This web page is devoted to listing as many examples
of how to live cheaply in Paris as I can find.
It's intended both for English-speaking locals and tourists.
In order to live a frugal life, which is more honorable
than being induced to spend recklessly,
you need to know some things:
You need to know specific cheaper options.
You need to be informed about what you're buying.
You need to know where and how to get information.
You need to be able to identify common ripoffs.
You need to know enough language to ask pointed questions and understand answers.
If you're not working, that's all the more reason to
remember the maxim of long-term backpackers :
the less you pay, the longer you stay.
If you have anything you'd like to add, you can reach me
here.
Anonymous suggestions will be ignored.
Why Be Frugal?
More to the point, why waste money?
The burden of proof is always
on they who sell products and services
to explain why their prices are high.
Most often, they don't offer an argument, but rather
use tricks or entrapment or coercion to get money
out of consumers.
In a city like Paris, there will always be
people encouraging you to spend like you're in
Disneyland, i.e. foolishly.
But you can and should
remain in control of your money
and you can avoid the scams.
The consumer has no moral duty to keep even
benevolent merchants in business, let alone
the bad ones. If anything
you have a duty to help put the bad ones out of business
by avoiding them and letting others
know if any business treated you badly.
It is also the case that being frugal is an enjoyable hobby.
Caveat re Prices
In this guide, I've converted many prices
to dollars so that you have some idea
of how much your American money -- if you're
drawing from your US savings while in Paris --
is buying you.
However when I wrote the bulk of this,
the US Dollar was 1.25 per Euro (5 for 4).
Due to the dollar's continuing slide,
it is now more like 1.33 to the Euro (4 for 3).
It is therefore better to pay attention the
€ prices. I will eventually remove
the dollar prices.
Some trivia for you:
An official at the US Treasury
quietly announced a few days before Christmas
2006 (when almost nobody was listening) that
the USA is
now bankrupt.
FSU story.
Many of the beautiful older buildings are still in very good
shape,
mainly because their ornamentation
was done in concrete, which lasts.
Similar stuff in the USA was done around
the same time, but often in wood,
which requires more maintenance and
doesn't last.
The story about Paris's architecture,
according to one guy at least, is that in the early
part of the 20th century there were
contests every year for the most beautiful building
in Paris. So all the architects rushed to make
beautiful buildings, resulting in a great many of them.
Now, if only they would bring back that
contest, it might prevent monster-buildings
like the new Branly museum from cropping up.
Also: If you see a dirty building,
for instance Sacre Coeur, keep in mind
that the law says
all buildings must be cleaned once every 10 years.
A dirty one is probably near the end of that period
or its proprietors have found a loophole
to avoid doing the cleaning.
Arrondissements
1. Museum area, good tourist attractions.
2. Shopping area, always very busy but not a bad place.
3. Marais, nice atmosphere, Jewish quarter.
4. Centre Pompidou.
5. Sorbonne and theaters, but also is a tourist trap.
6. Tourist trap zone, but has bookstores and theaters.
7. Eiffel Tower area, rather sterile and bland.
8. Champs-Elysees, wealthy but sterile and rather un-French seeming.
9. Boulevard Haussman shopping area.
10. ?
11. ?
12. Eastern area, rather interesting.
13. Universities, an American-looking mall, and lots of bad 1960's architecture.
14. Universities and residential, nice.
15. Near Eiffel Tower, but it has some personality.
16. Wealthy area, in many parts quite ugly and sterile; next to seedy Bois de Boulogne.
17. ?
18. Montmartre; north of Monmartre is dirty.
19. La Villette.
20. Perimeter area, varying dirtiness. Many Arabs and Chinese.
Trash 'n Crime
As you get out to the perimeter of Paris,
the well-groomed appearance disappears
and you are much more likely to see
trash on the ground. Case in point,
Gallieni Metro station in the east.
Regarding crime, just remember that
some perimeter areas are dangerous at night.
During the day you should be OK,
although crimes involving guns are on the
rise in France.
Banks
If you will be working and
want to set up a checking account,
the word is that La Poste is the cheapest as far as the monthly
fee goes. If all you do is basic banking, it's the way to go.
For services such as wiring money,
it is more expensive.
Barter (le troc)
Just as groups exist in the USA
for people to get together and trade
services and goods i.e. barter,
the same is true here.
The key term expressing this is SEL, meaning
systeme d'echange locale.
There are three groups in Paris
and here is one of them:
Their focus is on skill exchange.
You can go to the site and download a PDF containing a
list of skills offered,
and register to offer yours.
For free exchange of goods,
see the section below on
Free Exchange.
Bastille Day (July 14th)
On Bastille Day, which in 2006 fell on a Friday,
I discovered that some supermarkets were open
in the morning but after about noon everything was
closed.
Many locals leave Paris on Bastille Day
to go see relatives.
At 10am there was a military parade near Les Invalides,
with parachutists and tanks and such.
The fireworks at Tour Eiffel
began at 10:30pm however people
were literally settling in already by 11:30am because
it is said that when the show begins,
it is extremely packed. When it ends, the lines
at the Metro station (Bir Hakeim) are very long.
By 7:30pm, police were already preventing
people from entering a zone that looked to be
2 blocks around the site.
Bicycles (les vélos [m], les bicyclettes [f])
The joie de vivre
in Paris has been slightly hampered in my opinion
by the lack of a bicycling culture.
This may change however since the City
is now promoting bicycling with its
cheap Vélib rental service.
BBC story.
Whereas conventional private
bike rentals in Paris are expensive at 10 €
per day or so,
Vélib
costs only 1 € for the 1st half-hour.
You'll need to get a travel card to use the service.
If you're going to be in Paris for more than a couple
months, and you have a place to store a bike
that's not on the street, you should really have your own bike.
It lets you avoid the expense of the Metro
and could therefore pay for itself.
If you have a bike in your home country
that your are comfortable with, by all means
bring that. New bicycles in Europe are
expensive unlike in the US.
If you decide to buy a bike in France,
the cheapest bikes available
seem to be at the Walmart-like
hypermarchés,
at about 100 €.
Make sure you get one that fits.
You can work out the math of how much
you would have to spend on a bike
to equal the cost of using the Metro as follows:
Suppose you buy one carnet of Metro tickets per week (10.7 € in 2006)
and you will be in Paris for 3 months i.e. 12 weeks.
Let p be the maximum price you ought to pay for
the price of a bicycle, so
p = 10.7 € * 12 = 128.4 €
Thus, if you use the bike as a total replacement
for the metro, a cheap new or used bike costing less
than 128.4 € would save you money.
You can buy a brand-new bike at
Auchan hypermarché
starting at 99 €:
link.
(I've seen that bike and it's a little junky
and they only had one size,
but then again it's brand new.)
If you need bike repair, search in the online Pages Jaunes
for "cycles", not for velo (bike) or bicyclette.
If you really don't want to own a bike while here,
there are a number of places
around the city that rent bikes by the day or hour,
such as the following.
Velib, the Paris city service.
You'll need a travel card to use it.
You can rent them from RAFP which runs
the Metro system. It's expensive however.
Pricing here.
There's a place at Les Halles that rents by the
day for around 10 €.
There's a place on rue Cardinal le Moine
near the Metro stop of the same name
in the 5th arrondissement,
that is 3 € per hour.
There are a couple of organizations set up
to help bicyclists.
Paris Rando Velo,
their website says they have a once-monthly group ride,
but I haven't done it.
Check out this film:
Still We Ride.
It's about NYC police joyfully beating up
defenseless bicyclists and performing mass arrests.
Very disturbing but a must-see.
Bike boxes
When flying out
If you will be taking a bicycle with you on an airplane
when leaving Paris,
call around for free bike boxes. Search in pagesjaunes.fr
under "cycles".
Bastille Cycles in particular has them periodically.
Or, you can buy bike bags in Paris beginning at around
$60, for instance at Cycles Laurent.
If you want to buy a bike box at Charles de Gaulle
airport, Air France has them for 20 € but
they don't have any tools for disassembling the bike.
Bicycle Museums
There seem to be two in France, but none in Paris.
There a bicycle museum in the USA as well, see
here.
Bikes on trains and buses
Some trains, including international ones,
may not allow you to bring a bike.
I was once told the TGV doesn't allow bikes, period.
And I once had to put a bike on a separate, slower train
to take it to Eastern Europe.
Similarly, Eurolines buses do not allow bikes.
You might think that what with diesel fuel
costing $6 a gallon here,
Europeans would be bending over backwards
to encourage bicycle use (actually, they are
doing so in Scandinavia and Holland).
Finally in Paris at least
they have the Vélib program (see above).
Books (les livres [masculine])
A colloquial term for book is bouquin.
You can find bouquinistes along the Seine
selling used books (recent and antique) as well as
artwork and trinkets.
The term for bookstore is librarie.
It sounds like library, but those are called
bibliotheques here, and I might note that
actually the Paris library system
does have thousands of English language books,
which you can take out for no money.
Learn more in the Libraries
section.
English-language books are in general expensive in Paris,
whether new or old.
Here is the rundown:
Brand-new older releases and classics
are about 15 €. i.e. $19.
Brand-new recent or new release paperbacks
are very expensive indeed, expect 25 €
or $30 minimum.
Used paperbacks range in price but the cheapest
I have seen is 8 €.
By comparison, I've seen many books published in French
going for a couple euros,
less than what I've seen English-language
books selling for
in the USA.
A comparison of the cost of a new book at a few bookstores,
namely
Greg Palast's new
Armed Madhouse:
Thus if you're serious about reading specific books
you might want to consider bringing those
with you to France.
Here are two ideas for achieving an even higher level
of frugality yet getting the books you want:
You would not only buy and bring books with you,
but prior to that
you would get a job at a bookstore in
your home country
in order to get the employee discount, which can be
significant.
If you know how long you will stay in France
e.g. 2 months,
and your local library has both the books you want
and a liberal lateness policy e.g. a 6 month limit,
you could calculate the late fee of any books
and weigh that against
the cost of buying the books, and
take into account the risk of losing said book
while here.
