Hire a Bodyguard in Paris
Can you hire a bodyguard in Paris?
Yes, and it is entirely lawful when done through the licensed French framework. Algoz arranges CNAPS-carded close protection officers who meet you at Charles de Gaulle or Le Bourget, stay beside you at the hotel, the boutiques and the shows, and put a security driver behind every movement. Send your dates and you receive a confidential proposal with a final rate, within 24 hours, no obligation. The base is public: from EUR 950 a day for one officer on twelve-hour cover, with the driver, the vehicle and any second officer quoted on top.
Hiring a bodyguard in Paris: the questions people ask first.
Are bodyguards legal in Paris?
Yes. Close protection is a regulated profession in France: officers hold a CNAPS carte professionnelle under Livre VI of the Code de la sécurité intérieure, and the company holds its own authorisation. Unlicensed protectors are unlawful.
What a bodyguard costs in Paris
From EUR 950 a day for one CNAPS-carded officer on twelve-hour cover, the Western European market base. The security driver and vehicle are quoted on top, and Fashion Week dates, armed profiles and armoured vehicles sit above the base. The breakdown is below.
How much notice we need
We ask for at least seven days. That is the honest lead time for vetting the brief, assigning the right officer and doing the advance work. Under 48 hours is an urgency case: additional fees, and no guarantee. Armed authorisation is the exception: French law requires a minimum 30-day lead.
Armed or unarmed protection
Most Paris details are correctly unarmed and low-profile. Armed protection is tightly restricted in France, authorised case by case, and we advise honestly on which your itinerary needs.
Where we cover in Paris
Paris and the wider Île-de-France, including Versailles and Le Bourget, then Nice, Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Courchevel and Monaco through the same contact.
Who your protection officer is
Vetted French officers, many from the Foreign Legion, special forces and police units: CNAPS-carded, NDA-bound, working in French and English, with Russian and Arabic speakers and female officers on request.
How to check that a Paris bodyguard is legal, before the first name is shared.
Two documents decide everything in France. The company that supplies the officer must hold a CNAPS authorisation for protection physique des personnes; a guarding or event-security authorisation does not cover it. The officer must hold a personal carte professionnelle issued by CNAPS for the same activity, valid on the dates of your stay. Both carry a number, and both can be checked with CNAPS. Ask for them before the engagement, not after; a provider who hesitates has answered the question.
A UK SIA licence, a US state permit or a Gulf security card authorises nothing on French soil, so the bodyguard who travels with you from London, New York or Riyadh cannot lawfully work the detail here, and insurance written on an unlicensed detail is void. Algoz supplies both numbers with the proposal on request, the partner's authorisation and the officer's card, and every officer signs an NDA before your name reaches them. Bodyguard laws by country explains the same test elsewhere.
What EUR 950 a day includes, and what sits on top.
The officer, twelve hours
One CNAPS-carded close protection officer beside you for a twelve-hour day, in plain tailoring, briefed to our standard and supervised throughout. Longer days are quoted by the hour.
Planning and advance
The itinerary read before you land: hotel liaison, the entrance actually used at each venue, the holding position for the car, the exit that avoids the photographers.
NDA and one contact
Every officer NDA-bound before your name is shared, one Algoz contact from proposal to wheels-up, a reply within 24 hours, and a written rate before you commit.
Security driver and vehicle
An executive saloon or SUV with a security-trained driver, quoted separately by the day. In Paris the driver often does more of the real work than the officer; most briefs need both.
Second officer, nights, residence
A two-officer rotation for long event days, overnight cover at the hotel or residence, and venue advances for a recognisable principal are quoted to the brief.
Armed, armoured, peak dates
Armed profiles need a minimum 30-day lead and case-by-case authorisation; armoured vehicles and fashion-week or Art Basel dates sit above the base and should be reserved early.
Six Paris briefs, and the team we propose for each.
Three days of shopping and dinners
One officer and a security driver. Boutique appointments on Avenue Montaigne and Place Vendôme arranged privately, purchases carried by the team, the car at every door, evenings in Saint-Germain without a taxi queue.
A recognisable principal, show to show
Two officers in rotation, a security driver and venue advances: the entrance actually used, the exit without photographers, movement between shows planned around closures. Anti-paparazzi tactics as standard.
