What I learned in 5 Days in Paris with Le ChatGPT

How to use ChatGPT more at home, so you can be smarter about it at work

Readers of this Substack know that I spend most of my time on ways that GenAI can support business. But one of the best ways to sharpen your intuition about where this technology excels is by using it regularly in your personal life. I was in a meeting recently with senior execs from several prominent companies, and there was a clear correlation between the people who are comfortable using the technology themselves and the companies that are moving ahead. In this post, I’ll share how I used ChatGPT on a recent trip to Paris and the practical applications—and limitations—of GenAI. My hope is that this will inspire you to use GenAI more in your own life and in turn this will help you come up with good ideas for your company.

Over the past five days, I visited Paris to spend time with my wife, who is there for a few weeks for a fellowship. Throughout the trip, ChatGPT was a valuable travel companion. Here are some examples of how it helped me navigate the City of Light—and where it fell short.

Things that worked really well

Packing list - Before you go on a trip, just ask ChatGPT what to bring. With a nudge, it will read the upcoming weather forecast and suggest what to bring. It suggested the right number and type of outfits and optimized so that I wouldn’t need to check a bag. And you can customize to your exact needs, mentioning that you have a fancy dinner one night and want to bring exercise clothes, etc.

Itinerary planning - Now that you’ve packed, you have to plan what you’re doing. I didn’t need this for the recent Paris trip, but I used this for a trip to Munich last summer and got some great suggestions. Unlike a traditional guidebook, you can mention that you have kids aged 11 and 7 and that they don’t have a lot of patience for art museums, etc. and it will give you a custom itinerary.

Meal planning - Before my trip, I turned to ChatGPT for restaurant recommendations as well. It provided a diverse range of options, from casual bistros to an opulent dining room straight out of the Napoleonic era. Every place it suggested was great for what it was, and I felt like I avoided tourist trap restaurants and got to absorb some local culture.

Translation - Unsurprisingly, one area where ChatGPT shone consistently was language assistance. It translated signs I photographed and provided spot-on French phrases whenever I needed them. Having a real-time translator definitely makes navigating a foreign country much easier.

What worked well most of the time

ChatGPT turned out to be a very helpful museum companion. Its nonjudgmental enthusiasm made it easy to ask questions about art and history that I might’ve hesitated to ask a human guide. At the Louvre, I encountered Victory Leading the People an iconic painting by Delacroix.

The wall text mentioned its recent restoration, including the removal of a yellow patina. I asked ChatGPT whether the yellow was original or an unintended effect, and it patiently explained that the yellow was not part of the artist’s vision but something that happened over time.

When it came to other artifacts, ChatGPT was a mixed bag. It nailed identifying this ancient statue (the oldest item in the Louvre) as one of the Ain Ghazal figures and gave me helpful background on it, including that it dates back to 6500-7000 BC (!):

In the case of this crazy hat, it correctly identified it as Etruscan but thought the gold was original. Once I pointed out that it was added it later, it explained why that was, but I could’ve gotten the wrong idea.

This was the one that really impressed me. When I showed it this tablet from Ancient Carthage,

it was able to immediately identify that it was written in ancient Phoenician. At first it couldn’t offer a translation, but with a lot of pushing, I got it to offer a translation of a few words. It says that there is the name of a deity and then the words meaning “receive” and “righteousness.” Wow! Pretty amazing to have even a limited translation on demand for a language that has been dead for thousands of years!

Overall, I was very appreciative that ChatGPT could provide so much more context around objects that had limited descriptions on the walls next to them and let me ask as many follow-ups as I wanted. But, you probably can’t believe everything it says and need to verify anything it says independently.

What didn’t work that well

Nearby recommendations - Although it’s going to sound like all I did was eat, once in Paris, I used ChatGPT to find the best lunch spots or patisseries near wherever I happened to be. While the suggestions were fine, they were further away than I would’ve liked. It seemed to think I’d be willing take a 15 minute trip on the Metro for lunch when I was already on a street with dozens of bistros. That said, when I did go out of my way a little to try a patisserie it recommended, it was very tasty. They even have a “maps” feature in ChatGPT, but the immediate results were less valuable than Google Maps would’ve been.

Navigating Museums - ChatGPT also helped me navigate Paris’s large and complex museums, but it was hit or miss. At the Musée d’Orsay, it suggested starting on the fifth floor where the famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings are located. This was an excellent tip that wasn’t obvious at all from the signage. However, at the Louvre, it struggled mightily to direct me to a specific special exhibit,¹ which I finally stumbled on right when I had given up looking for it.

Conclusion

The point of this story isn’t just to recommend packing ChatGPT for your next trip abroad. Instead, I wanted to highlight the benefits of incorporating GenAI into your daily life. Using tools like ChatGPT regularly—whether for personal tasks or professional ones—helps you develop a deeper understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. This intuition can make you a more thoughtful and effective user of the technology in a business context.

So, give it a try. Next time you start to open Google to ask about a weird fact, plan a trip, or make a grocery list, try ChatGPT or Claude instead. If you don’t believe me, just try it for a week. You will see a real benefit, and immersing yourself in the technology will be helpful at home and at work.

1. I ended up in the room with the crazy Etruscan hat three times!