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'DO YOU SPEAK TOURISTE?'

PARIS

Paris unveils new app to aid non-French speakers

Paris, the city of light, love, and tourists, has released a new mobile app called "Yes I speak touriste" to help foreigners struggling with their French find some respite.

Published: 10 July 2015 08:42 CEST
Paris unveils new app to aid non-French speakers
Paris has a new mobile app called "Yes I speak touriste" to help foreigners struggling with their French. Photo: jfgornet/flickr

The app provides users with an interactive map showing locations like restaurants and hotels where their native tongue is spoken.

Users select their preferred language and locations appear where they can find fellow Mandarin, Arabic and English speakers.

Select Mandarin, for example, and around 20 addresses pop up, including a pharmacy.

Needless to say for English there are far more. The map below shows all the stores under the title “fashion” where English is spoken.

 

The French capital's chamber of commerce released the app, which is available in nine languages, at the start of the peak summer tourism season.

Along with the app, there is a paper guide and a website with a list of locations compiled by the chamber of commerce and the regional tourism board.

The website, called “Do you speak touriste?” also offers businesses personality profiles for different nationalities.

In 2013 Paris launched a manual to show those who work in the trade how they could treat tourists more warmly.

SEE ALSO: TEN essential free mobile apps for visiting Paris

According to the profiles, Russian tourists are “traditional and passionate”, and Chinese are “serial shoppers and connected”.

Now, the service has moved to mobile, and is available free of charge for Android and iOS phones.

Paris consistently ranks as the most visited city in the world, with 46 million visitors — 58 percent French and 42 percent international — each year, according to the chamber of commerce.

The organisation said “the perception of the destination by tourists is positive, with a satisfaction level of 94 percent in 2014”.

Not all tourists are satisfied, though. Japanese reported 58 percent satisfaction, and Chinese 54 percent — with security an issue.

“Cultivating hospitality shows the world that each visitor is welcomed. It also encourages jobs and growth,” the statement said.

SEE ALSO: 13 ways France aims to become more welcoming

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PARIS

Fluffy nuisance: Outcry as Paris sends Invalides rabbits into exile

Efforts to relocate wild rabbits that are a common sight on the lawns of the historic Invalides memorial complex have provoked criticism from animal rights groups.

Published: 14 February 2024 13:01 CET
Fluffy nuisance: Outcry as Paris sends Invalides rabbits into exile

Tourists and Parisians have long been accustomed to the sight of wild rabbits frolicking around the lawns of Les Invalides, one of the French capital’s great landmarks.

But efforts are underway to relocate the fluffy animals, accused of damaging the gardens and drains around the giant edifice that houses Napoleon’s tomb, authorities said.

Police said that several dozen bunnies had been captured since late January and relocated to the private estate of Breau in the Seine-et-Marne region outside Paris, a move that has prompted an outcry from animal rights activists.

“Two operations have taken place since 25 January,” the police prefecture told AFP.

“Twenty-four healthy rabbits were captured on each occasion and released after vaccination” in Seine-et-Marne, the prefecture said.

Six more operations are scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.

Around 300 wild rabbits live around Les Invalides, according to estimates.

“The overpopulation on the site is leading to deteriorating living conditions and health risks,” the prefecture said.

Authorities estimate the cost of restoring the site, which has been damaged by the proliferation of underground galleries and the deterioration of gardens, pipes and flora, at €366,000.

Animal rights groups denounced the operation.

The Paris Animaux Zoopolis group said the rabbits were being subjected to “intense stress” or could be killed “under the guise of relocation”.

“A number of rabbits will die during capture and potentially during transport,” said the group, accusing authorities of being “opaque” about their methods.

The animal rights group also noted that Breau was home to the headquarters of the Seine-et-Marne hunting federation.

The police prefecture insisted that the animals would not be hunted.

In 2021, authorities classified the rabbits living in Paris as a nuisance but the order was reversed following an outcry from animal groups who have been pushing for a peaceful cohabitation with the animals.

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