Paris, Sept 01: Sick of sightseeing? Tired of tour guides? Then why not try experimental tourism, a novel approach to travel that starts with a quirky concept and can lead anywhere from Bora Bora to a bus stop. Take monopolytourism. Participants armed with the local version of a Monopoly game board explore a city at the whim of a dice roll, shuttling between elegant shopping areas and the local water plant -- with the occasional visit to jail.
Or countertourism, which requires you to take snapshots with your back turned to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben.
Joel Henry, the French founder of the Laboratory of Experimental Tourism (Latourex), has developed dozens of similar ideas since coming up with the concept in 1990.

"You increase your receptiveness," the 48-year-old writer said by telephone from his home in Strasbourg in eastern France.
"You work out a set of constraints and you stick to it, and that is your sole purpose for the period you decide to devote to the experience. You are open to all the surprises that will pop up along the way," he explained. Despite its name, there is nothing scientific about Latourex. Photographs and souvenirs collected along the way are usually "analysed" over a glass of wine.

It functions along the lines of the Oulipo, short for Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle or Workshop of Potential Literature, a group founded by authors and mathematicians in 1960 which places arbitrary constraints on the writing process.
Bureau Report