Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
At a loose end for an hour or two in Paris, I check to see whether large language models are up to the task of tour guiding by doing a walking tour with ChatGPT.
What’s All This Then?
You heard me, in this post I’m doing a walking tour with ChatGPT. Let’s take a step back though: how did all of this come about?
During my recent trip to France, which came hard on the heels of a couple of days in Switzerland, my time during the day was not my own. During my downtime, therefore, I wanted to break things up a bit by exploring. I saw a few museums in Lausanne over the weekend. There was an early morning walk in Geneva. I even went to a few troglodyte sites in France! I’m a motivated explorer of history and culture, that’s for sure.
So on an evening in Paris, when I realised I had a couple of hours to kill before dinner, I found myself at a loose end. It wasn’t long enough to go see a sight. I didn’t have time to travel elsewhere in the city and do a walking tour. But I knew it was a 45 minute walk to get to where I was going, so I had time to meander there. I decided to outsource the task.
If you’re not familiar with ChatGPT for some reason, it’s what’s know as a large language model. Artificial intelligence. Basically it takes all the information on the internet, and has learned how to answer questions. It’s currently free to access the basic model. The trick to it, as we’re all learning, is knowing how to ask the right questions. And having enough knowledge to verify that the answer is correct.
Creating A ChatGPT Walking Tour
I’ve been playing around with ChatGPT for various purposes, but had not asked it for a walking tour before. I started out by asking it for a walking tour from address A to address B, pointing out sights of historic interest along the way and lasting 90 minutes. I indicated short detours were fine. ChatGPT was happy to do help, but it was mostly walking directions with only two places mentioned so I asked it to expand the amount of historic information. “Certainly!” said ChatGPT.
The second attempt had the right level of detail but still just those two places, so I asked it to add two or three more. It managed only one to two more, so I decided to go with it and see what else I could spot on the way. On a whim just before I left my hotel I asked ChatGPT to tell me if any famous people had lived along the route of my walk. It was a bit vague on this front, but gave me some people who lived around the area. I felt I was reaching the limit of what it could figure out, so shoes on and phone in hand I set off.
The following sections are combination walking tour, and reflections on the strength and limitations of an AI walking tour at this point in time. Experimental, but then again I’ve done a gamified walking tour and plenty following books from the 1970s, so it’s part of a trend on the Salterton Arts Review of finding creative ways to get out and about.
Around The 8th Arrondissement
We begin in Paris’s 8th arrondissement. This includes the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde and several other major sites, but we are heading to the Northern side, towards the Parc Monceau.As we emerge onto the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, we come across our first (minor) site. This is the Canadian Embassy and Canadian Cultural Centre. They have only been here since 2018, having previously been in separate locations. The government of Quebec has a separate French delegation.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No, but expected as it doesn’t fit the bill of what I asked for.Just a little further down the street is l’Église Saint-Philippe-du-Roule. Built between 1774-1784 (bad timing, just before the French Revolution), it replaced a small chapel attached to a leprosy hospital. The architect, Jean-François Chalgrin, also designed the Arc de Triomphe. Despite having stayed around here several times, I’d never been inside. It’s nicely impregnated with the smell of incense, and has a dramatic Descent from the Cross by Theodore Chassériau in the cupola.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No.I didn’t detour down the Boulevard Hausmann, but know from previous experience that the Musée Jacquemart-André is just down there on the left. A 19th Century private mansion, it displays the art collection of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart. Think lots of Old Masters, strong on Italian art, and furniture to complement. The Boulevard Hausmann is a point of historic interest in its own right, as an example of the sweeping changes to the city brought about by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, chosen by Napoleon for a massive urban renewal project. The Paris we know today wouldn’t exist without him.
Part of ChatGPT Walk? No, not a peep about either.A striking sculpture in front of the modernist Embassy of Burkina Faso.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No, but again more of a bonus find.
