So, you know vaguely that Montmartre is north and the big brown iron thing is the Eiffel Tower. That’s about as far as your knowledge goes. Well help is at hand! A new site is here to help you – if you can understand where to click and how to find what you’re looking for…



It’s been created by the Paris region Tourist Board and the name is going to be tough for foreigners to remember: www.nouveau-paris-ile-de-france.fr. It also has a strange layout, with lots of diffreent coloured cubes that don’t do anything when you click on them (although they look like they should). It’s almost like they are trying to help you find your way in the city by losing you in the site!

Best head directly for the more classic headings system to find what you’re looking for, including:

– how to arrive in Paris by train, by car or by plane (some useful information but a lot of patronising stuff too),
– how to use public transport or the Vélib rent-a-bike system,
– how to find somewhere to sleep (erm, we have some ideas too),
– current event in town (not particularly interesting. Frankly, you’d be betetr ff reading our blog!),
– a list of museums and monuments (classic stuff),
– a section that is called “Treat yourself!” in the French version, but has been translated as “Do You a Favor” (???) and has the Science Museum as its main attraction (what the?…),
– and a bar and restaurant guide… that doesn’t work yet.

Our advice : go straight to the Follow the Guide section which has loads of themed walks on offer. Finally there’s some great stuff here, like a design discovery walk, an interesting nature walk through the north-east of Paris, a walk around the area of Notre-Dame, an article about sustainable tourism and even some pertinent information to help you discover the towns around Paris like Provins (which they say is “a few doors from Paris”) and Saint-Denis.

Our favourite – duh! – is the stroll around Paris Rive Gauche, especially the page called “From Odeon to Luxembourg, Culture and Gardens“.

The site is a bit s-l-o-w and there are some problems with navigating from one page to the next (we sometimes got the Spainsh version for some reason), but it should be developing soon with a virtual ‘folder’ where you can slide all the articles that interest you and print out your own personalised guide. If you need basic tourist information for dummies and a few good ideas, the site could be of a little help.

Test www.nouveau-paris-ile-de-france.fr out yourselves and tell us if you agree with our analysis!