Ten days in the 16th with children
One officer by day, a female close protection officer where the family prefers it, school-run and Disneyland days covered, residence and household awareness, and a driver the children get to know.
Two days at La Défense
A security driver first, an officer for the private dinners, the hotel briefed on the name, and a detail that stays in the background because confidentiality outweighs visibility.
Art Basel Paris week
An officer who understands galleries and the Grand Palais, works of art moved with a hand-carry courier, dinners booked through the concierge desk, and the car held close through the 8th.
A clinic visit nobody needs to know about
Airport to clinic with one officer who waits, a driver who knows the route, the hotel and the discharge handled quietly. See medical travel protection.
English-speaking bodyguards in Paris, available 24/7, with a French card.
Most of our Paris principals do not speak French, and most Paris officers do not speak the principal's language well enough to run a day in it. We select for both: every officer on an Algoz detail works in French and English, with Russian, Arabic, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese speakers assigned where the brief asks for them, and the Algoz contact who plans the detail speaks your language from the first message. The officer holds the French CNAPS card; the conversation happens in yours.
The desk answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because Paris arrivals and Paris evenings do not keep office hours. A travel bodyguard who meets you at Charles de Gaulle on a Sunday night, a one-day detail for a jewellery appointment on Place Vendôme, a female officer for a spouse's shopping week, or a month of residential cover in the 16th: the same contact, the same standard, from EUR 950 a day for the officer. Send the dates.
Bodyguard, close protection or personal security in Paris?
Bodyguard is the everyday word and the one most people search. In France the regulated terms are garde du corps and protection rapprochée, and the person doing the work is an agent de protection physique des personnes holding a carte professionnelle CNAPS. That card is the whole legal question: without it, the company and the officer are working illegally, and so, potentially, is the client who engaged them. Executive protection is the corporate framing of the same discipline, usually including the security-trained driver and the vehicle.
Personal security and private security (sécurité privée) are broader words that also cover static guarding, event stewarding and residential security. Those are a different authorisation and a different skill from moving with a principal, and confusing the two is the most common mistake we see. A security detail means more than one officer. In Paris a security driver often does more of the real work than the officer, because the exposure sits at hotel entrances, in traffic and around predictable arrivals rather than on any pavement.
For most visitors to Paris the right answer is one CNAPS-carded officer and a security-trained driver, not a team. If you are unsure which you need, describe the trip and we will tell you which of the three it is, including when the answer is that a driver alone is enough. How our close protection works and bodyguard laws by country.
Discretion, in the language you speak.
Paris is among the most visited cities on earth, the seat of the great luxury houses, a diplomatic capital hosting UNESCO and the OECD, and the stage for a cultural calendar that never stops. It is also a metropolis of twelve million where the districts that matter to a private visitor - the Golden Triangle, Place Vendôme, Saint-Germain, the palace hotels - sit within a few square kilometres that every photographer and opportunist knows by heart. Wealth is read quickly here, and a discreet visit is usually decided in its first hour.
Algoz provides bodyguard services in Paris through a network of CNAPS-licensed French protection professionals, many of them alumni of the Foreign Legion, special forces and police units, with the local fluency that no visiting team can improvise. Our clients are international families, executives, collectors and public figures who would rather not be recognised, and the assistants and family offices who arrange on their behalf. The brief is given once; from the FBO at Le Bourget to the last dinner in Saint-Germain, one team plans, drives and covers the whole visit.
Why Hire a Bodyguard in Paris?
Luxury Targeting
Fine watches and jewellery are read at a distance around the Champs-Élysées, Avenue Montaigne and Place Vendôme, and high-profile thefts at Paris hotels and residences have made global headlines more than once.
Pickpockets & Distraction
Documented pickpocket activity concentrates where visitors do: the Louvre and its Pyramid queue, the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro, Montmartre and Métro Line 1, the line that links most of the sights.
Demonstrations
Paris marches often, typically between République, Bastille and Nation, with Saturday activity on the Champs-Élysées. Routes close with little notice, and a planned itinerary needs live rerouting.
Paparazzi & Recognition
Photographers know the palace hotel doors, the show venues and the restaurant terraces. During fashion weeks, premieres and art fairs, unwanted attention is the default for a recognisable principal.