As I said above, in general English-language books are expensive
here so obviously you want to buy
a used book.
Berkeley Books, located about 30 yards
uphill from S.F. Book Co.
Shakespeare & Co.
(supposedly a "bookstore for artists and writers")
Boycotts and praise
Boycotts first
Here is a short list of stores whose policies seem to justify
a boycott, and the reasons. This is not a list of places
simply to avoid because of high prices, but rather is a
gallery of business which I feel bear some degree of guilt.
FNAC, for deliberate delays in their returns department.
See my description in the
Returns section.
Monoprix, for actual hostility and giving the runaround in
response to return request.
Starbucks near the Centre Pompidou, for
bizarre hostile behavior from an employee or manager.
Praise
Some businesses deserve special praise for
honorable, helpful behavior.
Mora restaurant supply, for good products, low prices,
and helpful staff (who don't speak English)
Musee Petit Palais, for free entry to view their
high quality artwork.
San Francisco bookstore, for keeping track of
customers' specific requests as well as offering a higher trade-in
value.
Porcelaines M.P. Samie, for having tons of nice porcelain
at decent prices.
The Champs-Elysees
This street (prounounced shawnz-elleezay,
meaning Elysian Fields) is between the Obelisk and the
Arc de Triomphe and is, alas, a sort of rich man's ghetto,
where nouveau-riche, wannabes, and tourists gather
and get ripped off.
Most frugal people avoid it unless they desire a
freakshow.
Regarding clothing items and other manufactured goods,
keep in mind that
with the way globalized capitalism now works,
it is unlikely that any of the clothing items sold on the
Champs-Elysees, no matter how expensive,
costs more than $10 to make, including
labor, materials, and shipment.
Many of the products are no doubt made by debt-slaves.
Some info about the exploited people
who make fancy products is
here.
Then consider the workers on the Champs-Elysees,
who are often foreigners employed
illegally for low wages without benefits or
worker protections.
They are exploited by the rich
yet are loyal supporters of their exploiters
and the tasteless decadence that such exploitation permits.
Here is a fair question:
Would those workers be welcomed in those stores
if they did not allow themselves to be so exploited?
Also note, a good chunk of the high prices of
stuff sold on this boring stretch of road goes to whoever
owns the buildings themselves
because the rents in the area are no doubt
astronomical. Before you fork over a big chunk
of cash to a stranger, don't you maybe want to
know who the owners are?
What if they turn out to be Saudis,
who made it a capital crime to
own a Bible in their country,
or some rich but petty despot?
Cheaper in the USA
If you will be going to the USA
or Canada to visit relatives, you
will surely want to use the opportunity
to stock up on things that are
cheaper or more readily available.
A few come to mind:
Laptop computer with American key layout $500
Blank DVD+/-R discs, 50 for about $12
Bicycle $300
English-language books
Wide-size shoes
Club discounts
Some private clubs around Paris have
negotiated discounts with a range of stores.
Whether you're eligible to join can depend on
any number of factors and then of course
the membership fee presents a trade-off.
An example is the Swedish society.
Credit cards
I was alerted by a fellow hosteller that
some credit cards are now adding
either a few percentage points to credit purchases,
and/or a foreign transaction charge which can be
as high as a dollar. Indeed I discovered that
even my credit union was doing this.
This was not the case in years past and
is more evidence of the Great Banking Tyranny
that is enveloping America.
Trivia:
Did you know that the Federal Reserve, which prints
all American money,
is in fact a private bank, and not a part of
the federal government?
Interesting video.
Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism
When in a foreign place, one has a natural tendency
to accept things at face value. Everything looks
so interesting and better than at home. One wants
to imagine that people are fundamentally different
in the foreign place, and are somehow more authentic
and possibly more righteous. Indeed some people loathe
their own culture or country so much that anything foreign is
automatically superior. These are mistakes.
Cultural relativism
Anthropologists and ethicists tell us that the idea
of every culture defining right and wrong for itself is called
cultural relativism.
As a foreignor, it's tempting to accept a priori
the values of any culture unquestioningly, without a critical mind.
But it's a mistake.
It can take years of living in a culture to understand
why people value one belief or behavior over another.
What one local tells you is truly French may be completely
at odds with another local's definition.
To accept a foreign culture's definition of right
and wrong, of good and bad beliefs and behavior
uncritically
is to put oneself in a position to be fooled, used, bullied and
even brainwashed.
Ethnocentrism
The idea that if a given ethnic or cultural group
does something or believes something,
that it is automatically the best way or best reasoning
is called ethnocentrism.
Normally this term is applied to people who
assume their own group is right and
correct but obviously the mistake of tourists
is to put a foreign culture on a pedastle and
to denegrate one's own culture or distance oneself
from it.
That kind of attitude may win you acceptance
by locals, but it's another example of a priori thinking,
i.e. it is uncritical thinking
based on a principle of presumed superiority.
So just as it is a mistake to say that all
cultures' beliefs and behaviors are OK
(this is the "relativistic fallacy"),
so it is a mistake so pretend that just one culture is right,
which is called the "ethnocentric fallacy".
Nobody, and no culture, nor a culture's symbols, is perfect
and unstained. And being a cheerleader for just one
culture, be it native or foreign, majority or minority,
can make a person seem an ass.
Customs (douane)
Rules about Customs (douane, pronounced dwanne)
can be hard to track down.
Mail-order within EU
You don't have to pay customs duties
on items shipped to you that you purchased from
businesses within the EU.
The price you pay should always include the VAT.
Tax reimbursement
Leaving? If you bought any expensive items
then you can get the tax back if you
did things properly when buying the items.
Typically a store won't let you do the paperwork
for items less than 150 €
Let's say you want to transfer all of your photos
to the USA without physically mailing anything.
Turns out, you can do this without too much trouble.
First, there are websites out there
such as YouSentIt
that let you transfer large chunks of data from one person
to another for free, up to a certain file size limit.
Or, a simpler and safer method of sending data
is to do so from inside Skype.
Note however Skype transfers are slow, in part
because uplinks tend to be slow and Skype uses
part of that bandwidth for voice data.
Of course, before you send anything
you will want to collect your files into a zip file,
and if the data is important, encrypt that to keep it private.
Either method requires that you
have someone on the other end who will
download your file, decrypt it and check it.
Note, one encryption program that seems decent is
FileEncryptor.
Department stores
The store that I am most familiar with is BHV,
which tends to be pricey for common items.
I saw towels starting at 12 €.
However BHV does have a very interesting
hardware department in the basement.
It has a diversity of products
that you only see in mom-and-pop hardware stores
in the USA, although BHV is not quite as good
as them. They even have a bicycle toolkit.
Dining
Alternatives to restaurants
Restaurants are expensive. Their food is unhealthy
and overrated. Honestly, I have found better
food, better service, less smoke, and lower cost in
Italy, Holland, Spain, almost everywhere.
Furthermore I've been told that regular Parisians
don't even go to most restaurants, because
they can't afford to.
It can easily be witnessed that a great many Parisians,
rather than eat at restaurants buy food at supermarkets
and take it to a park or riverbank to eat outdoors.
Just a few places that I've noticed that seem popular
include :
The parks near the Eiffel Tower.
The Tuileries gardens.
The Luxembourg gardens (probably the best place).
The fields between the Invalides and the Seine.
The Andre Citroen park, southwest of the Eiffel Tower.
The banks of the Seine, especially around the Ile de la Cite.
The small parks near the Champs-Elysees, down near the Olelisk.
The park behind Les Invalides.
Smoke-free cafes and restaurants
If you're looking for a smoke-free cafe or restaurant,
as I myself greatly prefer,
there is more than just Starbucks.
For instance, oddly enough Columbus Cafe on St Dominique
in the 7th arrondissement is smoke-free
and has a machiatto for 1.50 €
(versus Starbuck's price of 1.90 €), and there is
free wireless. (Note, other Columbus Cafes are not smoke-free.)
It seems most US fast food places in Paris
charge 1.25 to 3 times the US prices.
Not only that, the word is that some of their products
here taste awful compared what's sold in America.
To add insult to injury,
many US joints are not even smoke-free,
with the notable exception of Starbucks.
Price comparisons to USA, various stores
Store
Item
Paris cost
2006 US cost
Price gouge factor
Starbucks
drip coffee
2.40 € ($3.02)
$1.75
1.73x
Starbucks
macchiato
1.90 € ($2.40)
$1.50
1.60x
Ben and Jerry's
Super Banana Split
6.70 € ($8.44)
$6.69
1.26x
Ben and Jerry's
milkshake
4.50 € ($5.67);
$4.55
1.25x
Haagen Dazs
milkshake
5.10 € ($6.43)
?
Prices at McDonalds
Is your wallet suffering from anorexia?
Could be you've been going to McDonalds.
But you know, what's funny or sad is that many French people
have no clue that Americans don't pay anywhere
near this much at McDonalds in the US.
Item
Price in Euros
Rough US price
Big mac
3.30 ($4.16)
$2
McChicken
3.20 ($4.03)
$1
Filet o fish
3.00 ($3.78)
$1 on special
Chick McNuggets (4)
2.20 ($2.77)
$1.50
Coke 0.25 liter
1.30 ($1.64)
$1
Frites (french fries, small)
0.95 ($1.25)
$1.25
Milk shake
0.95 ($1.25)
$1.75?
Cheeseburger
1?
as low as $0.25 on sale
Trivia: Eric Schlosser, who wrote Fast Food Nation,
confirmed with the US government that
each and every fast-food hamburger
sold in the US has meat from thousands of cows.
How many of those cows are tested for
brain-wasting Mad Cow disease?
Just 0.1 percent.
Cost of a spaghetti meal
One of my favorite foods is spaghetti.
If you make it at home, it's cheap, it's healthy and packs
a lot of energy.
As I show below, in France
a home-cooked spaghetti meal can be cheaper than
in the USA, if you shop wisely. The following comparison
of the costs
assumes that one serving of
spaghetti is 0.25 kg (0.55 lbs)
and that the needed sauce is 0.25 liters.
