VoiceMap Tour: The Luxembourg Garden, Paris’s Most Elegant Park

The Luxembourg Garden is far more than Paris’s prettiest park—it’s a way of life. You enter as a visitor within its gold-tipped fencing, then soon find yourself a full-fledged participant in the lifestyle of the Left Bank. It’s an essential Paris walk.

So how about taking a stroll in the park with me, Gary Lee Kraut, editor of France Revisited?

Whether you’re able to visit the Luxembourg Garden anytime soon or not, you can now join me on an audio tour that I’ve published with the VoiceMap touring app. It’s one of three Paris walking tours that I’ve created for the app.

My Luxembourg Garden tour is especially intended to be listened to with earbuds while visiting the 62-acre garden since VoiceMap uses your phone’s GPS to launch the audio description from location to location as you follow my exclusive route. But you can also listen on your computer at home or by iPhone or Android anywhere. I’ve uploaded photos to allow armchair travelers to follow along as I tell about the various elements—historical, natural, sculptural and sporting—that make the Luxembourg Garden such an elegant and pleasurable gathering place for Parisians and visitors alike.

From your home computer, tablet or phone you can reach my Luxembourg Garden walking tour by clicking here. On your phone, the VoiceMap Touring App is available from the Google Play Store or from the App Store for iPhone. You’ll find my Luxembourg Garden tour in the list of Paris tours. You’ll also find my Tuileries Garden and Champs-Elysées walking tours there.

Once you’ve signed up with VoiceMap and purchased a given tour, you can listen to it on both your computer and your phone. That means that you can listen to it a first time at home or while out jogging or a walk in your own neighborhood, then, using the same activation code, follow along a second time with your phone when you’re eventually able to visit Paris and the Luxembourg Garden. No need to wait.

In addition to treating yourself to the tour, you can also offer it as a holiday gift for the would-be traveler on your list. There’s a button on the tour page that opens a link where can request to purchasing the tour as a gift. Specifically request “Gary Kraut’s Luxembourg Garden Tour” and indicate the number of times you’d like to purchase it (in case you’d like to gift it to more than one person). VoiceMap will then create an invoice for however many tour vouchers you’d like to purchase, redeemable against my tour.

So whether on site in Paris or from home anywhere, I look forward to strolling with you through the Luxembourg Garden… and in the Tuileries Garden and along the Champs-Elysées as well.

Frequently asked questions about VoiceMap tours

How do VoiceMap tours work?
VoiceMap’s audio tour app for iOS and Android uses your device’s GPS to play audio automatically, at the right time and place. Just install the app and download your tour, then go to the starting point and begin your walk.

Do I need to follow a route, or can I start the tour anywhere I like?
Tours have a fixed starting point and follow a route to a fixed end location. This allows the tour to provide turn-by-turn-directions and improves the accuracy of automatic playback. It also allows me to tell a better story as one location leads to the next. But the VoiceMap app does have a Resume option, and this allows you to pick up a tour from the closest location and carry on with it whenever you like.

Can I use tours more than once?
You can listen to your tours as often as you like using both the VoiceMap app and the VoiceMap website. Your access to tours doesn’t expire.

Can I listen to tours at home?
Yes! That’s why I include photos on my VoiceMap tours. So you don’t need to travel to a tour’s starting point to take this essential stroll with me in Paris. In the VoiceMap app, just select Virtual mode on the screen that displays after you download the tour. You can also listen to the whole tour at voicemap.me.

How do I access a tour using the VoiceMap app if I purchase it through the VoiceMap website?
Once you’ve purchased a tour, it’s added to your VoiceMap library. If you sign into the app using the same method you used at voicemap.me, you’ll have access to your full library of tours. This works the other way too: if you make in-app purchases using the VoiceMap app, you can access these on the VoiceMap website.

Do I need mobile data to do a VoiceMap tour?
No, VoiceMap works entirely offline if there’s no data connection, so you don’t have to pay roaming fees. Just download the tour over WiFi before you get started. And be sure that your phone’s battery is charged before you set out.