|
I find that people always have money for the things they want.
My husband and I have been to Paris numerous times. Like the other posts, we know where to find the bargains! We picnic in the park after shopping at Casino, we walk everywhere we please (that way, we CAN eat as much as we want!), and we stay in a two star hotel near Place de la Nation metro stop. Not central, but a quiet and clean neighborhood. We are so tired at day's end that we could probably sleep on concrete, even with my back problems. Everyone at Hotel du Printemps is coridal, and the last time I checked, a double room with private shower was around 50 euros. Not luxury, by any means, but that means more money for what WE want: high end meals and wine. The address for the hotel is http://www.hotelduprintempssarl.fr/. Good luck and happy anniversary! |
Our family of 5 spent a lot less on our trip to Paris than on our trip to Disneyworld.
|
Missypie, I'm constantly telling friends and family who've taken trips to Disney in Orlando that they probably would have spent less on a trip to Europe. None of them believe me.
|
If you rent an apartment or an apartment-hotel and avoid fancy meals, you can spend time in Paris quite reasonably. Eating out costs a fortune; if you make your own meals, you can save a lot. And renting an apartment is often more economical than a hotel room (plus the fact that it lets you cook). If you hate to cook, you can eat at McDonald's for only a few euro a day.
Most of the major sights in Paris are very inexpensive. The Eiffel Tower is at the expensive end, at €11 per person (it rises by about 5-10% per year). Museums are either free or cost a few euro, if they are government-owned. Outdoor sights are free. Walking around (a very interesting activity in Paris) is free. |
Agree with those who suspect your friends are looking for bragging rights rather than fond travel memories. It is not difficult to conspicuously consume in almost any large city in the world. I've had everything from street food to Michelin meals in Paris (many more of the former!) and enjoyed all of them. Of course if budget allowed I would take all meals at five star venues, but unfortunately years ago some incompetent hospital staffer in the newborn nursery handed me over to the parents who raised me rather than to the royal family to which I so obviously truly belong.
One other thing - rates are often increased during the couple weeks around Christmas /New Year, often topping those during the summer high season. |
Seamus, I laughed out loud at your post! Yes, I think many of us think we were handed over to the wrong family at birth.
We are just beginning to plan a trip to Paris - a week or so in October. I was last there in 1978, so I think I qualify as a first time visitor. We want to keep our expenses down, so we're looking at renting an apartment. That seems like a wonderful solution. |
Susan, perhaps we are distant cousins? ;-)
The apartment is a great idea, not only for managing costs. We were really pleased with the one we let from the owner in the US, as have been a couple other Fodorites who used it. Not posh, neither is it frumpy, with great light and views, and the location is terrific. www.paris-vacation-rental.com/neighbor2.html Tell the owner (Bob) Jim from Texas sent you! |
St. Cirq
I often read your answers and reportings-- where do you stay- if you do not mind saying? AND - what are some of your favorite bistros and rest.- that are not 'an arm and a leg'? we are staying in an apt. in the Marias this april for 2 weeks- can't wait to be back there thank you |
omg -- I think AnthonyGA was joking about eating at Mcdonalds. I loved staying in an apartment in Paris although if you're good on the net you can find great 3 and 4 star hotel deals on venere.com and travelocity. Promo code for Venere.com -- A8FBZEH --only 4% off but it helps.
Loved, loved the apartment although if you don't do research you'll be at a loss without a concierge for assistance. You might want to stick with a hotel if you don't speak French well or if you don't have the inclination to spend considerable time planning ahead. |
No, I'm absolutely serious about eating at McDonald's. McDonald's is quick, fast, and cheap, and if you eat to live rather than live to eat, it's an excellent choice. Not everyone wants to spend four hours and four hundred euro eating each and every day of his trip. Eating in any sit-down restaurant in France tends to be a time-consuming affair, blowing at least one hour and often several hours. Some restaurants are very expensive, too.
If you have a religious antipathy towards McDonald's, you can eat at a place like the food court at the Louvre, which is also very reasonably priced (although not as cheap as the Golden Arches), with a good selection and fast eating (cafeteria style). You can be in and out in 20 minutes for less than ten euro. There are a lot of people who come to Paris and do NOT want to spend a lot of time and/or money eating, and McDonald's is often a good solution for them, just as it is in every other city in the world. |
Anthony, your point is well made, though IMHO a large part of the Paris experience is eating local food. I used to duck into McD's off Republique when I craved a cup of American style coffee, but several months ago they installed a horrid awful vending type machine for coffee.