Towards The Park Monceau
Just up from the Boulevard Hausmann is this unique building. Known as the Paris Pagoda, it started out as a normal hôtel particulier in Louis Philippe style. In 1925 a Chinese businessman, Mr. Ching Tsai Loo, purchased and transformed it. For many years it was home to Galerie C.T. Loo & Cie., and it continues to show art and antiquities today. The interior is apparently as sumptuous as the exterior is unexpected.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No, and this is just the sort of thing I would expect to be pointed out in a normal walking tour.Not a stop, just pointing out that there are some lovely buildings on the approach to the park.And here we are, the first official stop on our walking tour! ChatGPT tells us: “This park dates back to the 18th century and was designed in the English landscape style, featuring picturesque gardens, a charming bridge, and several notable monuments. It has attracted many renowned figures throughout history, including writers, painters, and musicians.”
Part of ChatGPT walk? Yes!Now I don’t want to be too picky, but ChatGPT really underplays the Parc Monceau by saying it has “several notable monuments”. They’re everywhere, and they’re very interesting indeed! This is thanks to the Duc de Chartres, who created the Parc Monceau as a place to delight and amaze visitors. Here we have a Roman colonnade and a later monument to composer Charles Gounod.Then we’ve got an ‘Egyptian’ pyramid which is also one of the Duke’s original features. There were plenty more in the 18th Century including a Tatar tent, a Dutch windmill, and a ‘chemistry laboratory’. He seems like quite the character. The second image in this set is a marker commemorating the first ever parachute descent, which took place here in 1797 when André-Jacques Garnerin jumped from a hot air balloon. He was eventually named the Official Aeronaut of France. The third is another later monument, to poet and playwright Édouard Pailleron. There are many more examples I could have chosen from to show how either the large language model didn’t quite understand the walking tour assignment, or I need to ask better questions.
Private Collections And AI Ponderings
One thing I can state with great certainty is that ChatGPT gave terrible directions. I got at least the basis of a walking tour in terms of sights. But when I tried to follow the directions, I had to cross reference with a map only to discover it was confidently telling me to turn left or right onto streets which were nowhere near my current position. So I soon ignored the directions and just made my own way between the stops on my walk. Leaving the Parc Monceau, this took me past the Musée Cernuschi, the Asian arts museum of the City of Paris. Henri Cernuschi was a banker exiled from Italy in the 19th Century. He travelled extensively in Asia, and had this mansion built to house himself and his collection. He died in 1896 leaving both to the city of Paris, and the museum opened only two years later in 1898.
Part of ChatGPT tour? No.There’s another museum based on a private collection just one block over, but I didn’t detour past it. So where you can just about make out a green banner is the Musée Nissim de Camondo. Moïse de Camondo (1860-1935) collected all kinds of fine and decorative arts in order to recreate the residence of an 18th Century aristocrat. I’ve never been, but find the concept interesting so would like to go one day.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No.Walking along the Boulevard Malesherbes, I was thinking about all the things it’s not possible for AI to know about. I can walk past this shop, for instance, and see the historic bookplates, but I’m not likely to write about it online. Or rather, I am writing about it right now, but because I haven’t specified where exactly this shop is, that knowledge isn’t reproducible when it comes to things like ChatGPT. That’s where people still come in: to make connections and surface memories relevant to a conversation or a question. Just some AI ponderings while I walked along.
Around Saint Augustin
We’re not far now from l’Église Saint-Augustin. This is another church I’d never been inside before, and this time ChatGPT included it! It was built between 1860 and 1871 by Paris’s chief architect at the time, Victor Baltard. He designed it as a prominent landmark at the junction between two boulevards during Hausmann’s renovations of Paris.
Part of ChatGPT walk? Yes!Just before we enter, we spot this monument to Jules Simon, a politician during France’s Third Republic.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No, but not that interesting, either.The church was built with modern techniques, namely an iron frame and roof. This allowed a large open space, as well as forming a decorative element. It also allowed a nice tall structure, designed by Baltard to be visible from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.And now we leave the church behind and cross that junction I mentioned before.Here’s another of those spots that AI is unlikely to pick up on, but a person might point out. On this site once stood the Caserne de la Pépinière, a barracks. Demolished in 1925, it was replaced by this, the Cercle National des Armées, a social organisation for members of the military. No doubting that connection when you look at the highly decorated façade.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No, as expected.
