I tried a search but...
Someone sent me a link for the Paris Notes website. They claim it is fantastic, but I have learned to verify this "friends" idea of fantastic. (Just and FYI her favorite resturant in Paris was McDonalds which is not my taste!)

It costs $44 a year! Does anyone use it? Is it worth $44 a year?

I love receiving my Paris Notes newsletter, but I LOVE Paris and go almost yearly. I also subscribe to "This City Paris", two different magazines called "France", and a newspaper called "France Today". So, maybe I'm not a good person to ask

Paris Notes is a small newsletter format, maybe 8 pages each month. It usually has two-three feature articles, a couple of short ones about something off-tourist-beat, a restaurant review, a page of quick updates from the editor, and a list of current exhibits.
There are a few photographs, but the publication is B/W. If you think you're going to be a repeat Paris visitor you might like it for enrichment, otherwise you can get by fine with guidebooks and the Web.

Well, I seem to be a repeat visitor. I went last May, I am going this May and am planning a June/July 2005 trip. It might be worth it.

I used to read This City Paris when you could buy it at the newstand, but they quit carrying it.

The British, "France" is mucjh better than the other "France" I find France todaÿ" skimpy for the money tho I also get that.

Cigalechanta, I agree with your assessments. I've quit 'France Today' before, and probably will let my current subscr. lapse...

I have subscribed to France for 5 years now, and it is a truly beautiful magazine. I have often wondered about Paris Notes, but I am always skeptical about these type publications. There's just so much info on the web, and I like asking right here on this forum about things that interest me. Here you can have a rapport with those who answer enabling you to get much more detailed information than a print publication. But I am interested in hearing from anyone who has actually subscribed to Paris Notes.

I subscribed to Paris Notes for a year a couple of years ago. All I can say is, I wasn't eager to renew. It's not that it didn't have some good information, but I felt that you could probably find out a lot of it on the web and didn't feel it was worth the high price. Just my opinion.

Hello. I subscribe to Paris Notes. It is pricey and you can find lots of info elsewhere on the Web. But, I often find it useful. (There was once an article on the best bus routes in Paris, for example.) On their Website, subscribers have access to several years of back issues and access to a list of other websites for hotels and restaurants and walking tours, etc. etc. And now you can download their list of museums and recommended hotels and restaurants and they are now working on a list of architectural
tours. I hope this provides more info.

Another subscription email newsletter is Bonjour Paris, for a little less per year. You can read a number of their articles without subscribing, before you make the decision if you want to subscribe or not.

I was given a subscription to Paris Notes as a gift and chose not to renew it when it expired this year. A little web surfing and you can come up with the good links. Also it was mostly dry history. You can find the same information, written better, at the library.As someone who goes to Paris every year, I find Bonjour Paris premium content much more useful. It costs $24.95 and comes out every week.Go to www.bonjourparis.com Also Parler Paris is fun and it's free. Go to www.parlerparis.com.

You might try Paris In Sites, they have a free newsletter.
http://www.parisinsites.com/

My first Paris Notes subscription was a gift, as well. I renewed it. I enjoy the separate member's only hotel review and the restaurants. I LIKE the dry history! Is the magazine referred to "France", the one that has all those homes for sale? Day=dream fodder!

Yes, the UK-published "France" magazine has articles about all corners of France, a little bit of French/English lesson, and ads/pics of properties for sale in the back. A very nice magazine.

I think there is something similar for Britain, but I can't think of the name of it.

I did order, and I enjoyed it, but it certainly is not worth $44.00 a year, in my opinion. It's only a few pages, and not a lot of information.

Best,
Sandy

The British France covers alot of places not usually written about. The readers'letters are also informative. I'm sorry I renewed the other Francve magazine( it was free a few years ago)
It's anemic next to the Brit.

CarolA - whether Paris Notes would be good value for you probably depends on how often you visit Paris and the kind of information you like to have. I've subscribed for seven years, love the history-related articles, and value the perspectives provided. Have used information from one issue or another on almost every trip to Paris we've taken. Of the monthly (actually it's 10 issues per year) publications about France to which I subscribe, I have three favorites - Paris Notes, France (the British publication others have mentioned), and Détours en France, a French language magazine. I subscribe to a number of others, but have found these three the most useful over time.

Sorry, I "misspoke". France - the British periodical - and Détours en France are both published every other month.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I did subscibe. I really love Paris and am an information junkie so it works. I have been reading all the back issues as my bedtime reading.

I have probably had them ALL....I no longer have Paris Notes..I do like La Belle France and Bonjour Paris always, along with The French Tourist office monthly e-mail newsletter and the Au Chateaux e-mial news letter........

I like www.metropoleparis.com/
There is a new issue weekly plus easy to access past issues. There are excellent articles about various aspects of Paris plus a detailed weekly list of museum exibitions, plays, etc. including reminders of when they are closing. All this is free of charge, although I have made a denotation to keep them going as it is such a terrific site.