Downloadable free of charge from Apple Store in French and English, it offers attractive, informative content, including the story of how the Grand Palais was built and restored (notably the secret of its mignonette green), a behind-the-scenes look at the preparation of an event, a description of how beehives are installed on the roof of the building, and a host of other subjects that will be regularly updated. Top personalities like Karl Lagerfeld and Daniel Buren contribute their stories of the Grand Palais.
 
The free content currently includes audio files, a photo gallery, and maps, and is the first stage of a project designed by Sinapses Conseils and Audiovisit. Further developments are planned, notably with a fuller presentation of upcoming events.
The initiative is one of the ways in which the Grand Palais aims to bring the public a range of different ways of accessing the history and life of a building that is such an emblematic part of French heritage. Other initiatives include: the opening of the Grand Palais entrance hall on avenue Winston-Churchill, providing the public with a view of the Nave, free of charge daily from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm; the installation of a Bluetooth "hotspot" where visitors can download content in the entrance hall; and the new "Prepare your visit" section on the www.grandpalais.fr Web site. These new free facilities are examples of how the Grand Palais plans to use today's technologies for finding and transmitting information content.
The Grand Palais is the second cultural site in France to launch an iPhone application (after the Musée de Cluny - the National Museum of the Middle Ages). This comes one year after the launch of its Web site, rewarded by a Favourite Website Award. The Grand Palais is building easy-to-use, state-of-the-art technologies into its visitor reception and information facilities. Its iPhone application has not escaped the attention of Apple and the public, and has, at this writing, been up on the iTunes home page since August 19 as one of the most popular new picks. In the travel category, the Grand Palais comes second only to Google Earth in terms of popularity!