Virtual Experiences
Beyond tours, I also love sharing history through small, interactive lectures. I am passionate about helping travelers understand how to plan their time in Paris and France, but also about diving into the stories that shaped the country. I enjoy speaking about French political history, Napoleon and his legacy, Versailles and the Kings of France, World War II and Normandy, as well as the history and culture of the French Riviera.
I was born and raised in France, I am fully fluent in English, and I always keep my talks lively, accessible, and professional. These lectures are designed for small private groups from 2 to 20 people, allowing real conversation, questions, and spontaneous exchanges rather than a formal academic presentation. Every session can be fully customized depending on your interests, your travel plans, or your curiosity about France.
LECTURES
Pascal Billaud also offers online lectures for your group. He can host engaging Zoom sessions for small team building or large audiences, combining clear visuals, maps, and artworks with live storytelling and Q&A.
This format is ideal for B2B, companies, universities, clubs, or fan communities who want to explore Napoleon’s leadership, strategy, and legacy together, without having to travel to Paris.
Napoelon Leadership
1h
Napoleon’s leadership is still useful today because he combined vision, speed, and storytelling: he knew where he wanted to go, moved faster than his rivals, and made people believe they were part of something bigger than themselves. He focused resources on decisive objectives, rewarded merit, and used symbols, ceremonies, and clear messages to turn an army into a committed community.
French Political Institutions
1h
French political institutions are often housed in stunning hôtels particuliers—grand private mansions turned public seats of power—that blend aristocratic luxury with neoclassical grandeur.
During this lecture we will visit their links and powers, their history, their architecture and everything that made these houses a hub for power.
LIVE TOURS
You can’t travel to Paris but you want to discover it with a tour guide?
The idea came to me during Covid : Paris suddenly became the most beautiful city nobody could visit. The streets were empty, the museums were closed, and guides like me were… talking to our walls.
So I tried something slightly crazy: I took a camera and started walking through Paris anyway.
At the beginning, it felt very strange. I was telling stories about Napoleon, revolutions, kings and artists… to a tiny lens instead of real people. People started joining from everywhere.
Families stuck at home. Travelers who had cancelled their dream trips. History lovers who simply missed Paris.
These live tours became my way of keeping Paris alive and sharing it when the world felt paused. Were they perfect? Definitely not. Sometimes the internet froze. Sometimes my hands froze. Sometimes both. But they were real, spontaneous, and honestly… a lot of fun.
And I kept doing them with clubs in USA for people who can’t travel to Paris.
If you want to organize a live tour with me, send me an email : contact@napoleonxplore.com | +33699726852
Below are the Zoom Tours possible with streaming live camera :
Live tour of Paris quarters
1 hour
Stroll through Paris from your screen as we explore atmospheric neighborhoods, from elegant boulevards to village‑like backstreets. This live walk unveils daily life, local stories, and hidden details you’d miss on your own.
The Louvre Masterpieces
1 hour
Explore the Louvre’s essential masterpieces in real time, without the crowds. Your guide focuses on a curated selection—like iconic Renaissance paintings and celebrated sculptures—sharing the stories, secrets, and symbols that bring each work to life.
The Louvre museum has a good Wifi service in many rooms that we will explore lively together.
Discover Versailles Gardens
1 hour
Leave the palace queues behind and dive into the vast, theatrical gardens of Versailles. This live Zoom tour reveals grand fountains, geometric avenues, secret groves, and the royal vision behind one of Europe’s most spectacular landscapes.
Relive WW2 in Paris
1 hour
Walk the streets where history unfolded—from occupation hotspots like Place de la Concorde and the Marais Jewish Quarter to Resistance sites and Liberation landmarks. Your guide reveals untold stories of collaborators, fighters, and everyday Parisians during the Nazi era, bringing the war’s drama to life without leaving home.
For a Jewish history tour about the Shoah in Paris, please refer to Flora Goldenberg and her expert colleague Historian, Dr Livia Parnes.
email flore.goldenberg@gmail.com
Napoleon’s Victories
1 hour per site
Trace Napoleon’s legacy through Paris’s grand monuments—from the soaring Arc de Triomphe, commissioned to honor his victories, to the Vendôme Column topped with his statue, and the elegant Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel at the Louvre.
Your live guide reveals tales of triumph, strategies, tactics, exile, and urban transformation at few sites, bringing the Emperor’s ambition to life from your screen.