For those who require fast / cheap food, Hippo offers a Parisian take on it. And what's faster than a crepe from a street vendor? |
Just got back from Paris - see my trip report if interested. We spent about 130 US dollars a nice on our lovely 3 star hotel (In summer it would be more expensive, maybe around 170 or so). Each night's dinner, including wine, cost us around 90 US dollars. Breakfast was only 8 Euros or so for 2 cafe cremes and pain au chocolats. Lunch was often a sandwich or street food, like crepes, and was cheap. Maybe 10-15 euros for the two of us.
In short, Paris is not cheap. But it certainly doesn't have to be very expensive either. We spent about $3500 for a week's trip to Paris. This figure includes airfare, hotel, all transportation, all museums and attractions, and food. |
Overton:
The 2* I stay at is the Hôtel de France Invalides, on the Boulevard de la Tour Maubourg. The 3* is the Hôtel Duquesne-Eiffel, on the avenue Duquesne. I've been staying at both for many years. They're both in the 7th, which is my favorite arrondissement. Some of my favorite restaurants include: Le Florimond La Fontaine de Mars Bofinger Les Editeurs Brasserie de l'Isle Saint-Louis La Guirlande de Julie Macéo Café Madeleine Bistro Mazarin Bistro dÇhez Eux Auberge de Bressane Chez Cathérine Chez Paul Etchegorry I'm just writing these off the top of my head - don't have my full list with me today. Will post more if I think of any. There are lots and lots of good lists of restaurants in Paris on this site, though, if you want to search and sift through them. |
AnthonyGA: Count me as one who has an almost "religious" aversion to McD's in Paris, but your point is well made. To each his own.
However, I will say that the cafeteria at the Louvre (and at D'Orsay) had some packaged bacon and chicken sandwiches that were quite tasty and relatively cheap! Heavens, one thing to remember is that France regulates the **** system so that ** and *** are pretty good indicaters of quality. Do some research as to what are the criteria for receiving the star ranking and determine what your personal needs are and what your comfort level is. Compare that with recommendations from Fodorites. You will undoubtedly be surprised at how reasonable Paris can be. As for meals, if you are a wine drinker, a pitcher of the house wine is very reasonable and remarkably delicious! And many restaurants offer a "menu" which gives a selection of three or four courses for a fixed price, which is often much less expensive than "a la carte". Above all, go and enjoy! You will not regret it! |
>...if you eat to live rather than live to eat...<
What an arrogant phrase. Why should you learn to read? Who needs Art? Why bother about philosophy? Why does anyone need to learn anything beyond what is necessary to live like an Afghan peasant? >You can be in and out in 20 minutes for less than ten euro.< You can also have 6 KFC chicken wings, standing at the sink, in 5 min. ((I)) |
I don't think there was any judgment in the phrase. It is a fact that some people enjoy dining for the experience, and others eat merely to stoke the fires every few hours. The latter group tend to be lacking in sensitivity to flavor, texture, presentation - and would be perfectly happy with the wings at the sink. I think all AnthonyGA meant was that Paris has something for both.
|
Anthony, my BF and I literally just finished our dinner that consisted of the "2 Big Macs for $3" deal so I'm a McD enthusiast for convenience/cost at home -- no offense intended, I just thought you were kidding.
But if I could just grab an excellent baguette and a hunk of cheese and a pastry as easily as I did while walking around Paris, this is what I'd be eating in Chicago... and for the same price as a number 1 meal with a coke. :} I thought inexpensive, wonderful food for breakfast and lunch was very easy to do in Paris -- and then you have plenty of money for dinner... or shoes... or drinks and the cover at a jazz club... |
"Eat to live, and not live to eat."
- Benjamin Franklin, <i>Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733</i> |
St. Cirq
thanks so much for your suggestions-- it is always helpful to get the names of rest./ bistros- we have not stayed in the 7th- , shall check it out on this trip for the next one! Everyone here raves about the 7th- |
Mostly I'm just bookmarking for my someday trip to Paris (thank you St. Circ for all the ideas. I would just add, Heavens, that your budget is probably much larger than many college students who backpack Paris. You can do it.
