Offline: Paris dares to hold its first 100% phone-free day, and museums are playing along!

How about unplugging for real? On June 22, the City of Paris is throwing down the gauntlet: a day without telephones. On the banks of the Quai de Solférino, in the 7th arrondissement, you'll press pause as a group, to rediscover the thrill of talking to each other for real, and rediscover the capital without a screen in your way. To extend the experience, five Paris museums are also getting in on the act, organizing creative and sensory experiences.

Paris goes airplane - What if we left our phones at home? Really. Without checking them on the sly. Without answering that message that "can't wait". This is the daring wager launched by the City of Paris and the My little Paris media: to organize " France's very first phone-free day", on Sunday June 22, 2025, on the banks of the Quai de Solférino, in the 7th arrondissement.

The aim of this operation, dubbed"Off-line", is to cut the digital cord in order to re-establish human ties. The idea? Reconnect with yourself, with others, with the city. Get lost without GPS. Get your bearings by looking at the signs (or asking for directions, for that matter). Stroll. Crossing paths. Falling in love on the subway - unfiltered.

To mark the occasion, five museums in the Paris Musées network(Cognacq-Jay, Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris, Maison de Victor Hugo, Bourdelle and Zadkine) are also inviting visitors to let go of their screens and let their imaginations run free. The program includes clever tour booklets, coloring books, drawing materials and even an introduction to opera singing!

At a time when, according to several studies, we touch our smartphone 600 to 700 times a day, the initiative is hitting the bull's-eye. In January 2024, the PRO BTP Health Observatory revealed that 71% of French people said they were unable to do without their phone, a figure that climbs to 86% among 18-39 year-olds. For Professor Laurent Karila, psychiatrist and addictologist quoted by Le Parisien, the smartphone has become "an extension of ourselves, to the point of sometimes being a kind of cuddly toy".

So, is this a publicity stunt or a salutary electroshock? One thing's for sure: for one day, Paris is a playground free of notifications!

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