Georges, a retired French gendarmerie general, is waiting outside the metro station in the Parisian district of Le Sentier, eager to show off the finer – and less refined – points of an area he knows “like his pocket”, as the local expression goes.

Le Sentier is a curious mix of shabby and chic that stretches from the grand boulevards of Napoleon III’s architect Baron Haussmann to the aristocratic Palais Royal, via the colourful and notorious Saint Denis district, with its prostitutes and rag trade sweatshops.

“How long have we got?” Georges asks. I assume that there is not much I don’t know about an area I’ve lived near for almost 15 years, and reply: “Long enough.” Three hours later, and Georges is still showing me places on my doorstep I never knew existed.

Georges is part of Cariboo, a website that aims to be the Airbnb of tailored tours with private guides. The idea, developed by Bertrand Bazin, 23, a graduate of one of France’s elite business schools, along with three friends, could hardly be simpler: take a city dweller who is passionate about their home and introduce them to visitors looking for insider knowledge. Since it started last July, the company has not stopped growing, despite last November’s terrorist attacks. From a base of 30 Cariboos in Paris, the company now has around 500 people worldwide in 100 destinations, from France, Spain and the UK, to India, Brazil and Mexico.

Georges’ tour is an eclectic mix of historical detail, little-known facts, quirky places (like the button and ribbon shop with stock from the 19th century, in rue Choiseul) and souvenir buying opportunities.

His advice to visitors is simple: look up. He points out the characteristics of Haussmann’s famous boulevards: the long avenues of ashlar-stone buildings between five and seven stories high, each subtly different – the more spacious apartments with ornate wrought-iron balconies on the second floor étage noble, with flats becoming more modest with each floor, up to the rooftop garrets.

He knows where to find the little-known passages, the many statues and carvings influenced by Greek mythology, or those that reflect the proprietor’s trade or interests. Of the 150 or so covered passages that existed in Paris before Haussmann redesigned the city in the mid-19th century only 20 remain, among them the grand Galerie Vivienne (named a gallery not a passage, due to its proximity to the aristocratic Palais Royal) and the Prado and Brady passages in the less well-to-do 10th arrondissement, which is rough around the edges but increasingly trendy. (Passage Brady is known for its curry houses.)

Georges points out Le Chabanais, the famous former brothel frequented by Toulouse Lautrec, Guy de Maupassant and the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, whose private room bore the royal coat of arms and had a large copper bathtub (bought by Salvador Dalí in 1951 when the place closed down) and a “love seat”. Le Chabanais was also popular with the occupying German forces during the second world war.

Where there were prostitutes and courtesans, there were princes and the monarch’s court. At the Palais Royal we gaze wistfully into the window of the Grand Véfour – the celebrated cradle of French restaurant gastronomy, opened in the mid-18th century – at the €315 menu plaisir and dining salle where French literary giants Colette and Jean Cocteau entertained the Parisian beau monde. It was in the Palais Royal gardens that Napoleon Bonaparte lost his virginity to a prostitute, Georges reliably informs me.

This is the sort of detail, Bazin says, that visitors love. “Today, people are looking for far more than museums, culture and restaurants from a city visit, but they may be too timid or not have the opportunity to meet local people. So we are doing the introductions. Our guides are passionate about their city and are not just doing this for money.”

So far, one-third of customers to the French site are foreign visitors, one-third are French nationals and the remaining third are locals wishing to rediscover their arrondissement.

“This is for people who really want to see the city through the eyes of a local person who knows it,” Bazin says.

Over lunch at a Mauritian restaurant that I didn’t know existed (although it is yards from my doorstep), Georges admits he speaks a little Russian and that at the height of the cold war, as a young man in the French intelligence service, he spent time in Moscow. I say it makes him sound like a French James Bond. He smiles enigmatically.
• Cariboo offers a selection of tours of Paris and other cities costing between €10 and €30 an hour (for a group of up to eight people), cariboo.co/fr

Greetings: other Cariboo guides around the world

• Nico is a young guide in Amsterdam, who offers private tours along the city’s network of canals on his six-metre boat. As the boat is relatively small, you can get through canals other tour boats can’t, and because it’s a private tour, you can stop off when you like (a recent customer tried out a local brewery en route) and your experience can be completely customised to suit what you like and what you want to see. From €24 an hour (for groups of up to eight people). Book at cariboo.co
  

• Rosie is a British antiques dealer and collector who moved to Udaipur, Rajasthan’s city of lakes, over 18 years ago. She specialises in Indian art, decorative antiques and textiles, and offers shopping tours through the city, helping visitors find authentic goods and to haggle for non-tourist prices. From €12 an hour.

• Balam is a filmmaker and university professor in Mexico City. He takes travellers to the relaxed and arty San Angel neighbourhood, 12km south-west of the metropolis. This area is known for its artisan markets, museums and galleries (some of which showcase the work of the great artist Frida Kahlo) and monasteries. From $18 an hour.

• Ariane is a paramedic in Montreal. She offers a range of city tours but most interestingly offers to take visitors to see an ice hockey match – or to visit a traditional sugar shack just outside of the city, where tree sap is gathered by hand to make maple syrup. She also plans tours around festival days and major events to ensure travellers make the most of them. From $16 an hour.

• Olivier is an urban planner in Rotterdam, and offers professional insights into the city’s urban postwar period and architecture. From €36 an hour.

• Gayathri is a young foodie from Singapore, who can show you round the best local cafes and bars. She’s also an avid shopper, and can guide you round the best of the city’s shops. From $12 an hour.