Blue Lion Guides

En entrant dans Cour d'honneur du Palais Royal, vous vous trouvez immédiatement au milieu de multiples colonnes noires et blanches de toute taille, émergeant du sol comme des arbres qui poussent. Lorsqu’on se penche par-dessus les deux puits qui se trouvent dans la cour, on s’aperçoit que les colonnes se prolongent en sous-sol. Elles déterminent donc deux niveaux, d’où le titre de cette œuvre in situ : Les deux plateaux . En 1986, sous la présidence de François Mitterrand , le Ministère de la culture et de la communication, logé dans la galerie des proues du Palais Royal, commande une sculpture pour la cour intérieure à l’artiste Daniel Buren . Cette œuvre sculpturale s’inscrit dans le cadre des grands projets de François Mitterrand, qui, dans les années 1980, souhaite transformer la ville musée en ville moderne en y introduisant l’art et l’architecture contemporains. Buren est membre fondateur du groupe BMPT (Buren, Mosset, Parmentier et Toroni), qui, dans l’esprit des années 19...

Entrée de l'Hôtel de Marle En 1560, Hector de Marle, notable du Parlement sous Charles IX puis Henri III, fait bâtir sur les plans de Philibert Delorme (ou De l’Orme), l'architecte du Palais des Tuileries, cet hôtel dont que nous voyons ici côté cour. Le côté jardin est visible depuis la rue Elzévir. Cet hôtel, légèrement remanié au XVIIe siècle, est un exemple du plus pur style classique. Sa toiture en carène de bateau renversé est l’une des plus élégantes du Marais. C’est en 1965 que l’état suédois rachète l’hôtel. Il est actuellement, après quelques péripéties, le siège du Centre culturel Suédois fondé par Nicodème Tessin , architecte et amoureux suédois de la culture française. Au XVIIe siècle, après un voyage d’étude, il s’inspirera des travaux de François Mansart et de Louis le Vau pour rebâtir le palais royal de Stockholm, ainsi que d’autres châteaux. Son fils poursuivra le noble métier, mais préfèrera l’inspiration italienne. Cet endroit offre la possibilité...

L’immeuble des « Bons Enfants » du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, réalisé par l’architecte Francis Soler en 2004-2005, se trouve  sur la Rue Croix des Petit Champs ( situer sur Google Maps). Un immense filet en acier inoxydable tel une cuirasse couvre deux immeubles, l’un des années '80 et l’autre des années '20. La mégastructure présente des lignes arabesques cachant et dévoilant les bâtiments, ceci non sans rappeler le style art nouveau d’ Hector Guimard  qui avait révolutionné l’architecture en 1900. Francis Soler envisage en effet un geste architectural audacieux dans un quartier marqué par la Révolution française. Par ailleurs le message architectural doit aussi bien afficher la tradition que la modernité, témoigner des arts du temps que des arts de l’espace. Et personne ne se doute que cette structure est en réalité la transposition d’un tableau de la Renaissance italienne que l’architecte avait admiré dans le Palais de Té à Mantoue en It...

Nel 1976 intrapresi il mio unico vero viaggio in bicicletta. Da Roma partii per la volta della Sicilia. Feci tappa a Napoli da dove presi il treno alla volta di Messina. Ecco le prime pagine del mio diario che poi interruppi perché lo trovavo troppo descrittivo. Martedì 7 luglio 1976 (102 km) View Larger Map È stata una sfacchinata immane per poi finire in una città come Frosinone completamente priva di spunti interessanti. Sono partito da casa verso le 8 e 1/2. È stato veloce il primo pezzo di una dozzina di chilometri che mi hanno permesso di uscire dall'agglomerato urbano. Alle dieci il caldo era già insopportabile e mi sono ritrovato in un magazzino dove si stava scaricando del mangime per animali di piccole dimensioni. Bene, chiedo se posso entrare e chi mi trovo davanti? Un veneto! Dappertutto si vanno a scovare questi qua. Mi dice che preferirebbe il motorino alla bicicletta "per non pedalare". Proseguo il viaggio in leggera salita ma mi accorgo che le m...

Background Do you want images or not on a tourism guide? I remember when I was younger that my preferred guides (for a while) were the classical Touring Club guides published by the Italian Touring Club. I even traveled with one on my back-pack when I made a 1800 km solo tour of Sicily in ... hem 1976. The guide, an edition from 1930s!, was very useful and with the maps for most of the cities it helped me a lot to get around. I didn't need any hotel or restaurant suggestions: my budget was 200.000 lira (approximately 1,000 euros today) for 2 months travel including train transfers from Naples to Messina and, on the way back, from Reggio Calabria to Rome. So any hotel was out of reach. The only time I spent something to stay overnight was in Palermo, where I stayed in a camping. And I lived with sandwiches and fruit. The absolute lack of hotel and restaurant information of these guides didn't bother me at all. The other aspect of these guides was that they didn't have im...