Event Density
Fashion weeks, Roland-Garros and Art Basel Paris compress crowds, road closures and hotel demand into the same districts in the same weeks, and every venue becomes an access-control problem.
Airport & Hotel Approach
The arrivals hall at Charles de Gaulle, the A1 corridor into the city and the pavement outside the hotel remain the predictable exposure points of any Paris itinerary.
Bodyguard Services in Paris
Close Protection Officers
CNAPS-carded professionals with Legion, special forces and police backgrounds, in tailoring that belongs in a palace lobby, briefed to our standard and supervised throughout.
Secure Transportation
Executive saloons and SUVs with security drivers, armoured options where the threat picture justifies them, and planned routes between CDG, Orly, Le Bourget and the city.
Family & Residence Details
Cover for spouses and children across school runs, shopping and days out, residence and staff awareness for long stays, with female close protection officers available.
Fashion Week & Event Details
Advance work and show-door management for Paris Fashion Week, Art Basel Paris, premieres and private events, with anti-paparazzi strategy where the profile requires it.
France-Wide Coverage
Versailles and the châteaux, Nice, Cannes and Saint-Tropez in season, Courchevel in winter and Monaco year-round, under one brief and one standard.
Concierge + Security
Private museum visits, restaurant tables, shopping appointments and event access, arranged by our Paris concierge desk and delivered by the same team that protects you.
The palace hotels & Place Vendôme
Paris holds the highest concentration of officially designated palace hotels in France: the Ritz on Place Vendôme, Le Meurice facing the Tuileries, Le Bristol on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the Plaza Athénée on Avenue Montaigne, the George V, the Crillon on Place de la Concorde and Cheval Blanc above the Seine. Most of our principals sleep in one of them, and the protective work is built around the property: liaison with the hotel security team, arrival timing, floor and lift planning, and an officer who reads a lobby without ever appearing to watch it.
The Golden Triangle & the shopping streets
The Golden Triangle between the Champs-Élysées, Avenue Montaigne and Avenue George V concentrates the flagship maisons, and the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and the jewellers of Place Vendôme complete the circuit. It is also where a fine watch is most quickly noticed. Our officers work these streets in plain tailoring: boutique appointments arranged privately through our Paris concierge, the vehicle held close to each door, purchases carried by the team rather than the principal, and a walking profile that lets you look at vitrines instead of over your shoulder.
Paris Fashion Week & the cultural calendar
The show calendar barely rests: menswear and haute couture in January, womenswear in March, menswear in June, couture in July, womenswear again in October, with Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais each autumn and Roland-Garros closing May at Porte d’Auteuil. Venues change season to season, which is why our details are built on advance work: the entrance actually used, the holding position for the car, the exit that avoids the photographers, and movement between shows planned around closures rather than against them. For recognisable principals we add high-profile protection tactics as standard.
The Louvre, the museums & the landmarks
The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, and the queue beneath the Pyramid is precisely where an unaccompanied principal is most visible. The same logic applies at the Musée d’Orsay, the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Eiffel Tower with its crowds at Trocadéro. We plan timed entries and private guiding, put an officer ahead of you through the galleries, manage the dwell points, and keep the vehicle moving so departure is a held door, not a search for the car.
Charles de Gaulle, Orly & Le Bourget
Paris-Le Bourget is the leading business aviation airport in Europe, and for principals arriving by private jet the detail begins at the FBO: officer and vehicle positioned, luggage counted, route confirmed. At Charles de Gaulle and Orly we arrange meet-and-greet inside the terminal and a protected transfer with a security driver who knows the A1 corridor for what it is. The airport-to-hotel run is the most predictable exposure of a Paris visit, and the easiest to remove. See executive transportation in Paris.
Residential Paris: the 8th, the 16th & Neuilly
Long-stay principals live west: Avenue Foch and the quiet streets of Passy and Auteuil in the 16th, the 8th around Parc Monceau, the 7th between Saint-Germain and the Invalides, and Neuilly-sur-Seine beside the Bois de Boulogne. Residential work is its own discipline, and a quieter one: pattern awareness around the apartment or hôtel particulier, vetting of drivers and household vendors, school-run cover, and officers, including female CPOs, who become familiar to the family without becoming predictable to a watcher.