Ira, it may be a generational thing. A number of people I know in their 20s and 30s see food merely as fuel. I don't necessarily agree but there it is. |
we have been to paris twice and will return again this may. i really did not find it very expensive. tax is included in your meal price and tipping (if you do) is minimal. wine does not have the same mark up as it does in the states. you can eat a great meal for far less in paris than in ny.
i also think that it is a shame not to enjoy at least one great meal there. i love the fact that dinner is not rushed, ends w/ a cheese course (a course that i wish u.s. restaurants would adopt) and service is very professional the other days do picnics etc. |
We weren't in Paris, but when we went to Europe we ate at the hotel in the morning, included with the room, grabbed a light lunch from a vendor or did grocery store food then experienced the culture at a resteraunt for dinner. My husband and I try to stay pretty reasonable on food, and this helped. We got to experience the food and afford it too. By the by...I think McDonald's in other countries is worth experiencing! And you know, if you are there for three weeks, you WILL start to crave that good old American Grease! :-)
|
When a department has the same name as a river, will the river and the department always necessarily have the same gender?
|
Sorry, I posted on the wrong thread. I have no idea how that happened. I thought I was on that thread about why certain department names require an article.
|
Part of the fun of trip planning (to all destinations) for me is to see how inexpensively I can stay yet be well located.
We usually rent condos, apts, or townhouses for a number of reasons. I like having the additional space so we aren't going stir crazy in one small room. We like to fix breakfast in the mornings and not have to get dressed in order to eat. I also like to have a glass of wine and a bit of cheese "at home" before dinner so I'm not starving before we go. and one of the best reasons for renting a condo is availability of a washer/dryer directly in the unit. |
you can keep wine and snacks in a normal hotel room too. i always fix up a little 'kitchen' space on top of the dresser. bottle of wine, glasses, flowers, crackers, nuts, cheese, like that.
|
A baguette with cheese certainly can be tasty. But much of its appeal for visitors is its novelty: it's tasty <i>and</i> it's different. The locals eat this sort of thing all the time—to them it's very much as McDonald's is to Americans. And the French are not the gastronomic connoisseurs that you might expect.
I recall that, when Disneyland first opened outside Paris, each of its restaurants featured a different type of food—Italian, Chinese, Tex-Mex, seafood, 50s-style burgers and fries, New York bagels and egg salad, bacon and eggs with buttermilk pancakes (!), etc.—and all of it was good. But the resort discovered that the French (and Europeans) were really not that sophisticated when it came to food … all they wanted was the stuff they found at home, which meant primarily baguettes with Swiss cheese and ham, or cheap frozen pizzas, or things like that. Back in those halcyon days after the opening, there was an extraordinary variety of food in the resort; but today it's mostly pizza and salami sandwiches everywhere, because that's what the French recognize and it's about all they're willing to buy. It's interesting to note that many people crave adventure in various domains … but still prefer to remain conservative on food. Lots of people enjoy seeing and doing all sorts of things in Paris, but still prefer to eat food that they are familiar with when it comes time to dealing with hunger. For Americans (and some other nationalities), this is where places like McDonald's come in. I don't see any reason to criticize such people just because they don't want to eat frog legs or snails every evening. As I've said, some people just eat to live, and they want to satisfy hunger with a minimum of fuss, which means eating something that they already know will do the job. And these same people usually like to eat fast, so that they can continue doing more intersting things as soon as possible. Incidentally, there's a star system run by the government for hotels, but none for restaurants that I'm aware of. In any case, you don't need stars to find good food. The best food in Paris tends to be in the mid-range from a price standpoint: restaurants that pride themselves on their cuisine and charge a fair price for it. The cheapest places only want to make money and don't care how the food tastes; the most expensive places, surprisingly, have much the same philosophy. |
If you're a teacher, you can get into the Musee D'Orsay for free. (I don't know if it was just one day a week or all the time...) Need a faculty ID card or other documentation.
|
Anthony, I am not sure that McDo gives you the opportunity to "eat to live": judging by the extremely unhealthy content (sugar, fat) their food is saturated with, it would rather be "eat to die". See the excellent documentary "Supersize me" about this (actually, the guy was ORDERED by his physician to stop the experiment otherwise he would waive all responsability).
