In the mood for a visit to Paris? Visit Bonjour Paris first!
Written: Aug 17 '01 (Updated Aug 17 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent advice and articles about Paris
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Whether you are planning a trip or not this is a great website for information and good advice, shopping or just plain reading.
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| ifif1938's Full Review: WWW Site Reviews |
Bonjour Paris, www.bonjourparis.com, is one of my favorite web sites to visit when I need a quick fix of Paris or a virtual taste of France.
First I want to say congratulations to Bonjour Paris for recently receiving the "Standard of Excellence Award" from the Web Marketing Association. It couldn't have gone to a more deserving website!
In 1996 a few American journalists living in Paris decided a window into the exciting world of that beautiful city needed to be opened for all the rest of the world to see online. Soon, this unique guide was launched on America On Line offering travel tips of every conceivable type to armchair travelers with dreams of far off places, especially places with a French accent!
Two years later, Karen Fawcett, one of the journalists, purchased it and commissioned her son, the founder of a company developing Web sites, to create a user friendly site, which would soon be launched on the World Wide Web.... Karen is now the site's president, is constantly monitoring it and manages to answer nearly all the hundreds of reader e-mail's she receives each day. I know she has answered all of mine, and always with a smile.:)
The very first article I ever wrote was written for Bonjour Paris with Karen's encouragement. It came about in a very strange way.... I had entered a contest held by the BP... The topic of that contest was simple, send in your worst picture of the Eiffel Tower. I swallowed my pride and submitted one I had taken where I had accidentally cut off the entire top of the tower. Now, what is the Eiffel Tower without it's tower? I sent the picture in thinking it would never win, there had to be worse pictures than that! But, lo and behold, a short while later I received an e-mail telling me just the opposite, I had won!!
Karen and I communicated on and off after that for a while, discussing my prize or just talking about Paris. When she found out I would be visiting the city in April of 1999, she invited me to her lovely Parisian apartment. We had some wine while we discussed her dream of bringing BP onto the World Wide Web, her life in Paris and, our love of this city. She than asked me to write an article for BP, anything I wanted to write about Paris or my experiences there. At first I said, "I don't write, have never even tried it" but, with her encouragement and patience I came up with an idea based on one of my most fascinating and favorite day trips to Auver's sur Oise, a little town just outside of the Paris.... Vincent Van Gogh had spent the last 3 months of his life there where he ended up shooting himself in the famous wheat fields that he loved to paint.. Now he is buried in the cemetery at Auvers.
After a while, with much editing I finally got my thoughts together, wrote them down and sent it in. What a thrill, a short while later, to see my article featured on this wonderful web site looking back at me from the computer screen. My first published piece! Accompanying it was a picture I had taken pertaining to the article. A picture of the touching grave sites of Vincent and his brother Theo, their graves intertwined by the Ivy that covers them both.
But, all of the above is not the only reason I love www.bonjourparis.com.
There is so much to read and do on BP. You'll find reviews of new hotels and restaurants, articles about wines and the best cheeses from the different regions of France. Reviews of the newest French films and, all the latest news of the week is analyzed by a Pulitzer prize-nominated writer.
There are columns written by an American who is an expert antique collector, with tips on where to go and what to look for while there... Hotel recommendations, shopping tips, all sorts of travel tips, even recipes are available at just the click of a mouse.
There are chat rooms and message boards with discussions about French literature and the arts. And, when something devastating occurs, like last years storms, the information is readily available to all who are interested. On a positive note, when something wonderful or exciting happens, like France becoming the World Cup Champions or Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France, you are taken right there, well, virtually that is.
I think this is one of the most comprehensive and fun web sites on the internet, about life in Paris written from an American expatriate's point of view. With articles written by people like you and me to give it the well rounded feel of a Parisian visit...
A newsletter is published every week that's easy to subscribe to. Just go to the site, sign up and each week an issue is sent directly to your desktop. Contained within are links to the newest and latest articles, along with topics of discussions of whatever and wherever might be of interest to you pertaining to Paris and all of France. For instance, this week there was ;
An Article written about the Pont Neuf.....the oldest bridge in Paris
"A View From The Bridge", written by the featured writer of the week, a New Yorker, who's love of Paris inspires her writing as she explains how she and her husband feel at home in Paris when they visit this bridge, (which, by the way, is one of my favorite spots in Paris).
A great article about Cheese called, "Beginners Guide To French Cheeses or French Cheese, 101"
Everything you think you might want to know about cheese..
An article about visiting Paris in August, "To Travel or not to Travel" Written by Karen Fawcett herself about why Paris in August is not to be avoided but how she loves it that time of year that's. called "The Dreaded Month"
Advice about drivers licenses, French and American, called
"To Drive Or Not to Drive" the adventure of getting a French drivers license..
Where to go, whether driving or not, to places like;
Provence
Basque Country
Lille
Picardie
Rouen
And, last but not least,
Paris, "And then there's Paris....There's always Paris".... A beautiful article about how wonderful it feels to return to Paris....
You can see why I love this website!
Besides all those interesting articles, there are essay contests monthly, designed to get your creative writing juices flowing.......Prizes are great books from Amazon.com.
There is also a photo contest, and chat rooms with very lively discussions held at various times and days on a wide variety of topics.
So, if you love Paris and all things French without enough time or money to be there as often as you would like, or, if you haven't been there yet but like to dream of far off places, this site is a perfect vehicle for a virtual trip to take whenever the mood hits you for a taste of this delectable city at just the click of your mouse.
Happy and safe travels, even if it's just in your imagination or a virtual one!
Since they archived the category "site reviews" I had to move this review to the "new and improved" category,
WWW site reviews! While I was at it I did a major update and rewrite..Hope you don't mind if you read it before:)
Recommended:
Yes
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