How a Paris detail is actually run
We start from the itinerary, never from a headcount. The dates, the venues, the profile and the season are read together, and we propose the smallest team that genuinely covers the brief: most often a single officer with a security driver, a two-officer rotation for long event days, a fuller detail with venue advances when the profile demands it. Every officer is NDA-bound before the first name is shared, every venue is walked or verified before you arrive, and one Algoz contact carries the engagement from proposal to wheels-up. How close protection works.
Beyond Paris: Versailles, the Riviera & the Alps
Few French itineraries end at the Périphérique. The same team covers Versailles and the châteaux country, follows the summer south to Nice, Cannes and Saint-Tropez, and moves to Courchevel when the season turns. Monaco, Geneva and London run through the same network, so a European itinerary keeps one brief, one standard and one point of contact from first city to last.
Why protection in Paris must be licensed.
In France, close protection is a regulated profession. Under the Code de la sécurité intérieure (Livre VI), every agent de protection physique des personnes - the garde du corps - must hold a valid CNAPS professional card (carte professionnelle), and the operating company must hold a CNAPS authorisation. Armed protection is tightly restricted and authorised case by case. An unlicensed protector is not lawful and carries real liability, and a foreign bodyguard travelling with you cannot simply work a detail on French soil.
Algoz coordinates protection in Paris exclusively through this licensed framework - every operative is CNAPS-carded, local and NDA-bound, so your detail is discreet and fully compliant with French law. See how our close protection works, combine it with Paris concierge or concierge across France, add secure transport in Paris, or extend the same team to Nice, Cannes and Monaco.
The moments that specifically call for protection in Paris.
The fashion weeks are the obvious ones: four times a year the same few districts hold the shows, the dinners and the photographers, and hotel lobbies become the most watched rooms in Europe. The autumn art week around Art Basel Paris brings collectors and works of art through the city in the same days, and Roland-Garros closes May at Porte d’Auteuil. December concentrates jewellery and watch purchases in the Golden Triangle exactly when the streets are fullest.
Business travel is the quieter category: negotiations at La Défense or over private dinners, where confidentiality outweighs visibility and the detail works in the background. Arrivals at Charles de Gaulle and evening movement between the 8th, Saint-Germain and the restaurants are the two moments where even a short stay benefits from an officer and a security driver. And for families, the value is simple: the children look at the Eiffel Tower while someone else watches everything approaching them.
The dates to book early, 2026 to 2027: Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais, 23 to 25 October 2026, with preview days on the 21st and 22nd; Menswear Fashion Week, 19 to 24 January 2027; Haute Couture, 25 to 28 January 2027; Womenswear Fashion Week, 1 to 9 March 2027; Roland-Garros, main draw from 23 May to 6 June 2027; Menswear again, 22 to 27 June 2027; Haute Couture, 5 to 8 July 2027; Womenswear, 27 September to 5 October 2027. Officers and drivers for those weeks are reserved months ahead; the calendar below shows what is next.
What actually happens to visitors in Paris, and what the officer does about it.
Violent crime against visitors is rare in central Paris; what is common is quick, practised theft. Pickpocket teams work Métro Line 1 and the RER B from the airport, the Pyramid queue at the Louvre and the Trocadéro steps. The petition and the gold-ring routines run around the Tuileries and the Eiffel Tower. Unlicensed taxi touts wait inside the arrivals hall at Charles de Gaulle. Watches are taken from wrists on scooters in the 8th and the 16th, and phones from café terraces by a hand from the pavement. None of it is dangerous; all of it is predictable.
That predictability is why one officer changes a stay. The car replaces the Métro and the taxi rank, the officer stands between you and the approach at the Pyramid and the Trocadéro, the watch is worn because somebody is watching the street, and the terrace table is chosen for its back wall. For the wider picture, including what the US State Department actually says about France, read Is Paris safe for Americans?
"The best protection in Paris is the officer nobody remembers seeing."
Your US security detail cannot work in Paris. Ours can.
Why your home team stops at the border
France licenses every protection officer individually through the CNAPS, with the employing company licensed as well. A US executive protection agent, however good, has no standing to work in Paris, cannot be insured for it, and would put the principal at risk of a stop that ends the visit. What we do instead: an officer licensed here, briefed by us against your itinerary, who works alongside your security director rather than replacing them.
