AMID all the entente cordiale pour le Tour de France, the York Shakespeare Project is embracing the spirit of Le Grand Depart by taking to the walls, streets and snickets of York with a selection of Shakespeare sonnets on hour-long walks guided by English king Henry V or his French bride-to-be, Catherine de Belois.

Take your pick: follow either scholarly co-director TomStraszewski's noble Henry or Canadian MA student and street performer Rochelle Reynolds's Catherine, wide eyed, inquisitive and opinionated as she learns of York and English thoughts on love.

Each guide of a party of a maximum of 15 will encounter assorted York characters en route, each armed with a story and a sonnet, coming to animated life as the tour party approaches. Look out, for example, for Shirley Williams's Vagrant and Stone Mason declaiming Sonnet 55, "Not Marble"; Val Burgess's love-struck postman; Sophie Tyler and SamPlatts-Levett's ardent young lovers in Romeo and Juliet mode; Mick Liversidge, in a workman's hi-vis jacket and in the bad books at home; Sarah Jane Strong staggering drunkenly across the cobbles; and Maurice Crichton's Scottish priest, full of reason and rhyme.

A joy from start to fin.

York: Be Part Of It presents Sonnets Walks, York Shakespeare Project, walls and streets of York, until Sunday, starting at York Theatre Royal, 5.30pm and 6pm. Box office: 01904 623568, yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or on the door