I am also assuming that the grated parmesian cheese
used is just a sprinkling for flavor.
France
USA
Spaghetti
1 kg (2.2 pounds) spaghetti purchased at Ed is 0.60 € Thus, one serving is 0.15 euro = $0.19.
1 pound is usually $1 plus tax = $1.07. Thus, one serving is $0.59.
Sauce
A 0.46 liter jar of Napolitano costs 0.70 € at Franprix, so one serving is 0.38 € ($0.48).
One 26 ounce jar (0.769 l.) of Prego is $2.79 + tax = $2.98. Thus one serving is $0.97.
Total
$0.67
$1.56
The cost comparison of grated parmesian is as follows.
At Champion supermarket in the 6th
on rue de Seine, they have 0.1 kg (= 3.53 oz.) for 2.16 €
($2.72).
At one store in the US, 3 oz. of generic goes for $1.95,
i.e. 3.53 oz would cost $2.30, which is almost the same
price.
Cost of making crêpes
The term for a
flat frying pan for crepe-making
is une poêle à crêpe,
prounounced "pwell ah krep".
You can buy them in
nonstick if you don't mind Dupont's
C8
chemical leaching into your food
and permanently lodging itself
throughout your body.
A better choice is to just get a stainless steel
poêle à crêpe,
as I did (at Mora restaurant supply,
see the Kitchen section)
and season it with nut oil.
The term for stainless steel is tôle.
Crêpes are cheap to make and
a very enjoyable kind of food.
They are well worth the time to learn to make them,
no matter where you live.
Costs are as follows:
The crêpe-specific frying pan
called a poêle à crêpe,
with a wooden crêpe-thinning
tool cost and a crêpe-specific
wooden spatula,
a me 13.50 € at Mora restaurant supply.
The crêpe mix I bought was 1.15 € ($1.45)
at LeaderPrice.
It contained
two packets each of which ideally makes about 8 medium-size thin crêpes each
(or you don't thin them out, it makes 5).
You need 0.5 liter milk to add to the batter,
which if bought in box form is 0.28 € ($0.35)
at most stores.
You will need additional materials such as sugar,
chocolate, or ham and cheese that you might want in your
finished crêpe.
So, if we consider only recurring costs, which are
crêpe mix, milk, and let's say we're making chocolate
crêpes (therefore we need a chocolate bar),
the cost per crêpe should be as follows,
roughly.
Crêpe mix per 8 medium-size crêpes = 1.15 / 2
Milk per 8 crêpes = 0.55 / 2
Chocolate per 8 crêpe = 0.55 (one entire bar per 8)
Add some sugar = 0.05
Use 0.5 liter of nonfat milk at room temperature.
Mix it with the batter powder.
Warm up the pan first, putting oil on it, preferably
nut oil. At the right temperature,
you should be able to use the spatula
after a couple minutes to flip the entire
crêpe, which should not stick or break apart.
I often make my Greek crêpe,
in which I put two kinds of olives,
feta, and olive oil.
Ten meals for less than 1.50 €
Made at home
Spaghetti made at home.
4 or 5 medium-size crêpes made at home.
The cheapest pizza sold at Ed, three for 2 €,
which doesn't appear to have trans-fat.
Corn flakes and milk. You can get 0.5 kg of corn flakes
for 1.20 € and 0.5 liter of mil for 0.55 €.
Together that's about 3 or 4 servings.
Eat anywhere
A 750 ml "Yop" or other liquid yogurt drink in entirety
A baguette with a small amount of cheese and mustard from your fridge.
A portion of Muesli with milk (if eaten out, bring plastic bowl and spoon)
A large can of ratatouille (cold, or eat warm at home)
A large can of ravioli (cold, or eat warm at home)
A banana with a portion of peanut butter (beurre de cacahouette)
DVDs
Renting
There are 4 options.
Libraries
You can rent DVDs at some libraries (see the
libraries
section).
Automatic Dispenser Machines
You can rent from machines that look somewhat like
cash machines.
Some such machines are made by
this Italian company.
Many of the machines in Paris are
managed by CineBank,
which has a master list of them
here.
To give you an idea of how
this works,
the one near my place is owned by a tabac store and
although it says on it 1.80 € for 5 hours,
that price requires a subscription (abonnement)
that costs 16 € a year.
Without that, a movie costs
2.50 € for a 5 hour rental, or 5.50 €
for a 24 hour rental.
Still, even 2.50 € ($3.15) is better
than what you'd often pay in the US.
Using my local dispenser as an example,
the break-even for the abonnement
is of course algebraically solved :
16 + 1.8 x = 2.5 x
x = 22.8 =~ 23
Thus, I would have to do 23 five-hour movie rentals a year
for the 16 euros to be worth it.
Video stores
There is one near me that charges
5 € per night. Seems like a huge ripoff to me.
DVDs by Mail
The Netflix business model
has not been lost on Europeans. It remains to be learned
whether they are as good at it.
In France, there is Glowria.
In Germany, there is
Netleih.
In Belgium, there is
DVDPost.
Buying
I have not found a store or market in Paris where DVDs
can be bought cheaply. Some people declare "Belgium".
Cheap to me is 5 to 8 €.
There is one online store,
Cdiscount,
that has some low price DVDs.
The many small Chinese computer stores,
for instance between the Dugommier Metro and Ledru-Rollin
metro along Charenton.
PC City,
which is the most American-looking computer store
I've seen in France. Their prices are not low.
Every store has its deals.
Some examples follow.
An Internet cafe attendant pointed me to
Office Depot for blank CDs. Turns out it was a good tip:
A pack of ten blank CD-Rs with cases
at various stores:
Where
How much
Office Depot
7 + 1.35 tax = 8.35 €
Surcouf
9 €
FNAC
11 €
PC City
13 €
At FNAC, I bought a generic
40X 2 gigabyte CompactFlash card
for only 55 € i.e. $70.
This is better than many US retail prices
because stores like BestBuy don't sell generic flash,
and this price approaches the
US mail-order price
after shipping cost.
At Surcouf, I got 16 Energizer Ultra AA batteries
for only 10 €. This is basically the same
as the
US price at BestBuy.
At PC City, I got a very cheapo set of 4 rechargeable
AA batteries and charger for 13 €.
Ethnic
Throughout Paris, you will notice stores that are
what I call ethnic stores, because they're clearly
family-run and operated by people not born in France.
They basically classify into three types:
Asian stores, which are usually quite cheap,
run by on average friendly people, and
often cheaper than mainstream French stores.
Arab stores in immigrant areas, which are fairly
expensive and not necessarily worth venturing into,
but run by friendly people.
Arab stores in touristy areas, which are extremely
expensive, delibertely price-gouging their clientele
with prices two or three times what you see
in conventional stores. These places are often run by
angry, unfriendly, and potentially violent people. To spend money at such store
is in my view unethical, because it rewards abusive people and enables them to harm other consumers.
Events
You can learn about happenings in Paris by
going to any magazine kiosk and buying for 0.35 €
a copy of L'Officiel des Spectacles, which is
crammed with goings-on information, layed out
in an easy to use, unpretentious way.
Flea Markets (marché aux puces)
Les Puces
Paris has what some claim is the biggest flea market
in the world, called Les Puces ("the fleas").
I've been there and I'd call that claim bogus.
I've seen bigger and much more diverse
flea markets in California, such as the one in
Cupertino.
At Les Puces, the more diverse items for sale are in
the antiques section, which consists of maybe 50 small stores.
This is reported to be the original market.
And, people say you can review the stores'
inventory online.
Les Puces takes place near the Port de Clignancourt
on Saturday and Sunday, as well as
Monday afternoon.
More info
here,
here,
and
here.
My suggestions:
Ignore the endless stalls of overpriced jeans,
DVDs, cellphone accessories and other plastic junk
and check out the antiques.
If you must venture into the stalls of modern
junk, steer clear of the narrow, slow-moving, overcrowed
walkways
to reduce the risk of getting pickpocketed.
Some parts of Les Puces are virtually
designed to help pickpockets.
In summary, I suggest you avoid Les Puces.
Flea markets around the city
There are weekly markets around the city
that offer good deals on food especially
but also clothing.
Foods
lingo
To say, "I'm doing the shopping",
it is je fais les courses.
Efficient use of food
To avoid bringing home large amounts of
heavy liquids,
consider buying juice concentrates
as well as simply watering down your drinks.
Two examples:
1 part orange juice and 1 part water (or more water)
3 parts cola and 1 part water (taste the same, just as unhealthy)
Example food costs
Quite a few food items are cheaper
in Europe than they are in the USA.
A few such as guacamole cost more,
and some are the same.
To make a simple, intuitive demonstration,
here are some prices from my last
several food trips to the low-price Ed supermarket.
Note, as with supermarkets in the English-speaking
world,
you should always watch the prices as they are rung up
to make sure they are correct and/or check your
receipt.
Item
Weight in kilograms
Cost in €
(includes any tax)
Large can vegetarian ravioli
0.8
0.99
Large can ratatouille
0.75
1.12
Emmental cheese
0.25
1.49
Jar black Greek olives
0.25
0.76
Chocolate rice crispies
0.5
1.35
Chocolate noir, 52%
0.2
0.62
Bananas
0.94
1.40
One can generic cola 33 cl
N/A
0.16
Yogurt for drinking, Fraise flavor
0.75
1.19
Yogurt for drinking, Framboise flavor
0.75
1.29
One large mango
N/A
1.00
Large can sour kraut and pork
0.8
1.20
Coca Cola 1.5 liter
N/A
1.26
Generic cola 1.5 liter
N/A
0.35
Schoenbräu beer blonde 0.5 liter
N/A
0.58
Skim milk 1 liter box
N/A
0.49
Dia Selection 70% dark chocolate (so-so)
0.1 kg
0.45
Dia Selection milk chocolate with crispy rice
0.1 kg
0.45
Granola
0.75 kg
1.89
Three medium pizzas
3 x 300g
1.89
Perrier 0.75 liter
N/A
0.69
Sunflower oil 1 liter
N/A
0.95
Corn flakes
0.5
1.19
Fischer beer 0.65 liter
N/A
1.29
Now for some prices from more-expensive Franprix.
