Last minute Valentine's Day idea: (re) discover Paris in the shoes of Mr & Mrs Smith

“Like current Bonnie & Clyde, complete your missions one by one.

Are you up to the challenge? ”

The prospect announced on the website is enticing.

Offset Guide is the result of madness, that of Margot Davy, a Parisian passionate about history… and disguises.

A year ago, she decided to create one-day itineraries around characters, like Marie-Antoinette or Cléopâtre.

Two new kids have recently appeared on the platform: Mr & Mrs Smith, in a journey that promises

“complicity, sensation, astonishment”

through handpicked addresses.

Once the experience is booked and the date chosen, the adventure can begin.

To make the budding spies wait, playlists, cultural suggestions and “fun facts” were sent in the preceding days… We cross the centuries, from Virginia de Castiglione, mistress of Napoleon III, and spy for the Italian cause, to Nicole Kidman and Will Smith, the two actors who were originally to play Mr & Mrs Smith.

If they dropped out due to other engagements, as did Johnny Depp and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the casting team ultimately came out in favor of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who underwent intensive training in stuntmen and workouts to move in tandem with loaded weapons.

A great promise for the day's program, sent the day before by the Offset team and adapted according to the unforeseen and current health constraints, including the closure of bars and restaurants as well as the maintenance of the curfew at 6 p.m. .

Read also: Ten gourmet getaways for the weekend of Valentine's Day

Virtual reality and sensual melee

The Peugeot 404 de Paris Balade is a real eye-catcher in the deserted streets of Paris.

Paris Walk

On the big day, the meeting point is set at the Quai de Bercy.

The mission: to spy on Parisians, to learn to blend in with the crowd.

At 11:30 sharp, an admiral blue sedan pulls up majestically.

The driver of the Paris Balade company opens the door and invites us to take a seat.

Orange-red interior in leatherette, seats mounted on springs, reverse gearbox, integrated telephone, sunroof… Back in 1963 aboard this Peugeot 404, for a tour of Paris beyond the nails.

From Boulevard de Bercy, we advance towards Place d'Italie to the Manufacture des Gobelins, a temple of tapestry once run by Charles Le Brun, decorator of the Palace of Versailles.

Then head for the Latin Quarter and the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church, the only one in Paris still having a rood screen, a stone or wooden fence separating the liturgical choir from the nave.

There follows a passage through the Sorbonne, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Saint-Sulpice church and its asymmetric towers, the Luxembourg Palace, the Panthéon and finally the Arènes de Lutèce, used between the 1st and 3rd centuries. for gladiatorial fights and saved from destruction thanks to a petition from Victor Hugo.

If the vehicle is not conducive to concealment, it attracts gestures, winks and amused smiles from passers-by.

Read also: Romantic trip to Valentine's Day, the village that only has love

Speed ​​engaged for the second stage of this day in our new identity.

Appointment planned at Mindout, 35 rue de Turbigo (3rd arrondissement), for a discovery of a parallel world, that of virtual reality.

New objective: defuse a duo bomb.

While one has a thick real manual containing clues to achieve this, the other is transported to an artificial world thanks to a helmet that uses the principle of stereoscopic 3D display.

The quality of the image is remarkable, the total immersion.

The desk on which the bomb to be defused is placed has everything a real thing, it is easy to get into the game. It remains to adopt excellent communication as a couple to decipher the riddles while keeping your cool in the face of a sound countdown ... Disturbing.

After these emotions, we are invited to go to Laser World, 168, boulevard de Montparnasse (14th arrondissement).

Welcomed by a charming staff, we recognize a small disappointment about the lack of originality of the activity.

If the session is fun for a bunch of friends, Valentine's Day is surely not the best occasion to face unknown opponents with fluorescent lasers ... In a cheap setting, far from the atmosphere of the film by Doug Liman.

Luckily, there is one last training session to hone our skills.

"

Masked balls are the places where you will be the safest, in the middle of the crowd, but still recognizable

" reveals the program.

The adjoining address surprises: Cariño bookshop-café, 21 rue du Chalet (10th arrondissement).

As soon as you walk through the door of this adorable space devoted to Latin American culture, a young woman shows us a basement.

There, like a last nod to the sensual couple formed by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, we find Sarah and Matias, dancers and tango teachers.

Endowed with an incomparable sense of pedagogy, they sweep away with a cliché all the sides of this demanding and technical dance, often wrongly identified as elitist.

The basic steps acquired, we try a few variations on the tempo before attending a demonstration as breathless as that of the film, less daggers.

An ode to sensuality, which will undoubtedly inspire the rest of your evening.

Offset Guide

, "Play as Mr & Mrs Smith", € 75 per person for a half-day duo.

Reservation at least 48 hours in advance.

The itineraries are adapted to health constraints.