Une autre excursion avec Françoise Gardien dans le Marais: l'hôtel Carnavalet, le plus ancien et un des plus beaux hôtels particuliers de Paris. Aujourd'hui siège du Musée de la l'Histoire de la Ville de Paris. Nous voici dans la cour d’honneur du plus ancien hôtel particulier parisien civil, celui qui va inspirer tous ceux qui vont suivre ; il va susciter un véritable engouement, tant pour l'attrait du quartier renaissant que pour son architecture somptueuse. Ce lieu porte aussi en lui la mémoire de fêtes joyeuses, de véritables carnavals… qui lui donnèrent son nom, probablement, comme nous allons le voir. Entrons dans la cour d’honneur de l’hôtel ; au passage nous pouvons contempler le masque de Carnaval, figure de l’Abondance, ornant le tympan du porche, rappelant le patronyme, Carnaval/Carnavalet. Renaissance parisienne. C’est sous le règne de François Ier en 1545, que Jacques de Ligneris, avocat à la Cour, acquiert 3 parcelles de la couture S...

When we started the Blue Lion project we looked at what other companies had done so far to deploy tourism services and content on mobile phones. We were struck by how many features were built in some of the mobile guides. We will review some of these features in a series of articles. Today we look at audio reading. Providing audio to visitors is somehow essential: the smart phones or tablets are portable devices, just like audio guides in museums. You definitely do not want to read the text while looking at a painting (or monument). So, audio is a necessity, especially when you have a good quality content that is long enough to explain things thoroughly. If your text is just a paragraph or two you should not embark audio in your solution. Natural voices Now, how to provide audio? The best would be to offer natural voice, which implies having real people (hired or not) reading the text. While the results are definitely the best you can get, there are some drawbacks: unless you r...

We have been working in the design of the Blue Lion app for (to begin with) iPhone and Android for over 6 months now. (Yes, it looks like a long time....) I would like to share a little bit of history of the project. Not too much, otherwise it becomes boring. The origins The idea started in May 2010 when I had a dinner with a friend of mine, Claudine, from Rio de Janeiro, who was visiting Paris (she comes here often). We had known each other in my previous job, when I was running a program to finance innovative technology projects for SME in Latin  America and the Caribbean. Together we organized a meeting and a Tech Expo on these same topics in Rio de Janeiro a few years back. We were talking and I was sharing with Claudine my thoughts about what to do in Paris (I mean for work). A couple sitting next to us had an iPhone on their table, which they were looking at constantly. When I told Claudine that I was ready for a new venture, I pointed to the neighbors and said: we ...

 Nous avons récemment finalisé notre premier guide sur le Palais Royal avec Ulrike Kasper, dont voici un avant-goût :  Palais Royal, © ACZ Le Palais Royal est à l’image même de Paris, car il unit l’histoire politique et culturelle avec la réalité contemporaine. Peu d’endroits à Paris affichent une telle concentration d’événements historiques. Sur les façades, les décorations et les sculptures du Palais Royal on découvre différentes couches de l’histoire de France, allant du 17 e au 20 e siècle. Le Cardinal Richelieu par   Philippe de Champaigne Le Palais est d’abord un centre de pouvoir: il se présente d’ailleurs comme la continuité naturelle du palais du Louvre, résidence des Rois de France du XIV au XVI siècle, qui se trouve juste en face du Palais Royal, côté rue de Rivoli. Sa proximité physique témoigne du désir du Cardinal Richelieu   d’être logé au plus proche du roi Louis XIII pour ainsi faire jouer son pouvoir. A sa mort, Ric...

Pocket Guide, a Hungarian company, offers a fresh approach to mobile city guides. The guides cover about 20 European cities with 150 tours. According to the company's web site the texts are written by professional guides and tested by their own employees. Pocket Guide claims about 50,000 monthly downloads (not clear whether these include also the free versions of the app). The guides are available on several platforms: iOS, Android and Nokia's OVI. The guides cost €2.39 per tour or €4.99 per city bundle (which include, depending on the city, from three to twelve tours). Previously the tours were offered at higher prices. We downloaded a few of their guides and share our first impressions based on the iPhone app (version 4.0). Design The design guides is straight and colorful: the guides project an image that may be entice the young and technologically curious users. An introductory screen is simple and presents the app language choice (limited to English and Hungarian).

Tripwolf, a company based in Vienna (Austria), offers a wide range of city guides (over 100) for the iPhone and, more recently, also for Android smartphones. I downloaded a few of them, both free and premium (4.99$ or €3.99) and here are my impressions. The company claims more than 400.000 downloads since the launch of the iPhone app (June 2011). Design Flush design of the App. Screens are well organized and are completed with large photos. Each city has its own "cover page" with a representative image and access to its content. The navigation bar includes only five (quite large) icons, with the search function (leading to a list of available guides), the "My Guides" button with the TripWolf icon, a GPS-based geolocalization service, online/offline status and a "More" button. The points below the image show the number of guides that the user has downloaded so far and are directly available with lateral scrolling of the cover page.

I stumbled upon a few web sites that offer touring services historical cities by joining the offer by local guides, agencies and privates. One site, www.getyourguide.com , based in Switzerland, has an on-line booking and payment system and definitely has a quite substantial offer: there are more than 700 tours offered in Italy (nearly 200 in Rome alone). In Europe, Italy has by far the largest offer on the site. Spain, Germany and France offer around 300 tours, followed by the United Kingdom, Turkey, Portugal, Austria and Greece. The biggest offer comes from the USA with more than 900 tours offered. Pricing varies depending on the offer but tends to be relatively aligned: for a 3 hours in the Vatican Museums and Church the cost per person is around 30 to 40 euros (tickets not included). The site is organized like any travel booking site with as much services and content available on the home page, but it is still easy to find your way. The upper part of the site is occu...