Item
Cost in € (includes any tax)
Maison du Cafe decaf coffee 0.25 kg
2.73
Legal decaf coffee 0.25 kg
1.56
Il Mattino coffee 0.25 kg
1.53
Beer 1664 0.5 liter
1.28
Sweet-crepe mix
1.91
Four muffins
1.29
1 liter boxed milk
0.55
1 liter boxed grape juice
0.60
Ketchup 300 ml
0.70
And now, from Champion.
Item
Cost in € (includes any tax)
Buckwheat-crepe mix (tastes terrible)
1.99
Sweet-crepe mix
1.74 (rang up as 1.90!)
To review: Food is generally more expensive in the USA,
despite our having a thriving agriculture sector,
cheap transportation, and free trade agreements.
Presumably this has something to do with those
incessant corporate mergers in recent years.
Bad foods
I've encountered a few rancid food items
since I've been here. Part of going for the
low-price leaders is that you have to be
extra vigilant about quality.
Sunflower oil at Ed supermarket,
it smelled like solvents.
French fries from Ed, which were off.
Beer (la bière)
The news is good. Several decent beers
are available in most every supermarket
and are cheap.
After analyzing about ten such beers, I have selected
two are being decent:
1. Schoen'bräu blonde de luxe
(despite the name being broken German).
It costs a mere
0.46 € ($0.58) per 0.5 liter can at Ed
supermarket.
It has 4.8% alcohol
and offers good flavor, a so-so bouquet,
and overall best value.
Despite its name, the label indicates it's manufactured
in Spain and/or Portugal.
2. Kronenbourg,
which has 4.2% alcohol, better bouquet, slightly better flavor
and is more expensive.
Trivia:
Although most food is taxed at 5.5%, beer is at the non-food VAT of 19.6%.
The words brasserie and brasseur
derive from the ancient Gaulish word brace,
which means malt.
There is a Musee de la Biere is the town of
Stenay, near the border with Belgium.
I have not been there.
Link
Cheeses (les fromages)
It would be a tragedy to come to France and
not experience the excellent cheeses. In the USA, we have some good
cheeses too, especially at places like Trader Joes (cheap) and Whole
Foods (expensive), but in general good cheese is priced more like a
luxury item.
In France,
good cheese is more affordable.
Cheese shops (fromageries) sell by the desired portion
and in my experience are staffed by pleasant people,
so there is no reason to not experience this cheap
and tasty French delicacy.
For instance, the excellent
Rocamadour coin-shaped cheeses
are usually 1 to 2 € each.
However the deals on cheese are at the weekly markets.
By the way, don't become a fat-ass by
eating too much cheese. "All things in moderation."
Coffee
The French make a good espresso or americano,
but they'll never match to the standard set
by the Italians. In Italy, not only do they offer
better products but the cappucino (they affectionately
call it a cappuccio, pronounced kap-poo-cho)
is the standard drink, not espresso, and it is cheaper.
If you need a plastic coffee filter holder,
called here a porte-filtre, they can be hard to find.
You might check
an immigrant store, for instance there is one
on rue de la Roquette that had them in summer 2006 for 2.30 €.
Cola
Listen : You really shouldn't go out and get ripped off
by the
union-busting Coca Cola company.
At every store, a 1.5 liter bottle of Coke sells
for at least 1.30 €, which is inflated.
At Ed supermarket and at Champion, you can buy a
generic 1.5 liter bottle of cola for about 0.30 €, either
with sugar or
aspartame.
It tastes just like Coke.
Why pay 433% the generic cost just for a corporate logo?
Health food
Stores and prices
Most French healthfood stores are very expensive.
When I lived in Germany, and when I visited Holland,
I don't recall health food stores being quite such
a hideous ripoff. Here however, this appears to be the rule.
If you know of a cheap one,
please let me know.
In France as in the US, healthier foods
are also available sporadically at regular supermarkets and
these can be cheaper
than equivalents in healthfood stores. In addition, common pharmacies carry a few healthy
non-food alternatives such as 100%-vegetable soap
and toothpaste.
Here is a
list
of what looks like most or all of the health food stores in Paris.
Definitions
The closest thing to the North American
idea of "organic" products
in Europe seems to be
Biodynamic
food, which is typically labelled
demeter.
There are also products labelled "Bio" or biologique,
which healthfood store people will tell you is just like
organic food, until they sheepishly admit there is no
government regulation of Bio food in France.
In contrast, in the US use of the term "organic"
is regulated by the USDA.
France's failure to regulate Bio products
can lead to bizarre results,
for instance I have seen several shampoos with
the Bio logo on them that contained
petrochemicals.
Nutella
This is just a note to say that unlike in the USA, where
it is easy to find chocolate-hazelnut butter
that does not have bad-for-the-heart
trans fat
(specifically, at your local Trader Joes),
in France I have yet to find any such thing, and of course
Nutella itself has partially hydrogenated oil,
as do the copycat products,
and partial hydrogenation is the most common source
of trans fat.
Trans fat is bad for two reasons:
1. It increases the amount of LDL, which causes arteries to fill up with plaque.
2. New research shows it causes the outer layer of the heart (the epithelium) to become inflamed,
which is no small matter because as a rule, that which becomes inflamed
dies, so in other words trans fat leads to heart shrinkage.
But hey, trans fat saves food companies money and increases profits!
Wines (les vins)
I prefer German wines, but
reportedly it is very hard to find German wine in France,
although very similar Alsacian wines are common in supermarkets and are cheap.
France seems to be having a wine overproduction problem.
There is mention of wines being thrown out.
See the article here.
Despite that,
wine shops I've ventured into in Paris
have been staffed by
angry, humorless xenophobes.
Free exchanges
There is a Yahoo mailing list called
FreecycleParis in which people offer things
for free and request free items.
Here is their website:
link.
Does it work?
Well, I got a free mountain bike using the mailing list.
It needed some work but it's a decent bike.
If you want to improve your French or any other
language, there are always people looking
to do a language exchange. You teach them your native
language and they teach your theirs.
See the Websites section
for info about where to read or post a classified ad.
This too has worked out pretty well for me.
Hostels
There are two national youth hostel chains in France:
Generally speaking (not just Paris), to learn what hostels exist and are good,
it's best to utilize hostel-reviewing websites, of which
there are several (hostels.com, hostelz.com, etc.).
They let users learn about more obscure hostels and vote and report on hostels.
To rely solely on a book like
Let's Go or Lonely Planet is not wise.
Also use Google, searching for the city name and
"auberge de jeunesse", because
some hostels aren't even listed on
the review websites.
The hostel situation in Paris is becoming as much of a ripoff as in any major international city.
Only new or unlisted or hard to reach hostels are less than
20 € per night.
By chance I visited the FIAP hostel on rue Carabis.
It is large, clean, full of Americans and
although it is officially smoke-free, I saw people smoking in the lobby.
One half-decent youth hostel is the
Auberge Internationale des Jeunes, on Trousseau,
metro Ledru-Rollin. It was 15 € per night in 2006,
which is the cheapest I've seen. But
beware, they do allow smoking in the common area at night.
If they say they're full and try to send you to a certain
hotel near Montmartre, beware, the hotel is very smoky and the bed I tried to sleep in
sank down a foot.
The area around the Jules Ferry hostel
has been described as having more crime than the average.
The best French hostel I have been to is in nearby
Chartres. It has a fantastic view of the internationally acclaimed Cathedral,
it has good beds, kitchen, bike shed, and a free, huge breakfast.
See the section on Tourism below.
Housing
When you begin your housing search in Paris, you will realize that there are many scams in Paris.
Pitfall 1
Consumer just assumes that Paris is expensive, and ends up paying 1000 € or 2500 € per month.
Pitfall 2
Consumer ends up unnecessarily going with an agency, and paying a large agency fee.
Pitfall 3
Consumer chooses to rent a room, and later learns he is paying the entire rent.
Listen, you don't want to get scammed, and I don't want you to
get scammed either, because when you get scammed,
it empowers the scammer to rip off other people too.
My dear reader, here is your big tip.
Don't bother with rental companies or even Craigslist.
Don't even bother so much with the stale ads in the free FUSAC which comes out ever 2 weeks, which is about
60% scams, 40% good ads. Unless you can get it on the very day it comes out, that is.
A much better idea is, go directly upon arriving in Paris to the
American
Church in Paris (even if you're not religious).
It has new ads every day and the rates
are reasonable.
Stand alongside the Africans and Asians and everyone else
at their bulletin board, which is just inside the main door,
and find yourself a cheap place.
I did, and I'm paying in the mid 400's
per month for a sublet with a stunning view of the
Eiffel Tower. Note, I am on the 5th floor
and there is no elevator,
but after a few days I adapted and am
now able to run up the stairs. (I'm a nonsmoker, of course.)
Besides the American church,
there are also several useful French websites,
listed in the
Classifieds section.
You can avoid the scams and scammers. It's almost a moral imperative that you do. As I mention in my Pickpockets section,
the most successful thieves in Paris
are not pickpockets, but rather the
legions of parasites who feed off of the uninformed.
The housing market is full of them. Don't be their victim.
Insurance (l'assurance)
If you plan on renting an apartment rather than
getting a sublet, note that you may be required
to take out insurance. I did not have to do this
because I got a sublet.
Where to live?
These are just my personal opinions, but
they're a starting point. People who have lived
in Paris for years would know better.
The following areas are nice and/or useful:
Bastille
Montparnasse
Sorbonne
Marais
Les Halles
Boulevard Haussman
The following are safe but dull:
Eiffel Tower
15th arrondissement
Areas to avoid includes the eastern and northern
perimeter arrondissements,
and the rich areas i.e. the 16th arrondissment and
Champs-Elysees.
I don't know about the university areas in the southeast,
or the south perimeter which has the Cite Universitaire.
As for suburbs, some seem to like Alfordsville and
Rambouteau, but you have to pay a lot (it seems) to get
into the city.
