I am considering a trip to Gay Paris in the summer and will be there for 10 days. Apart from my lodgings, I would like to get away on $100. bucks a day for restaurants. I may rent an apartment but the only cooking I wish to do is to make breakfast in the morning. The rest of the time I would like to eat out and I really don't want to buy bread and cheese and eat it in a park. My college days are well behind me. So I ask again, can it be done on $100 US a day. At todays date, our glorious greenback amounts to a scant 77 euro!!!! I wish I knew how to say ARRGGGGG en francais! I don't drink wine so that need not be factored into the challenge. Merci les amis!

Lord, yes, girl. Even I can do it and I'm not shy about eating.

Tons of places have decent sit down meals in the $15 to 25 dollar range. I often order the plate du jour or daily special.

I find eating in the parks to be quite a nice experience; especially when you when you take it beyond just basic bread and cheese.

Do a text search on budget eating in paris for specific recomendations

It all depends on how much you'd like to, or are used to, consuming as your daily meal. If you like to eat a lot and are contemplating high-end bistros or restaurants with high prix fixe prices, then $100 per day is, sadly, not enough.

We're on our way for an extended 4-day weekend in Paris this Thursday and I have been researching and making the necessary arrangements for our daily meals. During this trip, we decided to dispense of our traditional 1 or 2 meals of haute or overly high-end restaurantnts and, instead, have one or two "moderate" bistro meal per day where the prix fixe averages around Euro 35 per person, without wine and drinks. The rest of the day's meal will be in much more casual eating establishment, and that may include market-bought food items for park consumption. We figured that inasmuch as we'd like to go nuts on all the Paris restaurants that we want to sample, at some point it can be an overkill by doing so and will do our overall eating experience a lot injustice due to the laws of diminishing returns. Besides, we feel that we have more opportunities to visit the city for the other restaurants.

Anyway, we have found through our previous trips and through my current research, that there will always be a lot of excellent bistros that will serve our purpose for good food based on fresh market-based ingredients, as well as offering differences in regional or culinary styles and combined with good wine lists.

$100 food budget per person per day shouldn't be a challenge in Paris if you know what you want to budget for.

Cheers.

Yes, just returned. Only spent over $100 once..dinner at Altitude 95. we ate pastries, crepes, Crepe Mons. etc for breakfast, ate soups, salads, sandwiches mostly for lunch, and had price fix menus in the evening.

The very best was Tire - Bouchon restaurant, 47 rue Descartes, in the 5th near rue Monge. Ate there twice. Excellent price fix starting at 15.50 euros. The staff are friendly, service is good, and the owner gives you a free little after dinner drink. It is a very small cozy place. This is my third trip eating there.

Have fun.

If you have a meal in a restaurant, then the cheapest option would be the lunch menu (3 courses) for 15-20euro at zillions of places. Don't eat at any place in or near tourist atttractions.

Another option would be the numerous cafeterias often located in department stores or standalones like Flunch.

Finally, theres the cheap and nutritious picnic lunch. Nothing better than sitting on a bench overlooking the Seine while munching on a crusty baguette, pate, cheeese, fresh zucchini and tomato, wine, perhaps a torte or fresh fruit. You will have the local passersby smiling at you with a "bon appetit!"

We don't spend $100 a day for BOTH of us to eat well; we don't frequent high-end restaurants but certainly don't go hungry. There are many cafés, bistros and restaurants with good food where you can easily dine for 15-30Euro per person.

Hi tw,

I think that you have been listening to the wrong people. You can do very well on 77E pp/day.

I've never spent more than 77 euro a day in Paris for eating in restaurants (including cafe stops and breakfast, although I don't have anything for breakfast except perhaps coffee and a croissant), and I do always have wine with dinner. And I have been there just this year, so that's recent figures. I don't eat from street vendors or that kind of thing, I mean sitting down in a cafe or bistro or restaurant and ordering something at a table.

You can certainly spend more than 77 euro for a meal in Paris if that is what you are asking. But if you are travelling alone I cannot imagine you will dine at Jules Verne every evening.

Frankly unless you are trying to get to Super Size Me scale, I think you would have difficulty getting through that much food. Who eats a full lunch AND a full dinner anymore?

That seem like a generous budget - actually downright easy since you don't drink wine! Bread and cheese in the park is advice for folks trying to make is on $30/day.

Menus are posted outside places so simply match them to what you want to spend. Obviously don't eat at high-end restaurants, guidebook recommended, where the chef is famous or they've got a star.

Seriously... as long as you only list as the only quality requirements that you should be able to sit down and eat, of course you can eat all your meals for $100 in Paris... In Oslo (just recently "won" a most expensive city in world award) you can easily get away with $100 a day for one person as long as you skip wine... You would have to give us some more specifics for this to be a challenge.

Sindre

At the Bistro de Breteuil you can have a very nice three-course dinner for 31 Euros, including apéritif, wine, and coffee. I'd be glad to find something of that quality and price here in California.

"I really don't want to buy bread and cheese and eat it in a park. My college days are well behind me."

That is too bad. Then you will miss some great experiences relaxing in the great parks or along the river. Putting together a wonderful meal from the little shops and local markets is a real treat.

77E a day for one person, no wine, should allow you to eat well. I suggest a good guide book like Sandra Gustafson's Great Eat in Paris. This is the book that used to be titled "Cheap Eats in Paris" so you can be assured that there are good budget recommendation.

While cheese in the park may be nice for lunch, so is Croque Monsieur in a cafe, with a warm or cold drink. There are so many cafes where you can have a nice lunch that doesn't cost much, leaving you a good amount to spend on dinner. It can be done easily.

You may also want to post here for dinner recs in the 35E range.

Merci les amis! I do like restaurants and cafe. Its seems that it can be done on 77 Euro

Of course I can eat in Paris for less than $100.00 US per day. It isn't even difficult to spend one week in Paris and spend less than that amount to eat for the whole week. Don't know whether I'm cheap or you eat too much.

Yes, you will find many restaurants serving nice meals that would keep you within your daily budget. But with 10 days, I would cut back to $50 a day on one or two days (easy to do--take away croissants for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and inexpensive dinner at a creperie, for example) and then do at least one splurge (or semi-splurge) with the extra cash. Since you don't drink wine and Parisian restaurants will readily supply you with free carafes of water, you're in good shape to stay within your budget!!

Hey BT,

>I would cut back to $50 a day on one or two days ...<

If she wants to enjoy herself, let her.

TW,

Keep in mind, you cannot make up for a lifetime of deprivation in only 10 days - you will get sick.

Now that the original poster's problem has been disposed of and the "challenge" met, perhaps we should turn to a related issue:

In Paris -- and in your home city or town -- many people have to LIVE on less than $100 a day PERIOD. And in the poorer countries of Europe, it's $100 per week. And in the world's least developed countries it's $100 per month.

My spouse passed through Paris last week -- on the way to Burkina Faso, West Africa. If you told the residents of Ouagadougou that you had come from a place where people debated how to dine on $100/day, they would simply stare at you in wonderment.

No guilt-tripping intended; just a sobering reminder of how most of the world has to live.

tedgale- If you look at it that way, how can any of us justify the ability to travel at all? Traveling is an absolute complete and total luxury some of us are blessed enough to be able to indulge in.