robjame

On advice from one of the posts on the forum, I went to the French Tourism Website (http://us.franceguide.com/) and ordered brochures. They came very quickly but what a piece of crap! I was charged 50 cents a brochure which I was happy to pay - $8.50 in total. Unfortunately most were pure and utter garbage. Mostly, they were advertising for various hotels, tourist sites, stores - the sort of thing you would find in the free racks in the vestibule of Denny's in Florida. There were a couple of decent maps and some good stuff, but I expect they would be free in any tourist bureau in Paris. The worst part is most of the brochures were dated - "France Guide 2004", "Hotels and Residences of Paris - 2003-2004", "Vacation Planner - 2001". I tried one website for a particular museum and it was so outdated that the web address was no longer current and had been taken over by a porn site.
So, be forewarned. There is no way to tell which of the brochures are current. My advice would be - don't bother.

grimmy

I've gone to the individual region travel bureau sites and ordered brochures. I've never been charged for any of them and most have been very informative and include maps. They have always arrived in the US within a week of request.
I've just received a large package from the Burgundy bureau. No ads.

Travelnut

My thoughts...
1. France Guide 2004 - tourist season does not begin with the New Year; the 2005 brochure will not be offered until spring.
2. Hotels / Residences 2003-2004: All of the basic information does not change much from one year to another. Useful enough for culling out interesting hotels - you'll want to go online to get the most current rates anyway.
3. Maps and stuff that you could get free at any tourist bureau - it isn't free to mail the brochures; if you don't want to pay for the convenience of having them in advance, then wait and get them at the Tourist Office.
4. Can't comment on the Vacation Planner, don't recall asking for that one

As with many other print publications, for current information go to the website. For Paris, use www.paris-touristoffice.com, or www.parisinfo.com

The note above about ordering brochures from specific towns/regions is a good one - I have found it to be true. http://www.tourisme.fr/index2_uk.htm

ira

Gee rob,

They sent me the France Guide 2004 and the guide to Acquitane for free.

Lots of pretty pix, some interviews with famous people, a few interesting sights (I hadn't heard of Cordouan Lighthouse) and listings of all sorts of tourist-related things.

Sorry you were disappointed.

Dave_in_Paris

Out of curiosity, I visited that site, which says it is the "official Web site of the French government tourism office." I doubt it -- because the site address ends in .com, not the Web address suffix of a French government office, to the best of my knowledge -- and also because there does not appear to be any French-language version of the welcome page. A French government site in English only? C'est pas possible!

cova

Dave, it is the official website for the US. They have different sites depending the country they are targeting. The spanish one is http://es.franceguide.com/

Covadonga

Travelnut

Dave, the official Paris tourist office website ends with .com

The France tourism website opens with language options, of which English is one. Its actual name is "Maison de la France". It lists 33 offices in 28 countries, sounds official to me...

ira

Hi Dave,

On p4 of the France Guide that I got from www.franceguide.com it says, "A Publication of Maison de la France...Copyright French Government Tourist Office...visit our website www.franceguide.com".

Not only that, but quelle horreur, it is all in English.

Dave_in_Paris

I stand corrected, to a point. It is true that the Maison de France is "sanctioned" by the Ministry of Tourism to promote France worldwide as a travel destination. As for its legal status, government office or not, I attempted to download a document from the site that treats of that, but was unsuccessful. Finally, the site conerning French tourism that is unquestionably "offical" is:

http://www.tourisme.gouv.fr/fr/home.jsp

It contains not travel information, which is no doubt why the Maison de France was created.

Dave

ira

Well done, Dave.

Don't let these foreigners intimidate you.

Dave_in_Paris

Further to my last post, with apologies for recent typos. Here is a French-language description of the Maison de la France, from the official (dig, jab) French tourism site (Sorry, no Englsh-language version.)

"Créée en 1987 et placée sous l'autorité du ministre en charge du Tourisme, Maison de la France est un groupement d'intérêt économique (G.I.E) traduisant la volonté de partenariat entre l'Etat, les collectivités territoriales, les professionnels du tourisme et ceux des grands secteurs de l'économie."

So, it's a mix of public and private interests. For here on, one's political bias may enter into judging the result. (Mine certainly does.)

But to veer away and change the topic considerably, what do you think of French-generated English-language literature regarding tourism possibilities, available from private and public sources, in general? As an observer for approximately two decades, I would say it's "highly variable" -- read, frequently God-awaful, due to poor translation. (I may attempt a second career in this field if I survive my first career.)

laurensuite

Over the past ten years, I have accumulated an enormous amount of travel brochures, maps, detailed schedules, etc. , ALL sent free and courteously from french government web sites, usually from various departments.
I sincerely believe that France provides more free and excellent travel info than any other country in the world. It should. It is the most visited in the world. Voila.

Dave_in_Paris

Lauren,

We're not in disagreement (fundamentally) and perhaps you know that. The French government(s) provide a number of services in highly impressive fashion. For example, a question arose recently concerning pleasure boating in the Paris area. At the Paris Port Authority site, I was able to download a 25-page dicument that not only provided every conceivable detail on possibilities and regulations (including an immense, multipage chart with names and Web addresses of boat rental companies and and boat tour companies) but was beautifully illustrated, too. My point in my last post was only that some of this information, especially from private sources, suffers in translation, and that is too bad.

HowardR

I guess the French tourism bureau's budget was cut. Three years ago, I obtained several of these same brochures at no charge.

Christina

It is indeed the official govt. tourist office, that is it, whether you want to call it govt or not, it's the only one out there that is official. All tourist offices are similar to that. I don't think any tourist office is an official branch of government anywhere, like the Minister of Finance.

It's only Jan 2005, so the 2004 Franceguide is certainly pretty recent. I really like that publication, although you can pick it up in person--I get it free periodically at my local Alliance Francaise. It has a lot of different and unusual things in it, although I think might be of more interest to more experienced visitors to France, actually.

Regarding the other things, too bad you were disappointed, a lot of that sounds similar to the stuff you find in racks in many tourist offices. Too bad you blew an entire $8.50.

palette

The site says quite clearly that you can order two items which are sent for free, and then after that you have to pay postage or whatever. I have always been pleased with what I got, and I already know from the site that the magazine is going to be for 2004 so there is certainly no surprise waiting.

robjame

The dates I listed were for the useful bochures. Certainly FranceGuide is worth getiing. My point was that for some of the items you can't tell what you are getting. For instance Paris Vision is a booklet from a bus company named "Paris Vision". "Alsace, its vineyards and its wines" is an 8x11 glossy sheet. "France's Cultural Sites" is a list of chateaux, monuments, museums (a total of 24 for Paris) with their phone numbers and web addresses - no description. "Cityrama" is an advertising brochure put out by Gray Lines.
This isn't an attack on Paris or France - simply a heads up to anyone else who might have higher expectations of a tourist bureau charging for pamphlets. Nothing personal. This Fodor's site is a much better source of information.

robjame

In case you are interested, I emailed the source of the brochures as indicated on their website. I did not want to complain on this site and not let them know. Please note that this email was sent to: info.us@france guide.com. I received the following reply:
[email protected] writes:
Good Afternoon,

I need your address if you want to receive brochures or more information. But however, I can to give web site so as to find information.

www.paris-touristoffice.com
www.ratp.com
www.museumpass.com ( pass musee/ transport )

Best regards.

Maison de la France.
Sophie.

*Note it is from Canada. I think there may be a problem with this arm of the French Tourism bureau.