Underhill, the very nicest of people were born on June 5th. It's my daughter's birthday also Deborah

I would like to apologize to Karen Fawcett for the mean-spirited comments here. She is a gracious woman who has put her heart, soul, and a lot of personal resources into establishing and maintaining the bonjourparis.com site and does not deserve all the slaps.

Toupary,

Sorry about that...too many things in the works today..but that should be no excuse........

Joan

And I would like to apologize for my fellow posters who mean no harm

THE END!

Thanks, Joan. I was feeling a little sensitive earlier today.

I personally have found everyone on BP to be very kind and helpful, so I didn't want my effort to be misconstrued.

A bientôt.

I am somewhat shocked and diappointed in the
turn this subject has taken. From an initial inquiry as to the worthiness of subscribing to Bonjour Paris, it became a rather distasteful
and certainly unwarranted personal attack on Karen Fawcett and Bonjour Paris. It is really quite bizarre.
Anyone who has ever read BP knows this is certainly not an elitist publication. I am not going to start listing all my friends and fellow subscribers who have benefited from being readers simply because I would be taking up too much space. And I might add that we all are NOT in the same socio-econmic group ! As for Karen Fawcett- generous of spirit and a boundless resource of information and personal experience, she is a treasure. Every year my trips to Paris have been enriched by her and Bonjour Paris.
I don't understand the motivation behind some of these comments (especially one particularly venomous remark). But I suppose the nature of the remarks speak for themselves and their authors.

I'll just throw my 2 cents in for what it's worth.

I too have been a friend of Karen's for many years. I've visited with her in her Paris home and in her Provence home. I know for a fact that she puts in more hours on her job than a Fortune 500 CEO. I could write volumns about the things she does for individual travellers, not just bonjourparis.

I've stayed out of the fray so to speak because of our friendship, not wanting to appear biased, but I just now caught the "toy job" comment and it fried me.

Hopefully, the issue of the two Karens has been resolved and everyone now knows that it's not the BP Karen operating the tours.

This is one of those rare people who if there were an actual scale with favors done for others on one side and favors received on the other, she would be miles behind on the receiving end.

Nice to see more who know Karen and the time and effort that she puts into the BP site, "come to her defense"!

BP is a good site and has much to offer. Karen seems to be a tireless person. She is a good friend to have. I'm pleased to be one of her friends.

Has anyone noticed that the bits of negativism concerning Karen and BP come from the posters who don't know her? Those of us fortunate enough to have spent many hours with her through the years feel impelled to defend her as a generous, unpretentious,but entrepreneurial woman who has survived and indeed succeeded in a chauvinistic environment, when legions of the less determined would have thrown in the towel. I hope that more of you get the opportunity to get to know her in person.

And thanks to all the BP posters who gave their REAL posting names. A few here seem to be timid(?) about that.

I hope the posts about "negative" comments about Karen Fawcett do not refer to my post. I was merely pointing out what appears to have caused the misunderstanding about whether Karen Fawcett gave tours. I must add that, although I do not know her or her website, I would not think less of her if she DID give tours of Paris because I think that is a great thing and many admirable people give tours of Paris.

Hey, Mimi. Am I one of the timid ones???

Just one more poster on the side of Bonjour Paris -- I was addicted to BP for several years. That was my "fix" each day (or week). A couple of years ago, there were alot of names posting there that I now find here. I joined as a premium member when they first started that service. I kept my premium membership until this year because, as is always the case, it seemed to be getting tired and I didn't seem to find the exciting content that I did in the beginning. It had become just a few of the same people who responded to the various posts. The trip reports were down, the fun articles, etc., etc. However, in the thick of it, I really loved Bonjour Paris and I have files full of stuff I copied and printed out. I could not have been happier with the replies that I received to questions I posted. However, even though I still check out BP a time or two a week, Fodor's seems to be my French "fix" of choice these days. Unfortunately, websites do come and go but, hopefully, Bonjour Paris will be one of those that will stay and grow and thrive! I was not going to respond to this topic as sometimes feeding the "negatives" just feeds their negative egos for attention, they get on a roll, and don't stop. However, I didn't want this great website to be trashed! I do not know Karen Fawcett personally -- only through the website, but questions that I posted directly to her were always promptly answered and with great information.

Let's put this trash session to rest.

luvparee

I've been acquainted with Karen Fawcett for about ten years, since back when Bonjour Paris was exclusively on AOL. And, I met her at a get-to-gether in Boston a couple of years ago.

I've never known anyone who works longer or harder...on constantly improving the content of her website and keeping it interesting, comprehensive, and up to date.

For me, the cost of the premium membership pays for itself many times over with the invaluable tips and recommendations.

Understandably, Karen has been quite distracted lately with her mother in poor health.

I'm glad to see others are speaking out on Karen's and BP's behalf. As others have said, Karen is a great, hard-working person, and I love her website. In fact, I often feel more comfortable posting there because there seem to be fewer negative, mean-spirited people on her boards.

Yes, the message boards are free, but her interactions with her readers and Paris expertise are priceless!

After reading so many of the initial posts, I felt it was time I personally replied. Some of them were hurtful enough that I toyed with the idea of closing the Site -- for about 2-1/2 minutes.

The fact is that www.bonjourparis.com has something for everyone. Our readers come from throughout the world. Our team works extraordinarily hard to bring people the best of France - and that includes non-premium as well as premium members.

I would be lying if I were to say we don't appreciate each and every subscription. Advertising revenues are minimal and our expenses are higher than that of a message board.

Our discussion board ( http://bonjourparis.ipbhost.com/ ) is free. Register and you'll see that if we don't know the answer, we'll try to find it. Plus, we do have an enormous amount of free content.

To those of you who came to my defense, thank you. I can't begin to tell you how deeply touched I was and am. It meant more than I can begin to tell you.

If anyone has a personal question for me, don't hesitate to send me an email at [email protected] I have a lot on my plate but am never too busy to respond.

And by the way, EVERYONE is welcome for a glass of (faux) champagne wherever I might be. There are few Francophiles whom I've met whom I haven't liked. For that matter, so many of my most treasured friends are ones I've met via www.bonjourparis.com


Cheers to La Belle France and harmony.

topping for this gracious lady

I usually avoid responding to the posts where people get all up in arms over such trivial things. Never quite sure what people are trying to accomplish as for a lot of these, there really isn't a write or wrong answer. The forum is supposed to be fun and informative right?

But, I have to say I was shocked by this post - especially that people would feel so comfortable maligning a person and using their full name over and over again to do so. A new low on the Fodors site. So much for the do unto others rule...

On the flip side, I am happy to learn about bonjourparis as a new resource and my hat is tipped to the web host who so graciously responded to this post. I plan to join.

FYI, the bonjourparis.com web site is not limited to Paris--posts range widely across France.

I too thought this thread got WAY out of whack...all over a simple question. It was very gracious of Karen to post here but at the same time I couldn't believe some of the postings here that prompted her to do so. Sheesh!!