Choose your site : Arc of Triumph, Vendome, Invalides
Live Tour: The Dream of Paris
Is Emily in Paris All Fake or True?
Peel back the glamour of Emily in Paris to see what’s real versus staged in the City of Love. We’ll virtually visit iconic filming spots like the Seine bridges, Galerie Patrick Fourtin, Breakfast in America, Chez Julien, chic Marais cafés, and luxe boulevards, separating Netflix fantasy from authentic Parisian life, style, and culture.
Unpack iconic stereotypes like smoking in office, berets, baguettes, and strikes—from the romance of Paris to the reality of daily life. Your expert speaker reveals what’s authentically French, what’s exaggerated, and what’s pure fiction, all from the city’s vibrant streets.
Le Marais Live tour
1 hour
Discover the chic, historic heart of Le Marais live—from aristocratic mansions and hidden courtyards to the vibrant Jewish quarter on Rue des Rosiers and trendy galleries. Culminate at elegant Place des Vosges (Paris’s oldest planned square), once home to royalty like Henry IV and Victor Hugo, now a leafy oasis for café lounging and people-watching.
Live Tour: Kings & Architects
Louis XIV and Henry IV
1 hour per site
Uncover how Henry IV kickstarted modern Paris with Pont Neuf, Place des Vosges, and Place Dauphine, then see Louis XIV’s grand vision unfold at Les Invalides, the Louvre colonnade, and triumphal arches like Porte Saint-Denis. Your live guide reveals their rivalries, innovations, and how these kings shaped the city’s elegant urban story from your screen.
Choose your site : Invalides façade or Place Royale : Dauphine, Concorde, Vosges and many more !
ART HISTORIAN EYE
Master the essentials of Louvre icons, Impressionist rebels, and hidden gems before your trip, so you’ll spot details like a pro and appreciate art on a deeper level.
ART HISTORY STARTER
1h
Dive into the Louvre’s treasures with Pascal’s dynamic 1-hour lectures—Egyptian Art unpacks mummies, gods, and pharaohs’ eternal quests; Renaissance Art reveals Leonardo, Raphael, and the birth of humanism; Classicism traces perfect forms from Greek sculptures to David’s revolutionary canvases. Each session blends vivid storytelling, visual analysis, and pro tips to decode symbols and context, priming you to explore the museum like an insider.
IMPRESSIONISTS OF ORSAY
1h
Unravel the revolution at Musée d’Orsay with Pascal’s captivating 1-hour lecture on Impressionism’s pioneers—Monet’s luminous water lilies and Rouen Cathedral series, Renoir’s joyful Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Degas’ intimate ballet scenes, and Manet’s provocative Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass. Explore their radical techniques—loose brushwork, everyday subjects, and obsession with fleeting light—plus Cézanne’s bold bridges to modernism and van Gogh’s emotive Starry Night.
— > Gain tools and vocabulary to analyze color, composition, and context, so you’ll savor Orsay’s world-class collection like an expert.
ART HISTORIAN FOCUS
Unlock the stories behind Paris’s masterpieces with Pascal’s focused lectures—bite-sized history, expert analysis, and practical tools to decode composition, symbolism, and context.
Mona Lisa Unveiled
1h
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (c. 1503-1519) captivates with her elusive half-smile, sweeping Tuscan landscape, and sfumato haze that blurs edges for lifelike depth—likely portraying Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine merchant, though debate lingers over her identity and Leonardo’s personal touches.
Pascal breaks down the pyramid composition, the layers, the materials, the perfect gaze that follows you, the symbolic riverine background, and why this enigma that draws millions to the Louvre’s Salle des États.
David’s Coronation of Napoleon
1h
Jacques-Louis David’s monumental Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I (1807) transforms a 1804 Notre-Dame ceremony into imperial propaganda, with Napoleon crowning Josephine himself (snubbing the Pope) amid 148 figures from family to marshals in a vast neoclassical canvas blending heroic realism and theater.
Pascal analyzes the dynamic composition—rising diagonals, spotlighted gestures, hidden scaffolding hints—and David’s meticulous prep sketches, revealing how it glorified revolutionary triumph while masking tensions like Josephine’s infertility scandal. Housed at the Louvre, it’s a masterclass in political art that still dazzles.