As for Disneyland being the ultimate reference point for what's good and bad in public food, I must say that Fodors will have enabled me to discover this before I die... |
The other question to ask is "Do you get good value" in Paris? For example, I've visited (and lived in) London and Paris a lot. I find that standard hotels in London and Paris aren't a good value - very expensive and you don't necessarily get a lot for your money (compared with, e.g. Spain). On the other hand, 2-3* hotels in Paris can be a good value (especially some of the Best Westerns and Holiday Inns - some of which actually have charm), whereas the London hotels for the same price are drab and depressing. So you get more for your money in Paris than London in this price range (albeit somewhat less than what you get in Spain).
Food. The food in Paris is generally good to superb, at almost all price levels (excluding chains at the bottom of the range). By contrast, I always felt that, however good my restaurant meal was in London, it was never worth what I paid for it. Spend your money on food (either from markets or in restaurants) and scrimp a little on your hotel. Choose intelligently as others have suggested here: choose the daily menu/prix fixe, ask for tap water, splurge on lunches rather than dinners. If you have a minibar, stash some cheese and bread in your room and have it for breakfast. Shopping. Not necessarily a good deal in Paris, unless you're here during the sales or go to visit the discount malls outside the city. There are some exceptions. Some leather goods are good value (not as good as Italy, but you can find some fabulous shoes and purses here). Home decorating fabrics are abundant and there are wonderful readymade curtains here (a strange thing to take home, I know - but they are great). Tablecloths are gorgeous (some are expensive but they're worth it). Transportation: You can walk to a lot of places, and the public transportation system is cheap. But I see that you're thinking of visiting Paris in April. One thing to keep in mind is the impact of the Easter holiday on prices and activities. Your hotel could be a little more expensive than usual for that time of year. Of greater concern, public service workers take great delight in going on strike on or near major holidays. They did last year at Easter. So, if your visit will coincide with Easter, try to plan your travel dates so that you arrive at least a few days before or a few days after the Easter weekend, lest you end up stuck, or stuck trying to get to the airport to go home. |
If you actually take the time to look at the nutritional analysis of McDonald's food, you see that there's nothing particularly unhealthy about it. Plain hamburgers, in particular, are very well balanced.
The movie <i>Supersize Me</i> was a deliberate attempt to exaggerate and sensationalize an imaginary threat to health from McDonald's food. The protagonist could have eaten in the same way anywhere and would have suffered similar health effects. In particularly, he always said "supersize me," whereas virtually no one does that in real life. And he just ate too much food overall. |
Not to fall victim to a thread hijack, but.. Anthony, do you really beleive that people don't supersize all the time? Why do you think it is such a common promotion? And how many do you think order a plain hamburger? C'mon - this is the Lipitor generation we're talking about!
|
ttt
|
Heavens,
No, it definitely does not have to be expensive. There are plenty of cafes, reasonably priced restaurants, boulangeries, and crepes to be had for very little. What? $6.00 for bottled water? You can buy a whole six-pack at Monoprix for that price. Also, we have never paid more than $150 for a hotel room. We tend to pay about 60 Euros for a nice dinner, sometimes more sometimes less, but we balance that by eating a wonderful sandwich at Cosi or a crepe. We had a delightful meal in Montparnasse at one of the creperies, and it was very inexpensive. Buy a Carte Orange for unlimited rides on bus or Metro and a telecarte for both local and long distance phone calls. I hope you will go to Paris. You can do it for much less than your friend. Check out www.go-today.com for reasonably priced package deals. Sandy |
As far as I know, McDonald's in France doesn't even have a "supersize" option. Nothing surprises me among Americans, but Europe is different. In fact, even the portions at McDonald's are smaller in Europe than in the USA; if you look at the actual volumes, you'll find that a medium Coke in the USA is like a large or maxi Coke in Europe.
Plain hamburgers in McDonald's in France cost just 75 cent and contain about 262 kcal, evenly divided among protein, carbs (starch, mostly), and fat. |
Yet another hijack to the thread... What about the opposite of "supersizing" it? I loved, loved, loved the teensy tiny four bite packages of Ben and Jerry's ice cream that I first spotted at the gasoline stops in France a couple of years ago.
|
If you don't mind cooking once in awhile, you can stay at an apt. (which will be more roomy than any hotel at the same price) and then shop at the food market at Bon Marche and other nice markets.
Even regular supermarkets have nice produce and fish/meat at decent prices. |
| All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:50 PM. |