Paris Assassin's Creed Unity Audio Walking Tour

In Assassin's Creed Unity, Arno Dorian is raised by François de la Serre, secretly the Grand Master of the Templars. In 1789 de la Serre is murdered, Arno is framed for it, and he is thrown into the Bastille just as Paris is about to explode. This walk follows Arno's story through the real city, from his prison cell to the square where the king, and later Robespierre, died. At every stop you get the game scene first, then the real place and what really happened there. This is an unofficial fan walk, not made with or endorsed by Ubisoft, with spoilers all the way. It runs about six kilometers from the Place de la Bastille to the Place de la Concorde, one of our story-driven self-guided walking tours.

Before you set off

The walking takes about an hour and twenty minutes; with the stories and a few pauses, plan on two and a half to three hours. It is flat all the way, across two islands and along the river. Start at Bastille metro, on lines 1, 5 and 8, and finish at Concorde, on lines 1, 8 and 12. Notre-Dame's towers, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie are ticketed, so check before you go if you want to step inside. Twice on this walk the story steps back in time, and we will tell you when.

Place de la Bastille

You're on the Place de la Bastille, and the fortress is gone. Look down: a line of larger paving stones traces its walls, and at number 3 a plaque from 1880 shows its plan.

In the game, Arno is locked in a cell here with Pierre Bellec, an Assassin, who spots that Arno has Eagle Vision, tells him his father was an Assassin and trains him for two months. Arno passes real inmates too: the Chevalier de Whyte quoting Caesar in Latin, and the Marquis de Sade shouting from his cell.

Now the real part. When the crowd broke in on the fourteenth of July, 1789, there were only seven prisoners inside. Four were forgers. The others were Tavernier, the Comte de Solages, and Whyte, who believed he was Julius Caesar. De Sade was held here until the fourth of July, ten days before the storming, so the game's timing works.

The tall column is not about 1789 at all. It honors the revolution of July 1830, and the dead of those three days were brought here for burial.

Walk south down boulevard Henri-IV toward the river, about six minutes, to a small garden on the right just before the bridge.

Square Henri-Galli (Bastille stones)

In this little garden you can touch the Bastille. These three courses of stone are the foundations of its Liberty Tower.

In the game, the storming is Arno's way out. As the crowd attacks, he and Bellec slip free in the chaos.

The real fortress came down fast. Demolition began that same evening and ran until May 1791, with about seven hundred workers a day, and the contractor, Palloy, charged visitors for tours of the ruins. These stones were found in 1899, when the first metro line was dug under rue Saint-Antoine, and moved here stone by stone.

Hold on to one detail for the end of the walk: Bastille stone went into a new bridge across the Seine, the Pont de la Concorde.

Cross the Pont de Sully in front of you onto the Île Saint-Louis, then turn right along rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Île to the church, about five minutes.

Île Saint-Louis (Café Théâtre)

You're on a quiet island of seventeenth-century houses, on its long main street by the church. No grand monuments here, just tall old houses shoulder to shoulder, a good place to hide a secret.

The game sets Arno's home base here. In the third chapter he takes over the Café Théâtre, a run-down café above the Assassins' headquarters, and restores it room by room. It is here that he persuades Élise de la Serre, his guardian's daughter, to take her case to the Assassin Council.

The honest part: the Café Théâtre never existed. In the game, though, it sits right on top of the Assassins' headquarters, so here you are standing over the Brotherhood's floor. Its grander entrance is under the Sainte-Chapelle, two stops from here.

Walk west along rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Île to the tip of the island, cross the footbridge and follow the riverside around behind the cathedral to its front square, about ten minutes.