Twisted Tour Guide

Evade the Tourist Herds and Enter Into An Insider's Paris.

Known and unknown history, hidden delights and fascinating stories pervade the history of Paris. This kaleidoscope of discovery, personalities, egos, scandals, conflict framed by sheer beauty creates a vivid tapestry defining over two millenniums.

This guide transports you to the precise famous and infamous locations where history occurred. The scenes may sometimes appear ordinary, weird, but often illuminate the physical background and descriptions behind events. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true.

This Twisted Tour Guide is your alternative to conventional travel. It accommodates the restless visitor, tourist and resident seeking a unique and different perspective to traditional tourism. Paris remains one of the most beguiling, seductive and enchanting cities of the world.

Historical Events
Lady Di's Fatal Car Wreck, Dreyfus Affair, Stock Market Crashes, Bastille Destruction, World War II Occupation, Deportations and Liberation, Panama Canal, Mississippi Bubble, Kim Kardashian Robbery, Knight Templar Grandmaster Scandals, Legion of Honor Scandal, Louis Vuitton Collaboration, May 1968 Protest, Ministry of War Bombing, Mona Lisa Theft, Burnings At The Stake, Paris Prostitution, Presidential Assassination Attempt, Sorbonne Riots, The Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre, St. Gervais Bombing, Louisiana Purchase and Witch Burnings.

Landmarks:
Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Tuileries Palace, July Column, Caveau de la Huchette, Notre Dame Cathedral Fire, Rue du Chat Qui Peche, Musee de Cluny, Fountain Saint Michael, Comic Opera House, Arc de Triomphe de Carrousel, Conciergerie, Covered Shopping Arcades, Elysee Palace, Fountain du Palmier, Hotel de Ville, Les Invalides, La Victoire Synagogue, Le Centaure Sculpture, Les Halles, Louvre Colonnade and Pyramid, Maxim's Restaurant, Moulin Rouge, Apollo on Pegasus Sculpture, St. Sulpice Church, Shakespeare and Company, Louis XVI Square, St. Elizabeth de Hongrie, St. Paul's Church, Saint Germain L'Auxerrois Church, Knights Templar Fortress, Tower of Jean The Fearless, Saint Jacques Tower, Paris Sinkholes and Catacombs, Vendome Column and Canal Saint-Martin.

Political and Historical Figures
Napoleon Bonaparte, Jim Morrison, Joan of Arc, King Louis Phillipe, Benjamin Franklin, Otto von Bismarck, Cardinal Richelieu, Diane de Poitiers. Maurice Papon, Marquis de Sade, Alfred Dreyfus, Jean The Fearless, Duke of Wellington, King Edward VII, Abbe Pierre, Empress Josephine, Desiree Clary, Eugene Poubelle, Detective Eugene Vidocq, Francois Mitterrand, George Boulanger, Dr. Joseph Guillotin, Henry IV, Marquise de Montespan, Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon, Jacques Necker, Louis XVI, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, General Lafayette, La Paiva, Louis Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, Madame du Barry, Marshall August Marmont, Marthe Hanau, Pauline Bonaparte, Queen Margot of Navarre, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and Foreign Minister Talleyrand.

Revolutionaries
Maximilien Robespierre, Auguste Blanqui, Camille Desmoulins, Ho Chi Minh, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Karl Marx, Freidrich Engels, Count Mirabeau, Georges Danton and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,

Literary, Visual and Performance Artists and Venues
Moliere, Emile Zola, Sarah Bernhardt, Voltaire, Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Centre Pompidou, Musee D'Orsay, Brigitte Bardot, Coco Channel, Colette, Andre Chenier, Edith Piaf, Jacques-Louis David, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Paul Sartre, Rene Descartes, Auguste Rodin, Simone de Beauvoir, Theatre de l'Athenee, Garnier Opera House, Theatre de l'Oeuvre, Theo van Gough, Thomas Paine, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Alain Delon

Murders and Massacres:
2015 Terrorist Rampage, Stevan Markovic, Saint Michel Bridge Massacre, Ben Barka Abduction, Brahim Bouarram, Carlos The Jackal, Charlie Hebdo Massacre, Du...

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions.

He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86.

Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com.

Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography.

His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism.

He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.