Cool Paris Sites

Even though you may be planning a trip to Paris and you need to lock in the basics - the cheapest way to get there, where to stay when you do get there and how to maximize your time while you’re there, when you’re surfing the net gathering info, you don’t want to get pummeled with ADVERTISING.

What you DO want is to get into the Paris mood. Today I came across a youtube video posted by Garrincha on the site: www.parisist.com which I would definitely recommend if you’re a music lover. This video (in my humble opinion) ranks right up there with Gotan Project’s which I linked on a past entry. Anyone who can add some more comments about the author of this video - and any more site links, please do so!

Another very cool site is:
www.dentsdelait.blogspot.com “Cutting My Teeth on the French Language. I paricularly liked the entry ‘Le Com’, a video (in French) about the advertising business in Paris. You’re French has to be pretty good to catch all the phrases here - but even if you don’t catch everything - the graphics are fun.

Want to brush up on your French?
You definitely should take a look at www.french-word-a-day.typepad.com. Author Kristin Espinasse, based in Provence, has spun her word-a-day habit into an entire book, Words in French Life, published by Simon & Schuster.

At French Word A Day, I found another link to www.thetwisteddoors.com which is an unusual way to think about learning French. Geared to Advanced Beginners and Intermediate French language learners, the book and accompanying audio promise to make your learning experience positively frightening, in true Victorian fashion.

Both Paris.org and Parisinfo.com are handy sites for daily newsfeeds and calendar events. Paris Info is the ‘official’ City of Paris site. Paris.org has a whole slew of contributing writers (I like reading Kiosque which features some well-known writers).

And last and best of all, if you’re simply looking for Paris in a Nutshell, you don’t have to go out and buy an expensive guidebook to read up on the basics. Simply check out Widipedia’s constantly expanding Paris entry. Equally interesting is the Talk section attached to the Paris entry. There have been a number of entries discussing how the Paris Metropolitan and Paris Urban area are included in the discussion of Paris as a city. Check out at that discussion if you want to see history in the making. It underlines the great dilemma of the ‘forgotten residents’. Whether its inner city or outer banlieus, or homeless (SDF) setting their tent camps along the Canal St. Martin, people want to stand up and be counted.

After you’ve finished checking out some of these sites, you might want to compare my picks withwww.expatica.com’s Best of the Paris Blogs. You may be amazed at the sheer number of Paris bloggers out there. You could easily spend your whole day reading about Paris - but when would you get your work done?