

On 120 corners an old photograph lies over today’s view. Here is the avenue de l’Opéra being cut through in 1877, photographed by Charles Marville: drag the handle.

The avenue de l’Opéra today
The avenue de l’Opéra in 1877, by Charles Marville
1877
Today

Guided walks

Walks. A voice in your ear, and nothing to read on the way.

A recorded voice tells you where to stand, then what you are looking at, and starts by itself at each stop, so the phone stays in your pocket. Some walks follow how the city was built, others what happened in it, from the Revolution to the Liberation.

How it was builtThe new Paris, across the riverThe 13th and Bercy · 4.8 km · about 2 h · 8 stops How it was builtIron footbridges and the working eastCanal Saint-Martin and République, 10th · 4.1 km · about 2 h · 8 stops What happened hereThe Commune, 1871: the week Paris burnedHôtel de Ville to Orsay, 4th, 1st and 7th · 4.7 km · about 2 h · 8 stops What happened hereThe Occupation and the Liberation, 1940 to 1944Montparnasse to the Marais, 6th, 5th and 4th · 4.7 km · about 2 h · 8 stops What happened hereFour centuries of kings, in a straight lineLouvre and Palais-Royal, 1st · 3.1 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops What happened hereMedieval Paris, the city inside the wallMarais and Latin Quarter, 2nd to 5th · 5 km · about 2 h · 8 stops How it was builtThe hill that stayed a villageMontmartre, 18th · 1.6 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops What happened hereParis of the Revolution, 1789 to 1794Bastille to Concorde, 4th, 1st and 8th · 5.2 km · about 2 h · 8 stops What happened hereWriters’ Paris: the addresses behind the booksLatin Quarter and Saint-Germain, 5th and 6th · 4.4 km · about 2 h · 8 stops What happened hereThe island where Paris beganÎle de la Cité · 2.2 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops What happened hereHôtels and the royal squareThe Marais · 2.7 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops How it was builtFive centuries in one square kilometreLes Halles and Beaubourg · 2.3 km · about 1.5 h · 9 stops How it was builtHaussmann’s stageOpéra and the Grands Boulevards · 3.8 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops How it was builtSaint-Germain and the LuxembourgSaint-Germain-des-Prés · 2.8 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops What happened hereFrom Lutetia to the Arab WorldLatin Quarter and Jardin des Plantes · 5 km · about 2.5 h · 12 stops How it was builtThe Eiffel axis7th arrondissement · 5.9 km · about 2.5 h · 10 stops How it was builtCurves and white cubesPassy and Auteuil · 4.4 km · about 1.5 h · 8 stops

Or build your own

Pick any places. Flâne makes the route and does the talking.

Search for anything, tick as many places as you like or add a whole group at once, and Flâne orders them into the shortest route on foot and reads each stop to you.

Filter by length, bank or themeStops in any orderPoints instead of paragraphsWorks offline once loaded
A guided walk in progress on the island, the route drawn on the map with numbered stops
The list of guided walks with filters
Wander mode, switched off, with its quiet-by-design settings

Wander mode

Put it in your pocket. It speaks when it matters.

Walk wherever you like. When you pass within a few dozen metres of a landmark, a voice says one line about it and one thing to look for, then goes quiet.

  • Only the landmarks unless you widen it, so a quiet street stays quiet.
  • At most one line every eight minutes, and never twice about the same place in a day.
  • Never a notification. Nothing buzzes, nothing pops up, nothing is sent anywhere.

An hour in the Marais usually hears three or four lines.

Your street through time: the block around an address, rebuilt year by year

Your street, through time

Type any address. Get a six-second film of your street being built.

Your hotel, your flat or the café you keep going back to: Flâne rebuilds the block from the first stone to today and makes a vertical film you can send to anyone.

Learn · deep dives, two ways in

Why Paris looks like Paris, and what happened here.

Each deep dive answers a question people actually ask about Paris, with a moment on the living map, short lessons and a quiz that earns a badge. Some are about how the city was built, others about the people and the events.

How it was built

01Why does every Paris street look the same? 02How does a cathedral stand up? 03Why is there no skyline? 04How do you date a doorway? 05What did iron and glass change? 06Why did Paris stop curving?

What happened here

01What did the Romans leave? 02What is left of the medieval city? 03Which king built what? 04Where did the Revolution actually happen?
A deep dive page
The Learn tab, dives by question or by period

The strange ones

Two dozen buildings that make people stop and ask what on earth that is.

Each area of oddities becomes a walk of your own in one tap, and wander mode points them out as you pass.

Made for the way a visit actually goes.

Before

Watch the film on the sofa and plan your days with a trip card.

On foot

A guided walk or wander mode, with the phone in your pocket and nothing to read.

In the evening

A recap of the day, and the deep dive that explains what you saw.

After

The street films you sent, and a city you now know how to read.

Written by hand from the sources and checked against them, with no adverts inside.

One price, no subscription

Start free. Keep it for $29.

The map, the film, the first walk and three readings a day stay free. The Paris Pass opens everything in Paris for good, for less than one guided tour.

Paris Pass $29 Everything in Paris for good, including whatever is added next. Get the Paris Pass First 1,000 people Founding member $79 Every city we ever build, London, New York, Amsterdam, Rome and then Beirut. One payment, for life. Become a founder
Or just try it free first, no download and no account

Questions people ask

Is it an app? Do I need the App Store?

Flâne is a web app. Open the link, and if you like it, add it to your home screen from the browser’s share menu. It then opens full screen like any app, keeps working offline once it has loaded the map around you, and takes up no room in a store queue.

Do I have to be in Paris?

No. The film, the living map, the time-lapse, the deep dives and the then-and-now corners work anywhere, and most people watch the film before they fly. The walks and wander mode are for when you are there, and a pretend walk lets you hear them work from your kitchen.

Is it for visitors or for people who live there?

Both, and the app asks which you are. Visitors get a trip card and the start-here walks. Parisians tend to go straight for the strange ones, their own street through time, and the dives that explain the things they have walked past for years.

What happens with my data?

Nothing leaves the phone. There is no account, your progress lives on your phone, your position is used on the phone to know what is near you and is sent nowhere, and there is no advertising inside.

Who wrote it?

One person who loves cities, with the readings written by hand from the sources and checked against them, the buildings dated from the city of Paris’s own open data, and the photographs from Wikimedia Commons with their authors credited. Where a fact is uncertain, the text says so.

What if it is not for me?

Try the free part first, and take your time. If you do buy and change your mind, write to us within fourteen days and we refund the full amount without asking why. Payments go through Stripe, and the email you give at checkout brings your purchase back on another phone.

Your city is your whole world.
Live it to the fullest.

The history and the architecture of Paris, building by building, in your pocket.

Try Flâne free, no download

Paris now, and other cities to follow.