I'm gearing up for a combined work and pleasure trip to Paris, and it has only just struck me that my first thought when I'd booked my tickets was, let's see what blogs have to say about where I should go in Paris. (And I am sure that I would have thought that prior to buying my tickets, if I hadn't had an expert booker do that for me, for free - all online, of course.)

I have been to Paris before, but I would never assume I know all the best places - hardly. While there, I will be seeing my dear friend Clotilde, she of the world famous food blog, and my travel companion is someone who is half-French, owns a flat in Paris and has spent a fair amount of time there himself. Still, as he and I have pored over the information the blogosphere has offered up to us about the city, even he has discovered things about Paris that he did not know.

First stop (after blogger Clotilde, of course): Fodors' travel blog search results for Paris. Second stop: syndicated writer Amy Alkon's blog - Amy and I have a mutual friend in journalist blogger Catherine Seipp, and I know through Cathy that Amy is frequently in Paris. Amy had a huge repository of information on hotels, restaurants, where to get free WiFi (La Coupole, the café section, Montparnasse), and lots of other great stuff.

I don't know if I can cram everything into this trip, but being a short train ride away from Paris, I won't necessarily have to - but my travel will definitely be more frequent now that I know just how much there is that I must see and do there. The travel companies that recognise the benefits of offering this kind of information - permalinked, hooked into the network we know as the blogosphere, and truly engaged with their customers and potential customers - will have a huge edge on their competitors.

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