Officers who work the way your US team does
English-speaking as standard, insured through the licensed institute that employs them, NDA-bound, and run to the same advance, arrival and departure discipline a US executive protection team expects. Your security director gets a named coordinator and a written plan before anyone arrives, and the officer reports to that plan, not around it.
Car plus officer, and a reply on your clock
Most US visits are best covered by one security-trained driver with an executive vehicle, adding a second officer for events, show weeks and evenings out. Rates are quoted in EUR, with an indicative USD figure alongside for visitors from outside Europe. A person reads every message and replies within 24 hours, on Eastern and Pacific hours as well as ours; members and known clients hear back sooner.
Flying in from New York, Miami, Los Angeles or Texas? Read the guide written for you: executive protection and travel security in Europe for US clients.
The next big dates in Paris, and how we get you in and out.
PSG v FC Barcelona
Match night, door to door. Parc des Princes.
Art Basel Paris
A driver for preview days and the evenings. Grand Palais.
PSG v Olympique Lyonnais
Match night, door to door. Parc des Princes.
See the full events calendar with transport and protection offers
Hire a Bodyguard in Paris
Share your dates, party size and itinerary, confidential from the first message. At least seven days, and earlier is better. We will always look at shorter notice, but anything under 48 hours is an urgency case: additional fees, and never a guarantee.
EnquireWhat protection in Paris costs.
As a guide, professional close protection in France and Western Europe is, in 2026, from EUR 950 per day for a single principal on twelve-hour cover - the market base - with the final rate shaped by the profile, the threat picture and the season, and confirmed on enquiry with no obligation. Armed profiles, armoured vehicles and multi-officer teams sit above the base and are quoted to the brief; fashion weeks and other peak dates should be reserved early, and a security driver with an executive vehicle is quoted separately.
Further reading: what a bodyguard costs, our full close protection pricing guide, how a security driver works, and why Legion veterans lead European protection.
One officer, one brief: specialist protection in Paris.
Student Protection Abroad
Low-profile cover for sons and daughters at school and university far from home.
Medical Travel Protection
Airport to clinic, an officer who waits, and nobody who needs to know.
Luggage from the Gulf to Paris
Collected at home in the Gulf, waiting in the Paris apartment or palace suite, then driven down to the Riviera.
Hand-Carry Courier
One officer, one journey, no handovers, for watches, jewellery and documents.
TSCM Bug Sweep
Hidden cameras, microphones and trackers found before you walk into the room.
Personal Shopper in Paris
Avenue Montaigne, Place Vendôme and the department stores by appointment.
Protection in related destinations.
Protecting celebrities & public figures
Actors, musicians, athletes, royals and the people the world recognises - celebrity protection is its own discipline: anti-paparazzi strategy, leak-proof operations, crowd and stalker management, and details that switch from red carpet to invisible in the same day.
Celebrity Close ProtectionClose protection in France, delivered by a CNAPS-authorised company.
Algoz plans, coordinates and answers for every detail in France; the officers on the ground are supplied by our official partner, 1831 Prétorien, a French private security company holding a CNAPS authorisation. Every officer on a detail holds the individual CNAPS professional card French law requires. Where a detail is delivered by another authorised company, its CNAPS number comes with the proposal.
1831 Prétorien
19 avenue des Diables Bleus, 06300 Nice, France
CNAPS authorisation: AUT-006-2124-09-09-20250998257
SIRET: 989 019 013 00014
Intra-community VAT: FR02989019013
Algoz FZ-LLC (Trade License 5033995 | TRN 105119056700001) is licensed for Businessmen Services and Lifestyle Development Consultancy by RAKEZ. Operational services such as security, transportation and concierge are delivered through vetted, licensed specialist partners, selected, contracted and overseen by Algoz. All operational execution is performed exclusively by licensed third-party partners holding the necessary local permits (e.g. CNAPS in France). We provide direct assistance and support in partnership with local regulated providers, complying with local laws. Clients are responsible for obtaining any required approvals. Armed services require a minimum 30-day lead time for authorisation, which may be refused. All activities comply with UAE laws and RAKEZ regulations.