Hygiene
A good way to avoid expense or energy-draining illness
is to observe proper hygienic principles.
It can be observed in restaurants and fresh food
stores that the French often do not take hygiene seriously.
Two particular points :
The Metro is a dirty place. Remember, don't touch
your hands to
your eyes, mouth, nose et cetera after being the metro.
I have met one person
who got an eye infection and that's how she thought she got it.
In most boulangeries, it is common
for workers to touch food items with unclean hands.
In the 7th arrondissement, I witnessed one worker sneazing into her hands
and then standing there, not thinking to wash
them. At some boulangeries they use tongs.
Voluntary hygiene standards?
I encountered a food inspection engineer whose job
consists of going to food-related businesses to ensure that food
handling and manufacturing practices aren't leading to diseases and
contaminants getting into the food.
She told me that although the
French government requires every
business to pay a company to inspect their
food production process,
the government does not require that businesses adhere to the inspector's advice to improve food safety!
Hypermarchés
These are stores that can be either
department stores or they may also sell food.
They tend to be located outside of cities,
reachable mainly by car or bus.
You can save some money going to them,
but the cost of getting to them may
offset that. Do not assume that these stores are cheaper just because there's not in the city center.
Auchan,
which has 4 stores around Paris. The easiest to reach is
probably Bagnolet, which is at
Metro Ⓜ
Gallieni. If you enjoy seeing trash strewn all over the ground,
you'll love Gallieni and Bagnolet.
If you will be going to a country that has
diverse diseases, or you're a student and your school requires periodic immunizations, you can get immunized in Paris.
I happened upon an Air France Vaccination
Center on rue de l'Universite in the 7th,
only a couple blocks from the American Church of Paris.
Their phone number is 0143 17 22 00 (they answer the French line, not so much the English one)
and their hours are Monday through Saturday 9-5. Get there at 9am to minimize your wait.
Internet access & safety
If you get a sublet that has a computer and Net access included,
you are lucky.
However if you have a laptop, there are reportedly
many free hotspots
around the city.
At one hostel I stayed at,
a woman got a signal in the inside alley despite concrete being
all around.
Cafes often have free wireless. Just sit down in any cafe or brasserie and
you will probably get a signal. Always check for a signal before you order anything and if you don't get one.
Otherwise, there are Internet cafes around.
You should be very careful about these places however.
You don't know if they really check the machines
for viruses or if they even have key logger programs running
to record your passwords. It is really wiser to
access the Internet wirelessly using your own personal
device, be that a laptop, PDA, or Internet tablet.
Whatever you do, don't access your bank account
or school account or edit a website from an Internet cafe.
If you think there aren't crooks either
working at a few Internet cafes, or installing spyware
on those computers
then you're kidding yourself.
As a matter of fact, I know of two cafes that clearly
had virus problems, because at each place
the viruses got onto
CDs that I burned as well as on my flash cards.
For email, use a disposable Yahoo-like account
rather than a school account.
Examples of such accounts include
Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Myway, and GMX.net.
Burning CDs
I've visited many Internet-access shops to ask if
one can burn a CD while there. Most don't have burners.
Here are a few that do.
Note, there are very definitely certainly virus-infested Internet cafe computers
in Paris,
so if you later find any files on your CD that don't look
familiar (as I did repeatedly), don't click on them, even if the icon
appears to be
a folder.
A block north of the Bastille on rue Daval is
Cyber Cube (01 49 29 05 00)
that says on the window that they have CD burners.
There is another one near blvd San Germaine
in the 5th, but it is not smoke-free.
Just east of blvd. de Sébastopol
is Café Beaubourg
(01 48 87 63 96).
They
have a burner,
but they don't have a flash reader.
Cost to burn a CD
is included in the time you rent the PC,
which is 1.5 € for 15 minutes.
On blvd. de Sébastopol near
Café Beaubourg is another place
that allows burning.
Kit
This section asks how can you best, while walking
around Paris, "be prepared" as the Boy Scouts say.
Here is a list of items that I consider essential
when I am walking around.
Two small water bottles filled with tapwater,
or one large 1.5 liter bottle.
This saves me from having to spend money on water
while I'm out.
If I buy and open boxed OJ while out,
I can bring back
the remainder in a water bottle.
You can refill bottles at public drinking water
dispensers, which are easy to spot
since they're big, dark-green and cast iron.
Camera, Small Dictionary, Notepad, Pen
These four items are the minimum set of things
needed by a tourist while walking around.
The camera is obvious, the dictionary is generally useful, and a small Rhodia notepad helps keeps you organized
and is your place to write down unfamiliar French words
for later review.
Empty plastic food containers
If you ever ordered Chinese food here
you may have been
given food in these, or you can buy Tupperware-type containers.
These are useful for bringing portions of food
home, e.g. if you buy cheese while out or if you
deign to visit a restaurant and have leftovers.
Map
You never know Paris as well as you think you do.
Compass
Very useful! I've bought a compasses in the USA
for $1 to $1.50. In Paris, they begin at about 9 €.
Napkins, also Wetnaps
It's convenient to have them on hand
in case you want to clean up after a picnic.
Paperback book
If you find yourself waiting in a line, or idling in a park,
it can come in handy.
USB flash adapter and two blank CD-RWs
If you're walking around taking photos and you realize your
flash memory card is full, it's helpful to have
the stuff you need to offload your photos.
Swiss Army knife
You often need it. Note, you can buy a Swiss Army knife
that includes a compass
from Amazon
for cheap.
Keychain-light
Here is one
LED light
that I bought that lasted a couple years.
Photocopy of passport
You rarely need it, but the police say you're
required by law to have either the passport or a copy on you at all times.
Kitchen wares
Whether you're renting an apartment yourself or subletting, chances are that you won't be
supplied with great dishes or pots to use.
Porcelain
I recently discovered that the mother load of cheap porcelain is at
Porcelaines M.P. Samie,
45 av. General LeClerc,
0140 47 59 21.
They have the full range of items, and note
that their teapots are well-made and surprisingly cheap.
At 80 Boulevard Haussmann near the St. Augustin metro
is a store called
La Vaissellerie
that sells dishes and some silverware
by the piece.
This is actually part of a chain
and stores vary in quality.
Note, these stores are always smallish
and about one tenth the size
of M. P. Samie.
Metal Cookware
Just like America, Europe has upscale kitchenware shops. Avoid these places unless you possess
a masochistic
desire to get ripped off.
Instead, head directly to the restaurant supply stores
for decent-looking, durable pots and pans.
You don't need a business license.
In French, these stores sell
fournitures pour restaurants.
Two such stores in the 1st arrondissement
are :
Mora has pots and pans that are 2.5mm thick, as well as copper-plated pans.
If you're just visiting Paris for a few months, you might consider
buying a bunch of cookware since the same stuff sold in the USA is at
least 25% more expensive. You can bring up to $600 worth of stuff with
you into the USA before you have to pay customs.
Laundry (laundromat = laverie)
lingo
English
French
washing
lavage
drying
sechage
detergent
lessive
breakdown
panne
Let's marvel for a moment at the difference in self-serve laundry
prices, Paris versus the USA.
Item
Paris
USA
washing
3.50 €
$1.75
drying
2 €
$0.75
total
5.50 € ($6.93)
$2.50
The cheapest I've seen for washing in Paris was in a poor
immigrant neighborhood and was 3.10 €.
One thing I've seen Parisians do to save money, is they only wash at
the laundromat, and hang-dry at home. Washers here generally spin fast
and long enough that wet clothing is not too heavy.
Of course, everyone who has done extended
cheapskate backpacking knows that washing clothing by hand is
the great money-saver. Sure, it's work, but
then again, walking to and from the laudromat is too, after doing it by hand you have $7 freed up.
Think of it as a kind of self-employment.
For hang-drying of
clothing, you can even buy a rack. They have them at department stores
for 10 €. During the summer you can drip-dry in the shower.
When you're staying at a hostel, be careful to hang-dry
clothing only in the afternoon and night periods.
Clothing is known to disappear at some hostels
during the daytime lockout and cleaning time.
Trivia: In Germany, many people do not
have electric clothes dryers at home. Instead they
hang-dry using one or more 10 € drying racks.
Libraries (les bibliotèques)
lingo
The term for the loaning of books is le prêt.
Public libraries exist in each arrondissement of the city.
Once you register for free (bring your passport), lending is free
for books but CDs cost money and some
libraries have DVDs as well, also for a price.
A list of libraries is
here.
My local one has
over 200 foreign-language books and 3000 CDs.
In order to take out just CDs,
they require you pay a yearly fee
of something like 35 €.
If you want to take out DVDs and CDs,
the yearly cost is 60 €, and that gets you
2 DVDs per week.
Let's compare whether in my case the DVD rental rate of
the Paris library system is better than my local DVD dispenser
machine,
whose yearly subscription is 16 euros and
whose 5-hour rent is 1.8 €.
16 + 1.8x = 60 + 0x
x = 24.4 =~ 25
Thus,
for the 60 € subscription to be worthwhile,
one would have to rent at least 25 movies
per year; this assumes that the library is not
far away (for me it is) and that it has > 25
movies of interest to me (unknown).
A more realistic case however is that I won't
do any subscription at the dispenser. In which case
it's very simple :
0 + 2.5x = 60 + 0x
x = 24
The library that has DVDs, if it were near,
would pay for itself after the twenty-fourth DVD.
Other libraries
There is an American Library of Paris
however their lending rules are so tediously strict that
they may serve as a reminder of why you left the USA in the first place.
There are also university libraries,
but you have to be a student to take out a book.
Malls
At Gallieni Metro station,
which is just outside the city limits,
there is a "centre commercial"
that is very much like a multi-level American mall.
I consider it to be a dump, but tastes vary. The Auchan hypermarche is inside
on two levels.
There's generally no reason to go there because
as in America, mall prices are quite high,
as high as in the city.
Maps
To shop for an apartment, or indeed to see Paris, you will need a good map.
Go to a librarie (bookstore) and get Paris Pratique
for 5 €, or something similar. Train station magazine shops also sell these.
