Hi, Ira, actually I WAS mincing words! ;-)
M kingdom seems to have a passion for trying to rain on people's parades. Whatever they like or plan to do, he/she will try to find something negative and/or meanspirited to say. Pathetic.

Thanks for the earlier and most recent responses. I really appreciated it!

As for m_kingdom, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all!

The staff of my little Paris 78 euro two-star are like family, and even with unlimited funds I wouldn't stay anywhere else. Plus, there is no telling who one might run into in a 400 euro hotel!

I visited Paris in Oct 2003, and was traveling with a friend who tried to stick to a strict budget of $50 per day (not incl. hotel or air). And yes, that's dollars, not euros. We had no problem sticking with that budget, and we had a fine time and ate well.

Lunch was croque monsieur at a cafe or a stop at a crepe stand. We only had one "nice" dinner, but it was really great, and the "cheap" dinners at the bistros were good, too. Look for the places that list the day's dishes on a chalkboard.

If you have a budget of $100 per person per day, you will really be living it up! That would allow you to eat well every night, if you aren't eating a lavish breakfast and lunch also. You won't be going to the best restaurants in town, but then again, if you're a teacher, you probably wouldn't expect to be spending $2-300 on dinner anyway.

Learn to use the metro (it's easy) and get the carnet of tickets to save money and time. Don't take taxis, b/c that can eat up your spending money quickly. Save your money for food!

Souvenirs are not included in this budget, b/c people can spend as much as they want. I'm not a big shopper and never really understood why anyone would want to shop when on vacation, and my friend mostly feels the same. (I consider it a chore and hate to do it at home!) We did go to Galeries Lafayette to buy colorful scarves, though, b/c we wanted to blend in better with the Parisiennes. And we each bought a watch from the booths outside, at a price of 10E each, iirc. Maybe 15E.

This may sound flippant, but you will realize it is true. Budget? How much you got?

We spent very little on food until we blew a bundle on a splurge, but the dollar was much stronger the last time I was in Paris. Not counting the ill advised splurge, food costs each were under $30 each per day. Breakfast, pastry and yogurt, was usually acquired at a bakery across the street from the hotel. Lunch was usually acquired from a bakery in the area except the days we went to Vaux le Vicomte and Fontainebleau and to Vernon to visit Giverny.

For dinner, we read all the menus posted outside and usually took the cheapest place we could understand what we were getting!

We learned quickly that some Paris restaurants are downright lousy. We finally settled on Bistro de la Gare on Blvd Montparnasse as the best cheap place. But there were some bad meals mixed in there.

Some of my former students told me that they solved the food problem by shopping in the markets near their hotel. They would pool their resources, by foods that did not need to be cooked, or were already cooked, and take the food back to their room. There were 4 of them together, and it worked out fairly well according to them. They came out cheaper than I did.

I remember following similar procedures back in my student days. But the dollar was really strong at that time.

My suggestion is to work backwards. Figure out what you have to spend each day, then make that happen. Paris has amazing bakeries with sandwiches to-go, reasonable italian and greek restaurants, groceries and street markets. Spend your day walking to the sites and sitting in the parks, saving money on transportation and tickets. I did not find Paris an overly expensive city.