self-guided audio walks · paris only, on purpose
An audio guide to Paris, in English. It picks the next place worth walking to from wherever you’re standing, and tells you its story when you arrive — one stop at a time, at your own pace.
your first three stories are free · then unlock Paris, paid once — no subscription
photo: Pierre-Yves Beaudouin · CC BY-SAtwenty seconds of a roava story
“This cemetery opened in 1804, created by Napoleon himself as a new kind of resting place.”
the real app · paris
One stop at a time. Pick a theme, walk to the first, and when the story ends, ask where to next.
why roava
Most audio guides read you the plaque. Every Roava story is researched, vetted and read line by line before you hear it.
Every stop has an arc — a reason you're standing there, a turn you didn't see coming, an ending worth the walk.
Every place is researched and scored before the guide is allowed to send you there. It earns its minutes or it's cut.
One stop at a time, so there is never a set to abandon. Linger, detour, stop for coffee — or stop for good.
photo: Eugène Atget, Musée Carnavalet · CC0a few of the stops
Paris done properly rather than fifty cities done passably. Pick a theme or leave it open — the guide picks what's worth the walk from where you're standing.
sacred sitesphoto: Giò Terra (Terragio67) · CC BY-SAProposed as penance before the Commune ever rose, and built on the hill where it started only once it had been crushed. Some of Paris has never forgiven it.
historicphoto: Pierre-Yves Beaudouin · CC BY-SAThe wall the last Communards were shot against, in the most visited cemetery on earth, marked with a single line you have to look for.
markets & squaresphoto: Mbzt · CC BYThe crooked lanes the boulevards barely touched — the control group, still showing you the Paris that Haussmann cut his boulevards through.
how it works
Tap “Guide me”. Pick a theme or don’t — it works out what’s an easy walk from where you’re standing and offers you three places.
Choose one and it walks you there. The story starts when you arrive — nothing to read, so your eyes stay on the city, not the screen.
When it ends, go deeper into the same place, or ask where to next. Chase a side street, break for lunch, come back tomorrow — stop whenever you like.
how a Roava story sounds
On May 28, 1871, government forces executed 147 captured Communard fighters against this wall.
good to know
Three landmark stories in every city, free — pick any three and hear them end to end before you pay anything, Go deeper included. After that, unlocking the city opens the rest of it.
Stories in a city you’ve unlocked play when you’re at the landmark — within about sixty metres — because they’re written to be heard in front of the thing they describe. Your three free stories play anywhere, and anything you’ve already heard replays anywhere.
You’ll want a data connection for now — narration streams as you walk, and an afternoon of stories uses about as much data as a podcast. GPS itself doesn’t need data.
One earbud is the sweet spot — the city in one ear, the story in the other. Speaker works too, if you’ve got a quiet corner to yourself.
photo: Renée Kools · CC BYHear your first three stories free, and see where they take you.