Paris on $25 a day (or less)

Paris is great! Paris is easily one of those cities (like all great cosmopolitan centers) where you can just as easily spend $50 a day as $5000. It is a city of great class, great confidence. It is a city that everyone who can must visit.

I recommend Paris very highly because it has so many of the ingredients which I believe give quality, luster, and value to the conditions which the western philosophies (economies, religions, aesthetics) have placed upon our world. Paris deserves your attention whether you think the western world created our time, is causing a race for more time, or has brought about the end of time... Paris is no doubt a fountainhead for our current dilemma.

Lucky for B and I that we did not try and test any of the foreboding above when we came to Paris. We were here by happenstance. You see, our trip is certainly about great luck. In Paris, our luck acted like it was effulgent, then acted as if it wanted to run dry.

This is our story.

Paris, ah, Paris. What a strange sight you are in the August vacation month of Europe. How can you live with your queer friends? Your residents completely abandon you every August; then you accept this torrid affair with mad crowds for the month? Maybe you know more about what to do with Summer than the rest of us? Anyway, the weather is good - so we gave it a try with everyone else.

I would have to admit, after beating it around the world on $5-10 day average Paris terrifies.

But, we have friends. We should be able to get off the beaten path. We know that what we are looking for is community. Surely, community is something which Paris has a lot of?




While nonsequitor - all of my points above have a meaning. For me, Paris exemplifies what our world is now, what is has been, and (maybe) what it is to become. But, this is only true through looking at Paris as a series of what ifs.

Our trip to Paris was nonsensical. We arrived having no idea where we were staying only to find that we had been put up just meters from the Seine and spitting distance from Le Jardin des Plantes - one of the loveliest gardens you will ever encounter.

Luck, it seems stays with us. But, as we have pointed out so many times in our blogs: We travel unconventionally. We are open to magic (and luck happening). We begin our travels from a very privileged position that we can imagine them; that we know we can do them; that we are not afraid of them; that we know that good and bad we will gain from our experiences.

On the downside, we were waylaid for a day and depressed for two when we busted our host's washing machine (top load washer Americans is more confusing than would at first seem). We saw the issue as a lesson, which it was. We also proved our honesty and self-worth by fessing up quickly and then doing what it took to get it fixed.

This blog is not only about Paris. It is about how you might enjoy life if you were somewhere great, ssomewhere where all the world lives, and somewhere where you wanted to enjoy the great fruits of civilization in a civilized way. Life can be very expensive. But, our quality of life depends on what is inside of us. If Paris for less than $25 a day interests you, read more.


So here is what I am going to go out on a limb about on the subject of visiting Paris: Paris is for everyone. Paris if for the old and the aged. It is for the young (everyone under 18, for example, get into all of the National Museums for FREE. (If this great perk would only also include Paris-Disney I am sure it would quickly rival Orlando, FL as the ultimate family vacation hotspot.) Paris is a city for the rich. Do not go into any corner cafe thinking you can cover the cost of a coffee and OJ or a beer without making certain that you can. My Aunt has had a reciept for purchasing a Parisien OJ on her fridge for at least 10 years and they paid $12 euro back then.

But, Paris is really free. Its best parts are. And they are not too touristic (even in August). It is a city filled with delightful parks. There is the Seine River (at night we split time between the Tango and the Irish Jig dances taking place every night on its waterfront. There are dozens of beautiful ancient churches filled with art (many masterpieces) - they are all free. Only Sacre Coeur and the other one have lines! The City itself manages about 15 museums which are almost all free. Then there are les Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, the Markets, and the street life, shopping, galleries, bakeries, fromagers - too much.

So, our story has no end. Only happy beginnings to return to. Paris, or, the Paris I know and love costs $25 a day or less. It requires a couch or the gumption to bring and sleep in your tent (people do this). It has a maximum three bottle and a minimum one baguette and one chevre diet- which is acceptable for short-termers but probably unhealthy if permanent.

BTW - we really meant to get to Musee D'Orsay, the Louvre, Palais de Luxembourg and other incredible sightseeing hits in Paris. I would probably not recommend these in August. We will save them for the next time we come. Maybe we will landd here on a first Sunday of the month (when all the museums in Paris are free.