If you're desperate for a map or dictionary at 2am,
there is in fact a book vending machine
outside of a bookstore
on or near rue St. Andre des Arts in the 5th arrondissement.
Metro maps are available from the attendants at Metro stations for free.
Movie theaters
New movies come out here on Wednesday, not Friday.
If you're new to France, let me explain
the situation. There are two kinds of screenings, VF and VO.
VF means version francaise and means that the film
is dubbed in French.
VO screenings of films, meaning version originale,
are in whatever the original language was (such as English)
with French subtitles.
VO screenings are very common in Paris.
The caveat with VO is that, although you can guess
the language the movie is in pretty easily,
they never specify it and
if more than one language is spoken, the theater
that's not in the listing either.
So let's say a movie is in English, Korean, and French:
it won't say so in the listing and
the English and Korean will be subtitled in French and
the French won't be subtitled
even if the actors mumble.
But at least VO lets you see the American blockbusters.
Matinees
As in the USA, early shows are cheaper.
Unlike in the USA, the cutoff here is typically noon
and the cheap show begin just after 10am,
but check the listings to be sure.
Matinee prices run from 5.10 to 5.50 €.
Particular matinees I know of:
The MK2 Hautefeuille on rue Serpente
has matinees for 5.10 € ($6.43)
and what is interesting is that
they have a different matinee every day
in rotation, often very unusual films.
Actually several MK2 theaters have unusual matinees.
For more info, go to
mk2.com.
At the two UGC theatres closest to the
Arc de Triomphe
along the Champs-Elyssee, shows before noon
are 5.50 € ($6.93). Note, screenings before 12
mainly start between 10 and 11am.
Another tip: for snacks there is a cheap patisserie
5 minutes walk downhill called Paul.
The UGC outside the Odeon metro:
matinees are 5.20 €.
Multiple-ticket cards
With UGC at least, it is more convenient to
get a multiple-movie card than to try to always
catch a matinee.
UGC sells the UGC5 card
which is 5 movies for about 28 € or 5.70 €
each. You can't use the card on Friday or Saturday,
or on Sunday after midday.
On those days, go to the matinee if you can.
The UGC5 is good for 2 months.
They also sell the UGC7, which is 5 movies anytime.
I recommend the former.
Gaumont/MK2/Pathé has a 6-movie chip card
for 37.80 € or 6.30 € ($7.94) per film.
Better to go to the matinee.
Napoleon
Napoleon, though
idolized by some these days, was also hated by some in his time
and considered to be, like Hitler later, a butcher.
Yet he was just as intelligent and worldly
as one would have to be to run an empire.
He said regarding bankers:
The hand that gives is above the hand that takes.
Money has no motherland; financiers are without
patriotism and without decency: their sole object is gain.
Napoleon is buried at Les Invalides, which is
not free on the first Sunday of each month.
News
There is no need to waste your money on
the print media such as the Herald Tribune, unless of course
you don't have Internet access, or if you are
determined to read the newspaper away from
the computer.
If you're fluent in French,
and you have a residence permit,
the Mairie de Paris (city government)
has courses in a variety of subjects,
as described
here.
You can also take a French language course, as described on the
English
part of their website.
Some artists also offer lessons, although not usually
during the summer.
Online purchases
If you will be able to receive mail
at your apartment, you might consider buying
via mail-order. For electronics prices you can compare prices at
PriceRunner.fr
and
MonsieurPrix.
Here is a comparison of the price of a digital camera
online versus retail, the
Olympus Mju 700.
Store
Price
Surcouf (retail)
299 €
Auchan (retail)
299 €
FNAC (retail)
279 €
Digibao.com (online store)
257 €
Rueducommerce (online store)
243 €
Here is another comparison, this time for
Birkenstock sandals:
Store
Price
Birkenstock Paris (retail)
88 €
Anatomica (retail)
88 €
? (store near Eiffel Tower)
65 €
www.paulos-home-store.ws
$74.98 = 59.50 € includes shipping
Natuerlich Footshop i.e. www.Footshopping.com (but see below)
53 € includes shipping
Shipping issue
When I ordered from Footshopping, even though
I provided my apartment entry code and phone number,
these were not conveyed to DHL, and ultimately I decided
it would be more convenient to
arrange to pick up the box at the DHL office at 8 rue Sainte Foy
in the 2nd arrondissement, the number for which is
0153 00 75 05.
People
Although the theme of this page is cheap living,
social contacts are also clearly a means to this goal, thus
I shall give it some mention.
At hostels
Firstly, upon arriving in Paris you will no doubt stay in
a youth hostel, since they are cheaper than hotels.
But as every hosteller
knows, whether (s)he is 15 or 75 years old,
hostels are places to trade ideas with other budget-minded people,
so you should do so. It may well assist you in your daily life
before and after you get a place.
Expat associations
I was told by several people that there are
good American and British expat organizations here,
but I have yet to contact them.
However, here is a
listing
and
here.
In these lists you will notice
a large number of women's organizations,
something like 8 or 10. If you have any explanation
for this strange phenomenon, I'd be curious to know.
The Parisiens themselves
Both in Paris and elsewhere in France,
I have found the French to be friendly
and helpful, especially if one speaks some French,
and note, getting the accent right does help.
They also like it if you help them learn
some English in the process of conversing with them.
If you speak no French at all,
well, you can imagine the burden that places on locals
who speak no or minimal English.
It is also the case that the French take
special pride in their language,
which is fine but realistically it's a matter of taste.
Personally I like it, but I like Italian better.
In tourist traps
When dealing with local people who interact
with swarms of tourists, make the interaction short and
to the point. Think through your questions first.
Photography
The term for digital camera is
appareil photo numérique.
Paris is clearly a city for photography,
preferably digital.
Paris has artworks, architecture,
numerous daily scenes, fashion models, etc.
During high season you will see
American tourists dangling their Nikon digital SLRs
as they walk around the 5th.
Most of the beauty is not in the 5th, alas.
Rules
Regarding photographing of individuals,
in France, if you want to take a person's picture
you're officially supposed to ask their permission.
In the USA, of course, you don't have to ask
for permission if the subject is
in a public place.
Also note, I've read that you are officially
not allowed to photograph the Eiffel Tower's nightly
flashing strobe light show that happens
every hour. This sounds moronic, but the company
that makes the lights has asserted
that doing so would violate their
intellectual property rights.
There is an exception: If you photograph
any other part of the city with the tower's flashing lights,
it's OK.
I find the strobe light show
to be tedious and unimaginitive,
but the tourists like it.
If anyone tries to tell you that you're
not allowed to photograph a private building,
and that person is not an obvious cop,
they are probably just a low self-esteemed xenophobe
trying to ruin your Paris experience.
Tripods (les trépieds)
If you forgot to bring your $25 aluminum tripod
with you to France
(like
this or
this),
beware that here, tripods cost over two
times what they do in the USA.
If you chance to find a cheap tall aluminum one,
please let me know.
Pickpockets and bagsnatchers
It's apparent that the French are paranoid
about pickpockets and bagsnatchers. It's not uncommon
to hear announcements in the Metro in French to watch out
for pickpockets, and to see French people clutching
their bags as they walk by strangers.
However
I have seen no evidence of pickpockets in Paris, and I do watch.
I certainly have not seen bagsnatchers operating in broad daylight,
which is ridiculous for a city like Paris.
Compare Paris to Naples, Italy. There, the local mafia
called the Camorra actually trains teenage boys to do these things.
But in Naples,
people just don't have the same almost giddy paranoia
about thieves as Parisians do.
Listen: there are two kinds of thieves in Paris.
Thousands of businesses that charge outsiders
outrageous amounts of money for things like
hotels and food. They are the elephant
in the livingroom.
A handful of local petty thieves, who steal relatively tiny
amounts but ironically get all the attention.
The former thieves and the local establishment
have a vested interest in making
you fear the latter, because the former ones
know they are the elephant in the livingroom who must not
be seen.
So don't worry about pickpockets.
They are the least of your worries if
you use common sense:
In dense crowds, keep your hands
in your pockets and your bags closed up.
When walking along, don't get in people's way
so that others can only possibly bump into you.
Avoid dense crowds, walking entirely around them
if necessary. Better a small inconvenience than theft.
At the ATM (cash machine),
don't let others see your finger movements
when you type in your PIN.
Don't wave money around.
I repeat:
the real thieves
are the ones who
trick you into thinking you should pay an exorbitant rate
take advantage of your desperation to price gouge you
exploit your ignorance in order to price gouge you
use an excessive security presence to intimidate you
into either buying anything or accepting high prices
Don't think for a minute that they
don't think of you as a "stupid American" or
"stupid tourist"
who deserves to get ripped off,
in order to relieve themselves from any feelings of guilt.
Post
Receiving media disks
The cost of sending a single CDROM disk
in a puffed envelope, from the USA to Paris is only
$2.50 and takes about a week.
Postcards
La Poste, which is the French mail service,
explains that to send a postcard to the USA
costs 0.90 € ($1.13) and takes 5 or 6 days.
However a nice
postcard itself may cost you 1.50 to 2 €,
so the total will be around $3, whereas
if you have a computer and Internet access
then an email is $0 and an international
phone using Skype can also be free (see the section about
Voice over IP).
Postal codes
Just a note, the number in the range 75001 through 75020
you see on addresses here,
which is le code postal,
also serves to identify
the arrondissement.
So for example, a 75005 is in the 5th.
Refund experiences
Consumerism
is as much about the right to return problematic items
without hassle as it is about trying to make wise purchases.
My own experiences follow.
Surcouf : Their returns or "après vente" department
was located around the corner from the main entrance.
I walked in and there were 5 or so people waiting.
I ended up waiting only about 10 minutes to be
served and was given a refund paper that I had to take
to the front of the store to get the credit processed.
