BTilke

I'm not 100% convinced that eating at home is always cheaper than eating out. Some of it depends on the apartment you rent--hopefully it will provide the basics like olive and vegetable oil, butter, salt, pepper, herbs, seasonings, sugar, eggs, milk, etc., plus liquid detergent for washing up. If not (and some don't), you have to buy all of those and that can add up. I have found many restaurants in Paris providing excellent value lunches--3 courses for about $12--AND they do all the washing up afterwards (time is money, too!). When we rented an apartment in Paris for a month, we cooked some meals at home but also enjoyed the pleasures of eating at wonderful little inexpensive restaurants.

SuzieC

I found the site for the apartment. Looks like my kinda studio. I haven't told about the one I rented in November, suffice to say, the one I rented wasn't as nice as this one. (And what photographs on that site! Whew!)
Hook or crook, I'm going back to Paris...I still think my week at Thanksgiving was very nice.
Thank you Etienne!

Now see?? THIS is why this forum has purpose and life!

richardab

For me one of the best parts of going to Paris is eating in great bistros. Why the heck would i want to cook on my vacation? I do that enough at home!

Etienne_dOhio

Au contraire, mon ami! Making all our meals saved us scads! I would say that it is the same difference here as there. Imagine eating out in the US every night for two weeks, at a decent place (if you're going to the cheapest spots, you're getting the food, but probably not the qaulity or service or atmosphere... at home, candles and soft music on the radio and that $2 bottle of wine make cheap, but very effective atmosphere). Anyway... our rental provided salt and pepper, and that's it food-wise, but did supply all cleaning supplies. Did I mention there was a washer/dryer and that we took one-carry on each for 18 days? Back to food: butter was $1.20 a pound at the supermarket. That and parsley and shallots or onions or garlic and a little wine is all you need to season just about anything, really. We bought no more food than was necessary. We used what we bought. Required shopping nearly every day, but that was part of the fun. Typically, we'd buy our cheese and fruit every couple of days, make our coffee and get the baguette fresh every morning (there are bakeries everywhere, just everywhere... except on Bread Street in St Germain), and that was breakfast. We'd have essentially the same for lunch, but varied the cheese, bread and fruit, which, as you probably know, is simple to do in Paris. The variety is astonishing. We had a hot dinner every night, usually something quick cooking, like pasta and veggies, canned beans (which are seasoned over there and excellent) and rice with veggies, or lentils or omelettes or packaged soup (again, better quality than in the US, and cheaper to boot). Our rental did in fact have a dishwasher, which we barely used, as we have none at home (washing up for two takes like three minutes more than loading a dishwasher, and guess what, it's cheaper too). I may sound tight-fisted --- you have to be when your partner is a librarian and you are essentially a homemaker. Cooking dinner every night does take a little time, but since we didn't partake of the expensive city night-life, instead we made our own in the apartment by cooking with Edith Piaf playing on the stereo and all the wine we could drink. We typically did this around 8:30 pm or 9, and caught the 10 pm sparkle show, went to bed, got up accordingly early to beat the crowds, and it all worked perfectly and perfectly cheaply. Excluding the flight ($1,200 for two from Columbus) and apartment ($1,350, eighteen nights), we spent exactly $750 on everything else combined... ground transport (including all those daytrips), admissions, food, drink (at least a bottle a day : ) , postcards and postage and phone calls home (we spent $85 on that alone). We came in at $3,300 for 18 days, less than our budgeted $3,500, satyed at a perfectly nice place, ate like vegetarian kings, had a swell time. Paris is a city for everyone, loaded with money or not.

WillTravel

That's inspirational, Etienne.

Etienne_dOhio

Mercy buckets, honey (oops, my Southern roots are showin')

Ziana

No denim?
Sounded so strange for the city where people relieving themselfs on the streets, sorry.

SuzieC

I love to cook. For me, its an art form, a way to express myself.
I would LIKE the opportunity to purchase a chicken from bresse, find my time's in the market freshest things, and see if I can't make them delicious.
And, I like to make reservations sometimes too!

