Paris on a shoestring - a really, really small shoe string.. (Paris)

Member Name: SapphireSunflowr

Product:	Paris
Date:	01/03/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: such a wonderful vibrant city, you can feel a part of it just walking and looking!

Disadvantages: Paris is not cheap, but you can have just as good a 'Paris Experience' on the cheap

My other half and I tagged a week long stay in Paris onto the end of out inter-railing trip round Europe in the summer of 2007. We ended up in Paris in the height of summer, having spent pretty much all of our budget and regretting booking such a long stay in such an expensive city after our long trip! However, with a bit of budgetting and staying away from fee-heavy tourist traps, we managed a brilliant end to out trip there - and even managed a glass of wine!

Sights:

We were lucky in that we'd already been to Paris in richer times and done the Eiffel Tower, but there's plenty to do in Paris for free. We were staying in Montmartre, which is a fantastic base for wandering - you can walk up to the Sacre Coeur, go and see the Moulin Rouge, and the area itself is lovely for browsing in little shops and galleries and finding a park in which to sit and eat your lunch. For very little money, there's also a very amusing Museum of Sex round the corner in the Pigalle area, which also is home to the Moulin Rouge. Go out into Paris and just wander on the bridges over the river, see the painters and booksellers, and enter the free churches such as Notre Dame and Scare Coeur.

The Palace of Versailles is a classic sight, but really very expensive to enter. When we first visited Paris in 2005, we had decided to skip entry to the palace itself and so for just a few euros spent the day in the expansive and stunning gardens. They are a day out in themselves, with so many different areas to explore and a wonderful setting to sit and talk in the sun. We were even luckier when we tried to recreate this the second time round - we went on the day when the house was closed, and were so worried that the gardens would be closed too. Infact, they were open - and free! I don't know if this always happens, and you do have to pay extra on the Metro to get out to Versailles, but the gardens are so beautiful it's worth it, you can easily while a way a sunny day there feeding the fish and walking through the Marie Antoinette's gorgeous buildings.

The Louvre is also an amazing place to visit, and as my partner and I are both under 26, we went on Friday night, where after 6pm you can get free entry. Free entry is also granted to everyone on the first Sunday of each month and on July 14, so if your holiday coincides with these dates, go!

Food:

There's nothing nicer in Paris in the summer than sitting out in a restaurant with a glass of wine and some good food - but with our small budget this wasn't an option! We decided to budget eat for 5 nights and then treat ourselves to a meal on the last day. We found a supermarket in Montmatre - round the corner from the Moulin Rouge - and bought from there each day a yoghurt or pastry for breakfast (my other half saved even more by buying a big multipack of croissants), a pasta salad or sandwich for a picnic lunch and then something for tea such as tinned tuna on crust fresh bread, one night we even shared a cooked chicken from the deli with a lovely baguette, delicious. We worked out that we had managed to survive on 3 Euro a day - how I'll never know, and with the current exchange rate that's not as cheap as it was then - but still very impressive.

One of the nicest places to go and eat such fare is the huge area of grass by the Eiffel Tower, as you can sit and eat your picnic completely for free while soaking up the Paris atmosphere in the shadow of its most iconic landmark. You feel totally a part of the city without having to pay for admission!

So, with our saved euros, on our last night we went for out meal and our glass of wine. We still weren't exactly flush, so we choose a lovely little restaurant tucked down a side street in Montmartre. As it wasn't in view of any major sights it didn't charge ridiculous prices, and we chose to go for a set menu of 3 courses, of which I had onion soup, ham carbonara and a caramel dessert. My food was wonderful, and a fraction of the price it would have been had I bought it separately in a more tourist-orientated restaurant. It's worth having a phrase book handy if your French is not great though - as the resturant was catering more to French locals and visitors, the staff did not speak/understand English as well as in the more touristy places where you are totally spoiled!, and the menu was in French. However it's always worth making the effort anyway, and they were so friendly with us, especially as we had the place very nearly to ourselves.

Summary: Don't feel you have to eat out every night, choose free/cheap entertainment & have a brilliant time!