FNAC : I took a number, then sat for literally
one hour
with 10 to 20 or so people in the "apreès vente" area
waiting for my number to come up, but finally I got
my refund paper and took it to the register for
the credit. Watching the FNAC employees it seemed
clear that they were deliberately going slow, e.g.
slow hand movements, folding papers just right
and patting them, people going on mysterious breaks
or just sitting there at the counter, etc. Zero sense of urgency.
On the other hand though, I had a great book with me.
Monoprix : I got the runaround and ultimately
could not return or exchange an item.
They acted angry that I would even bother them
with a return request. Thus Monoprix is an example of
the unjustifiable
hostility that some retailers in Paris have
toward consumers.
LeaderPrice : Not a problem but the African manager
seemed unhappy about my returning unopened,
sealed food with receipt.
Roller- and Inline-skating
It's amazing to witness 5000 people skating down
the street, but that's how popular inline-skating and
roller-skating have become in Paris.
It is on Sundays that the massive skate takes place,
as described
here.
Of course, skating is also economical since
it's a good way to get in shape without joining a gym
and it's a good form of transportation.
Romans & Celts
During Roman times
Paris was called Lutetia,
which was a name deriving from the local Parisii tribe's word
for marsh.
The Seine was called the Sequana.
Lutetia was not a major Roman outpost,
specifically because of that marsh, which was bigger then
because the water table was higher at that time.
By comparison, Trier just across the border in Germany
was at one point the capital of the Empire.
Despite Lutetia minor status,
there are several Roman sites and collections to be seen here,
such as the following.
The Musée du Moyen Age is on part of the site
of the large Gallo-Roman baths complex today called
the "Cluny Baths". In particular, the tepidarium and
palaestrae.
The Roman amphitheater was a mixed-use structure
with a stage. It is today
called the
Arènes de Lutèce.
Located on rue Monge.
Info
here.
Then there is the Archeological Crypt of Notre Dame.
Info here.
The "College de France" baths are no longer visible
but their foundations are under some local buildings.
Outside of Lutetia at Vanves, archeologists have been
excavating a recently discovered
a bath complex, as described
here.
The Roman theater is no longer visible
but its foundations are under some buildings.
Related museum collections
The National Archeological Museum is huge and
well-stocked with lots of great artifacts. It's located
just outside of
Paris in Saint Germain en Layes. The Metro ticket to get
there one way is about 3.50 €. The entrance price
is 4.20 €, but it's free on the first Sunday of each month.
They have everything including, among other things,
Gallo-Roman pottery, glass, gold and bronze;
giant cult statues of Apollo and Mercury;
the skull of a Cro-Magnon man and of a Neanderthal,
and a massive Gallo-Roman mosaic.
This museum is a must-see. Exit the Metro station and look left,
it's in the chateau. There is a Monoprix supermarche
in town; avoid the tiny Casino market near the station.
The Petit Palais has an excellent
Ancient Greek collection downstairs,
entry to which is always free.
Metro station Champs-Elysees Clemenceau.
The Louvre of course has a larger collection
that includes Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts.
There is an archeological museum in Chartres,
which displays its original Roman history
when the town was called
Autricum
and later
Carnutum
after the local Celtic tribe.
Links
Here is the Mairie de Paris
official site
on the Roman history of Paris.
Les Soldes (meaning simply "the sales")
are a twice-yearly event.
In 2006, they began on
June 28th in Paris. Each locality sets the date for its
sales. In Paris, it lasts about 4 weeks.
Most stores in the city that sell to the general public,
except the discounters and
hardcore price-gougers are
having 10-70%-off sales.
Or at least that's what they claim.
In reality, Les Soldes is for many stores
just a gimmick to get people into the store,
whereupon customers realize that very little is for sale at all,
and probably any good sale items are long gone.
And no doubt there are
some luxury-item stores that even
raise prices during Les Soldes, as has been rumored,
because some out-of-town customers
such as newly wealthy Asians
simply wouldn't know what a normal price is anyway.
Perhaps this explains the polo shirt I saw,
that looked no better than some $8 thing from K-Mart,
yet it was "on sale" in a Parisian shop window for 70 €.
Self-storage
In France this is called "self-stockage" and is
pretty expensive in Paris, less so near the perimeter.
Use the yellow pages to find a service.
But note, you should never bring so much
with you on internationally that you need
self-storage. Frugality and moderation are the best goals.
Shoes
One person told me that only 5 days after arriving in
Paris, his shoes were worn out. While this may not
happen to most of us right away, clearly the walking
involved in seeing Paris will eventually
necessitate new shoes
or sandals.
I shall summarize my findings :
You can buy shoes online for as little as ½
the retail price.
If you know what you need and
have a mailing address,
you should buy your shoes or sandals online.
Note, so long as the store is within the EU,
you pay no customs and the price should include VAT.
The tricky part is dealing with the shipping.
If the online store uses DHL, you may have delivery
problems.
For details, see the price comparison
in the
Online Shopping section.
Two online stores I've found:
Paulos:
This one sometimes has
rare stock on certain Birkenstocks.
FootShopping:
They have many sandals.
Their telephone is 04792 94111 in Germany.
Warning:
If you have wide feet, take note of the fact that
the French do not sell shoes in widths and
often the majority of shoes sold are narrow.
In fact, even Birkenstocks are often not sold
in the standard (wide) width but in the narrow.
Here are three brick-and-mortar stores that have interesting
selections.
Go Sport, at Les Halles has what appear to be
good hiking boots but sub-par sandals. They don't
even sell some common sandal brands. Note that
their shoes are located on multiple levels.
Anatomie, at 14 rue du Borg-Tibourg,
phone 0142 74 10 20,
was the first store in Paris to sell Birkenstocks
and has many in the standard wide width.
Expensive compared to mail-order,
and they had nothing on sale during Les Soldes.
The Birkenstock store, at
16, rue de Sevigne, phone 0140 27 96 99.
They professed having mostly narrow Birkenstocks.
Expensive compared to mail-order.
Specific shopping areas
In order to save money on some items,
you need to know which street or neighborhood
specializes in that thing. Here are some of them.
Rare coins
I discovered by chance that there is a concentration
of rare coin shops on rue de Vivienne just north of the
Bourse Metro and square.
Desktop computers
There is a cluster of small Chinese computer
shops between the Dugommier Metro and Ledru-Rollin
metro along Charenton. You can also find a few
such shops along the boulevard St. Germain but
that's a more pricey area real-estate-wise,
so I would assume computer prices are higher too.
Another person told me that just outside
the Montgallet Metro station (line 8),
there are 5 or so Chinese computer stores.
When I bought some blank DVD-Rs for 1.5 € each,
it was at a Chinese store very near the
Marx Dormoy Metro station (line 12).
Rock shops
I'm still researching what shops sell rocks wholesale
and where those are. The main reason for a tourist
to check out rock shops in Europe is to get European
amber, which is harder to find in North America,
and other local peculiarities.
Bicycles
There are a few shops near the Bastille area
but basically shops are spread out.
Two that are near Les Halles are
BHV and Bouticycle.
Supermarkets (supermarchés)
Most informed consumers go to the cheaper stores
such as
Aliments Ed,
LeaderPrice,
and
Franprix,
where prices are sometimes half of what the others charge,
especially comparing to
ripoff stores like G20, Shopi, and Monoprix.
Prices vary by individual store.
I greatly prefer Ed, because they have low prices.
I've shopped at two of their stores on a regular basis.
Note, they are closed on Sunday.
Franprix has good prices on some things, but their
benefit is that they seem to have
the best attitude toward customers, although that is
subjective.
Here is a comparison of
the prices for soy milk,
granted an obscure item,
but it pretty accurately demonstrates
the general differences in prices
between supermarkets.
Where
How much
Ed
less than 1 € for unflavored
Franprix
1 € for unflavored
LeaderPrice
1.5 € (get the vanilla, the chocolate tastes horrible)
Franprix, fancier brand
2.5 €
G20
2.75 €
Naturalia
approx 4 €
Notice that at most stores,
orange juice and milk, when bought in box form,
cost only about 0.55 € per liter but in glass or plastic
they are 2 or 3 times that. Two-liter boxed orange juice at Ed
is about 0.85 €
I find the boxed ones taste just as good.
If you have a car or can borrow one,
you might check out Carrefour,
which seems to have low prices.
Lastly, most supermarkets deliver food. Delivery in French
is livraison, and is a word you will see everywhere
in Paris because it's a city where cars are secondary
for most people, and yet heavy objects must be bought.
But note: I have heard that to get food delivered,
a minimum order of around 75 € may be required.
Trivia : If a local Parisian works at a restaurant or other
business, they can sometimes borrow the
business buyer ID card and go to businesses-only stores outside
Paris by car such as
Metro, which
is reported to be very cheap.
Swimming
There are quite a few indoor public swimming pools
(piscines municipales) situated around the city
and are available to anyone who will pay.
I spotted one next to Centre Pompidou and
another in Les Halles.
Usually the fee to use the pool is around 5 €.
A list of pools is
here.
Technology to bring
Needless to say, you should bring a
cheap digital camera & flash memory.
But there are also
technology items
that can save you money
or pay for themselves.
Although you can bring a laptop,
if you haven't already invested in one
or think it will be cumbersome
or a risk for theft
you might want to consider
bringing something less conspicuous such as
a handheld computer, also called a PDA,
such as the $300
Dell X51
or look into the $350
Nokia 770
internet tablet which has a wide screen.
Both of these have 3 features that
have the potential to save you some money
and time.
Wireless internet,
therefore no spending money at an Internet cafe, which can
add up quickly.
The potential ability to do VoIP for phone calls,
since there is a Skype client for Windows CE
(requires 400 MHz or better processor)
and the Nokia comes with GoogleTalk, which is new.
This alone could save you hundreds on
both international and local calls.
Storage for useful data e.g.
phone numbers, maps, books,
which save time and money.
Or, a laptop can do these as well if you don't
mind carrying the extra weight.
A laptop can of course also store all of your photos
and provide more robust web browsing.
Lastly, if you'd like a vacation from the Web
but still need a phone, then consider
the Netgear Skype voice-over-IP phone,
which is mentioned in the Telephone section.
