paulhowellsew

In an effort to determine adequate spending money in Parisand Provence next year, can anyone tell me what to expect? We have decided to use GoAhead Vacations but will likely skip the add-ons and venture out ourselves. Here in California, we usually eat in restaurants which cost around $100 per dinner (with wine) and we don't know how that translates in France. We would like to lunch at fairly pedestrian cafe' type places and mix dinners out with mostly mid priced and some higher priced fare. What will this cost? How much is a simple lunch for two?

edfran

Lunch in Paris will be around 12-15 Euros each (fish,or salad, or entrecote), with glass of wine and coffee. In Provence if you stay away from the ubiquitious pizza and salads,10-15 euros. Dinner hard to say, but $100 for two with the works is plenty. Brasseries and bistros for dinner would be less, say 80 euros for two.

Michael

Even in Paris restaurant meals were cheaper than in San Francisco. Figure on 2/3 price but in euros, everything included for an equivalent meal. Get the Michelin Red Guide. It is a good indication of price and quality, even for non-starred but recommended restaurants.

uhoh_busted

Yep. You will find you can have really wonderful dinners in Paris with wine (chosen from the list not just a carafe of house wine) for $100. Provence is even better. For lunch in Provence, we found ourselves some wonderful provisions for lunch, when we hit market day in Arles on our first morning. We found ourselves scouting out similar "picnic" opportunities throughout our trip from that point on. Except for the day we had lunch at le Bistrot du Paradou (in Paradou) at 35Euro pp -- which was a fabulous full meal, so that night we ate very little

Katiebug

Topping your message...

Christina

I'd say you will have no trouble if you plan to spend about that same amount. Of course, you can eat for less, but since I don't usually spend that much for dinner in the US, if you want something equivalent, you won't get by very cheaply. I think in Provence at very nice restaurants (nice for me, probably about like your usual), I would spend about $35 for dinner, for one person. That would include one glass of wine or maybe one of those very small bottles--so, $50 per person for dinner with wine sounds fine.

I wouldn't recommend you take all that money with you, however. I suggest you withdraw it as you need it from ATMs or something. Maybe you don't plan to take it with you up-front, but it kind of sounded like you did and that's why you needed to know.