He would have liked to go someplace he hadn't visited, but he preferred a place where there wasn't lots of shooting going on, since he had a strong aversion to bullets, shells and explosions. Too much of the world was in flames.

Europe. That's where he'd go. It was relatively peaceful now, possibly between wars. The politicians may have been too busy with other matters to start some new wars. But where to go in Europe? There was so much he hadn't seen, so much he didn't know about. He had to do some research. So he called various government tourist offices. He found that most of the people he called were delighted to have him visit their countries. Poland promptly sent him a batch of promising brochures, as did Spain, Italy and others.

France was different. He couldn't find a listing for a government tourist office, so he called the French consulate in New York and found a man who seemed most bothered by the intrusion. The official told Charlie to check the Web site and, when Charlie pressed for further information, the man almost reluctantly volunteered the Web address, www.francetourism.com.

It was wonderful. There was a list of perhaps dozens of brochures; brochures covering different regions, brochures covering different interests-like museums, cheese, wine, golf, romance-brochures for gays, for youth, and more. This was terrific, Charlie thought, because he had many interests and might want to spend lots of time enjoying what France had to offer. He wanted to visit museums, especially the fabulous Louvre in Paris. But he also was more than eager to check out different cheeses and wines. He wanted to see different regions. And he wondered what the romance brochure might offer.

He checked several brochures he thought would be useful, then had to decide if he could wait two to three weeks for normal delivery or if he should pay $4 for two- to three-day delivery. And then he discovered that he would have to make another decision.

The site allowed him to select only two (2) brochures. He liked the idea of cheese and wine ,but he didn't know what the different regions had to offer. So he decided to go to a more visitor-friendly country.

But the Web site did give him some useful ideas. Maybe he should charge customers for data sheets and sales brochures, especially if they wanted information in a hurry. If he allowed only two data sheets per customer, maybe that would make them seem more desirable.

This was something worth looking into.