Leona

I spent 4 days in Paris last month, used points for my flight and roomed with my daughter who was traveling on business. My tab was USD 2,000!

I'd better not show your report to my husband!

Ziana

What did you eat, Leona?

StephenG

Great report and impressive budget saving plan. But when you still had $200 left it is a shame you didn't have at least one souffle at La Cigale.
I spend the whole year buying with coupons and what is on sale at the grocery store. Save at least $100 a week., rarely eat out at home so when I get to France and Italy we can eat in as many restaurants as possible. Usually only go over the budget by 2 or 3 grand. Great fun reading your report

Jim_Tardio

Enjoyed your report. Some good information about the buses.

I don't agree about the blue jeans...and dressing for a wedding is hardly the same thing as dressing for sightseeing.

I'd be afraid to suggest cooking our own food to my wife..."Guess what dear, we're going to Paris and we're going to be cooking all of our meals". Yeah, that would go over real big.

Glad it worked out for you.

richardab

When i go on vacation i like to be served! Serve me! Serve me! Like I am the King of America!

TrendGirl

Part of my enjoyment on vacation in Europe is EATING OUT, seeing the people, experiencing the "theatre of everyone in the bistros and restaurants," eating the wonderful food, trying different things, and as Richardab has written (very funny I may add) being served! After working like a maniac at my job in NYC, when I go away, on vacation, part of my enjoyment is definitely not coooking. Of course Etienne_dOhio seems to have enjoyed the cooking, and that works for her.

Etienne_dOhio

Oh it was all a question of money. We are pay as you go types who do not beleive in carrying credit card debt. We budgeted a certain amount and wanted to stay up to three weeks, the only question was, how to make it work on our $3,500 budget, and the answer was to pay slightly more than the cheapy hotels for a fully equipped rental and then save big on food. Listen, if you've got the money, eat at Altitude 95. Go for it! For us, skipping the restaurants was all strictly a budget thing. We got an extra week or so in Paris in exchange for swearing off the bistros. You all can and will make your own choices. Bottom line: whatever you do, don't spend money you don't have, i.e., run up the plastic. Set your own budget, stay within it, and you will have no regrets whatever you spend it on.

TrendGirl

Good for you that you stayed for 3 weeks, and I am in agreement with you that it is smart to travel within our own individual budget. Better to go and travel and see then not to go at all. I am not able to get away for 3 weeks at a time, so eating out is a different situation.
Your trip sounds like it was a good one.
Can't wait until I go back to Paris.

clairobscur

test (I apologize)

clairobscur

Just a short comment about jeans:

I *totally* disagree with richarddab comment about jeans being necessarily apropriate to visit a church or whatever else just because he thinks so. You're allowed to your own opinions about what *should* be appropriate or not according to you, but the fact is : you've to adapt to what *the locals* believe is appropriate or else you're going to have displeasant interactions with them, at best, or won't be able to visit whatever is it that you wanted to visit at worst. You can make your rules at home, but not in your neighbor's house.

I remember a time when I didn't think that way and was strongly offended when told that I couldn't enter the church I wanted to visit. My attire was definitely not acceptable by the local standarts. But I was young, stubborn and convinced that people who didn't share my point of view were r. Of course, I pissed off the people at the entrance and never could enter the church. As a bonus it irritated me.


That said, I've visited Notre-Dame wearing jeans many times and I never noticed it was innapropriate. Maybe I looked like a tourist, despite living in Paris, but since I was doing the same things the tourists do(looking at the stainted glasses or such things) it doesn't really matters.

No, seriously, except in some upscale places, wearing jeans isn't an issue in Paris.


I'm going to admit that my jeans are usually black...Hmmm...same for my pants..err...same for my shoes...my jackets....Well : my *shirts* aren't black, generally!!!

clairobscur

Unrelated question:

Are some words now censored on Fodor's?

I'm asking this since I tried unsucessfully to post three times, and I managed to do so only when I deleted from my post a word beginning by "re" and ending by "tards" (In : I was convinced that people not sharing my point of view were so)