Telephones
To learn how to call people anywhere in the world for free,
skip to the section below about VoIP.
I don't know about residential landline phones in France.
Parisiens seem to view this technology as "archaic".
As for phone cabins, yes, you can buy phone cards
at Tabac shops.
I've had some bad experiences with those however
so make sure before you buy that they're certain you'll really
get 300 minutes and not 30.
The France Telecom 7.50 € chip
cards also work for local calls
although a short call might cost you 2 or 3
time units i.e. 50 to 75 cents.
Do keep in mind that calls to cell phones
cost more in Europe.
Cellular
Cellphones here seem to have 1 or 2 year contracts
(expressed as contrat or abonnement)
with monthly payments, same as in the US.
See here for an example called
Bouygues.
To go without a contract you can buy a
mobile phone for 40-60 euros or so and pay by the minute
between 20 & 50 cents.
If I find a cheaper deal, I will post it here.
But, do check out the Wifi phone below.
One Parisian says, avoid Orange at all costs.
VoIP (voice over IP)
You may not need a phone,
if you have a computer and Internet access.
VoIP, pronounced voyp, has been around for 10 years
but has only really caught on in the few years
due to broadband Internet.
Using it, you can call people who use the same VoIP
service for free i.e. no money.
Two major services are Skype and Net2Phone.
In my case, I used to use
Net2Phone
to call the USA as well as in France. Now I use Skype.
Sound quality is equally good, and
both Skype and Net2Phone offer free PC to PC calls, meaning
you tell friends and relatives to install the software and be at their
computer (or PDA) at such and such time; then it's a free call
for however long you want.
Or you can dial "out" to a regular phone number.
I have found Net2Phone to be rather expensive, e.g.
calling a US phone number from France is 10 cents/minute,
whereas SkypeOut calling a US phone number
really is 1.7 cents per minute. Note however,
calling a French cell phone is 16 cents/min.
Skype also apparently has SkypeIn to let people
call you using a regular phone line.
Skype Wifi phones
This is the next evolution of VoIP.
In late June 2006, you'll be able to buy
a Wifi-based Netgear Skype phone.
They are saying the price will be US $250.
It will use Wifi to make calls whenever a
free signal is available,
so it will be like having a very cheap cellphone.
Really what it will do is release people from
the cell phone trap.
Because do note, all Skype-to-Skype calls are free.
Here is their page
about the phone.
Belkin is also has a Wifi phone
in the works.
Zyxel has had a Wifi phone out for a while
that doesn't use Skype so it is not clear if there are
free calls possible.
More info
here.
Making calls with a PDA
If you want to use both the Internet
and Skype while on the go,
(and don't want to bring a hefty laptop)
many PDAs
have Wifi capability
built-in.
Dell puts out some reasonably-prices ones.
You can make calls using the free Skype client
for Windows CE.
I haven't experienced using Skype on a PDA myself
so can't say whether it is reliable, facile, cumbersome, etc.
Note, the Nokia 770 now includes the new
GoogleTalk VoIP software.
Tour de France (2006)
route = le parcours, la route
If you're going to watch the Tour in person,
you should really watch it along
the Champs-Elysees. There is a practical reason for this.
The riders do a loop at the end of the Tour
and they go up and down the Champs-Elysees
4 or 5 times. If you see the Tour anywhere else,
of course they go by only once, and that takes
all of 30 seconds.
Some people paid to sit on the bleachers
that were set up down at the bottom of the hill.
All of the seats on the bleachers
were sold out sometime around June.
By 2pm, all spots up against the railing
all along the Champs-Elysees were filled.
The riders arrived just before 5pm.
The top of the Arc de Triomphe was closed to tourists,
but the cyclists never reached the Arc
anyway; they did their turns 100 yards downhill from there.
The Tour, it should be noted, ended at the bottom of
the hill.
Note, there were no toilet facilities in sight
where I was, halfway downhill.
Even two policeman said they had no idea
where there was a toilet.
The one toilet that a worker pointed me to
had a sign saying it was closed for "santiary" reasons.
Not surprisingly, many fans were pissing in the bushes,
which was very unsanitary.
I didn't see a single porta-potty.
There were tons of cops everywhere,
many just sitting in their vans listening to radios
or watching TV, just like they were during
the world cup.
I observed that clever spectators did a number of things
that the masses did not:
Arrived early to get a spot on the railing.
Brought something to stand on to put themselves
above ground level, vital in cases where people
had gotten in front of them, but also useful
to guard against pickpockets. For instance, I saw two men
who had brought aluminum ladders.
Lacking ladders or stools, a few people
grabbed unopened stacks of the free magazine
that was being handed out, which nobody was reading,
and stood on the stack to get above head level.
Brought umbrellas to guard against sunburn
and sunstroke.
Brought a monopod to raise their cameras
above the heads of spectators.
Brought their own tapwater and sunscreen.
There was a public water fountain on the street
just south of the Champs-Elysees up near
the Arc.
The phone number for the Tour de France
was 0141-33-15-00 in 2006.
Tourism inside Paris
Museums
You might consider getting the
Paris Museum Pass
and seeing
multiple museums in one go. Two days is 30 €,
4 days is 45 €. If you think you can rush it, and want to,
then you can save some dough.
Always-free museums
I know of two:
The Petit-Palais, near the Champs-Elysees.
The Cognacq-Jay musuem, near the Saint-Paul metro.
Phone 0140 27 07 21. Link.
First Sunday free
lingo
free ($0) = gratuit
free entry = entree gratuite
entering without paying= entrer gratuitement
You can save a bunch of money
by delaying your museum visits until
the first Sunday of the month, which is free at most museums
including the Louvre.
If your feet can take it, you can use this day
to see 4 or 5 museums and save a lot of money.
Beware, the
Louvre gets very crowded by noon
and the line begins forming as early as 8am.
The Museum Pass brochure lists which
museums are free.
Here is what I saw and saved on a first Sunday:
Museum
Money saved
Comment
Louvre
8.50 €
Saw only one wing before place was packed.
Centre Pompidou
7 €
New exhibits excluded.
Musee Rodin
5 €
Paltry collectio compared to Rodin museum in USA.
Musee d'Orsay
7 €
Wonderful.
Musee du Petit Palais
0 €
Large Greek section. Special exhibit on Peru was excluded.
On another First Sunday
I went to the Musee Picasso, which was not
very crowded and was very satisfying.
It's a nice, well thought out museum
in the 3rd arrondissment with some decent work.
Maison Europeene de la Photographie
This is a museum with some pretty stunning
photographs upstairs. It's free on Wednesday after 5pm.
Louvre
Any cynical attempt to dispell the Louvre as just another
museum is doomed to fail. It is an expansive place with
vast amounts of quality artwork,
as well as a beautiful huge building with nearby
sculpture gardens.
It is impossible to see the entire Louvre in one day.
There's just too much distance to walk
and too much art to take in
even if you're just glancing.
Grand Palais, Petit Palais
The Grand Palais had this summer the famous
catapult that throws a real piano.
The entry fee is kind of steep however.
The Petit Palais is free and has some
decent artwork, especially the Ancient Greek pottery
downstairs.
Views
Views of the city from high up are available
from the following places and probably more.
Montmartre hilltop, free
The Ferris Wheel at the circus in the Tuileries, 6 € (limited view)
Tour Montparnasse, 8.50 € to go to the top,
and you can't save money by taking the stairs because
they're off-limits.
This vast public garden also has a stage where you can
periodically hear a brass band, either from up close or
from pretty clearly half way across the park. Ample chairs and
shade for reading or eating make this a perfect
place to take a break.
Paris Plages
This is a man-made park along the Seine near
Isle Saint Louis.
Surprisingly well planned. Good if you can get a spot
under an umbrella.
Parc Andre Citroen
This park is smallish but is very well designed,
with great care taken as to craft the sound, light,
and views within the park.
Parc du Villette
Metro Ⓜ Port du Pantin
This is a science-oriented outdoor park with a stage.
Personally I find the park to be somewhat ugly
and not well planned.
At the stage they have free outdoor movies in
version originale from July 4th until August 13th 2006.
Some caveats:
It's a long Metro ride from the Ile de la Cite so if you're
not nearby already, bring a book.
Films begin at sundown, which is of course after 10pm.
The last Metro going back to the center of down is
between 12:30 and 12:45 and there is a chance
the film will last longer.
Rather than use the Metro you might use a bike
to get back.
See the section on bicycles.
This is a massive church uphill from
the Jardin du Luxembourg. The entry fee is not low,
but the exterior is very nice.
Like San Sulpice, the Pantheon was built using the funds
from a lottery.
Le Tour Eiffel
reminder
It's pronounced le toor eff-ell.
To say this is a crowded tourist attraction would be an understatement.
If you don't want to wait,
arrive at 9am, one half hour before tickets
go on sale.
By 10am the multiple simultaneous tour bus loads of
irritable package tour prisoners
are already too much to bear.
You might think hanging out near the Tour
for a picnic would be fun. I don't think so, for two reasons:
If you're near the tower itself,
you will likely be hassled by Gypsies who say "speak English"
(just shrug to indicate no) because if you do, they will think you
have money...
You will witness a strangely overbearing military and police
presence, looking like something out of an
Alex Jones documentary.
Anyway, le Tour Eiffel is a must see,
and you should ascend it too, although the 2nd level
is better than the top in my opinion.
Just be sure to
get there before the cattle drive, around 9am.
Passages
There is a system of about 5 "passages" that I chanced upon,
that look like the precursor to shopping malls, but in miniature
and with ornate wood carvings and skylights.
An example.
Tourism outside of Paris
To visit France and see only Paris is to miss out
almost completely on what France is all about.
It would be like visiting the USA but seeing only
New York City. Most French people I've met
will tell you that Paris is not "the real France", and many
will point out that other cities such as Lyon and Toulouse
have all the same stuff, but are less hectic and
snobbish.
Chartres
I'm not going to tell you that the 25 €
round trip train ticket to Chartres from Paris and back
is cheap, however
it's worth it if you stay for a few days.
This is the town with the legendarily massive cathedral
built