Towards The Grands Magasins (Department Stores)
ChatGPT didn’t manage to find any other sites of interest unless I go past my destination to admire the Gare du Nord (no thanks), so I’m just doing my own thing from this point. The directions did get a bit better towards the end, so I will soon merge back together with what my walking tour states.Back on the Boulevard Hausmann, I spied something of interest across the street. It’s the Chapelle Expiatoire, built on the grounds where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were buried after their executions. This is obviously subject to political fashions: it was inaugurated in 1826 during a period of restored monarchy, whereas the Paris Commune of 1871 ordered it to be torn down. Luckily this never happened. It looks a peaceful spot, and now that I know it’s there, I will come back for a closer look when I have more time.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No.And here we have Paris’s Grands Magasins (department stores). Au Printemps. Les Galeries Lafayette (the one shown above isn’t the main one). Big names in French shopping, and seemingly doing much better than their English counterparts, many of whose flagship stores now stand empty. The historic part of the Printemps store dates to the 1880s. I can’t find a precise date for the modern extension.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No.Again in the vein of ‘things an AI doesn’t know about but I can spot’, I liked the juxtaposition between these decorative caryatids and the mini supermarket below.And I do love a walk around the streets of Paris, whether it’s with a purpose or not.
You Are Now Approaching Your Destination
I love a good ghost sign. This one indicates that this was once a shop selling furs. Not something ChatGPT would know about, probably not something a formal walking tour would point out, but interesting nonetheless.Another Neo-Classical Parisian church, but now we’re running a bit low on time so can’t stop to look inside. This is Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, built between 1823 and 1836 by architect Louis-Hippolyte Lebas. A notable fact about this church is that Claude Monet was baptised here in 1841. Another notable fact is that so many prostitutes used to hang out around the church, ‘Lorette’ became a byword for a woman of loose morals.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No. I don’t know why ChatGPT only featured one of the churches on my route.Yes that’s right, I’m on the lookout for interesting façades again. This one is in the rue du Faubourg Montmartre, and was once a hydrotherapy centre. The next door neighbours, now an estate agent’s, have a tantalisingly similar exterior but without the historic detail. Ghosts of Paris’s past as we near the end of our walk.
Part of ChatGPT walk? No, there are a few mentions online but not enough to make it seem a point of interest to our friend ChatGPT.There are more interesting streets as we approach our destination in the 10th arrondissement. The one shown at the bottom is private – an anomaly I sadly can’t tell you more about, and neither can ChatGPT.And since I didn’t fancy carrying on to admire the Gare du Nord, I decided instead to end on a very typical Parisian street scene. My aim complete of spending an hour or two as a flâneur exploring a city I know well through a technology I’m getting used to was accomplished. So I put my phone away, bought a bottle of wine, and headed to my friends’ place for a nice dinner.
In Summary: How Did ChatGPT Do?
I don’t think tour guides need quake in their boots just yet. Artificial intelligence isn’t coming for their jobs. Did I go on a walking tour? Yes, technically speaking. Would I recommend others try this method of passing the time? No. Or not unless they specifically wanted to run the same sort of experiment I did. Here are a few thoughts to finish with:
The Good
I saw plenty of things I’d never seen before, and I have spent quite a bit of time in Paris over the years. I hadn’t been inside those churches, didn’t know there was a chapel dedicated to the royal family, and hadn’t really appreciated all those monuments in the Parc Monceau.
I took a different route than I might have otherwise. Having even just one or two spots to stop in at on the way encouraged me to follow an alternate path to the streets I know.
As a large language model, ChatGPT does have the style of a walking tour down. It was written in a way that was friendly and digestible.
The Less Good
Let’s be honest. Most of the things I saw on the way were because I noticed them or found them on a map. ChatGPT really struggled to find enough suggestions to really make my walk a walking tour.
The directions were terrible. If I’d tried to follow them I wouldn’t have made it to where I was going. The problem really was how confident ChatGPT was in stating completely incorrect turnings and street names.
Even when ChatGPT did suggest a landmark, it missed a lot of the interesting detail. I think it’s not quite ready to be a tour guide at this stage, but I will happily check in again later.
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