French walks through St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg before the October Revolution was a city where French culture and style were the most highly valued commodities, from haute cuisine in the city's finest restaurants to the masterpieces of French art in the Hermitage Museum. These two walking tours through the historic centre of the city are designed to give you an overview of the enormous contribution French visitors and residents made to the cultural and social life of Russia's Imperial capital.
A circular walk from Vasilevsky Island round to the English Embankment, this tour takes in the residences of the many French figures of high society that lived in Tsarist St. Petersburg, as well as a amazing buildings by French architects and the French treasures of the Hermitage Museum.
Starting on Ploshchad Iskusstv (Arts Square) and finishing by the Mariinsky Theatre on Teatralnaya Ploshchad, this walking tour covers the contribution to the arts made by French performers in St. Petersburg, as well as locating several historic stores and restaurants along Nevsky Prospekt.