The Evolution of Bonjour Paris, One of the Original Websites Still Publishing Today

Paris. Photo credit: Michel Craig/ Flickr

[Editor’s note: We recently announced the relaunch of BonjourParis.com and were thrilled to hear from the website’s founder, Bob Ellis. He graciously allowed us to publish his note below.]

Not sure if you know the origin story of Bonjour Paris (BP), how my very brave friend Nicole Duplaix hacked the original site into being using AOL’s undocumented and unworkable 1995 authoring tools and our small tribe of writer friends started posting our ex-pat encounters with the Parisians. Basically it was one step up from a text service but definitely slicker than the Minitel.

This came to mind when I saw your note that you are doing a web platform and refreshing the design—wondering how many iterations there have been since I left Paris in 1996, when Karen Fawcett—then the doyen of American expats and our racy gossipy columnist—kept it alive and lively.

But mainly I wanted to say how well written and edited the site is now, and how amazing it is that it has survived and thrived all these years.

Haven’t checked this out completely and some question when the URL was actually registered, but BP definitely qualifies as one of the original websites still continuously publishing on the web—and in your hands, still getting better.