How to hang out in Paris on a budget
Springtime says Paris. Paris doesn't exactly say budget break – having once again been named the world's second most expensive city after Singapore. But listen closer. The ailing euro tips the exchange rate massively in favour of those paid in GBP, plus the same survey that found the French capital to be the most expensive city in Europe also found that wine and cigarettes (essential components of a weekend away) are a whole lot cheaper there than elsewhere. Besides this, the very fabric of Paris makes it a city in which you can enjoy life even when you're down on your luck. If George Orwell could do it, you can too.
Low-cost logistics
At the time of writing, Eurostar had tickets available from 19 April for £36 and Airbnb had listings in the 4th arrondissement (Le Marais – central, chic, heaving with shops, bars and restaurants, definitely somewhere you want to stay) from £44 per night. Paris is compact and best seen on foot anyway, although at €1.80 a trip (or €14.10 for a carnet of ten tickets) the Métro isn't exactly a splurge, while one day's use of Velib' – the city's self-service bike rental scheme – is €1.70, with seven days costing €8.
Cut-price culture
Those under 26 get discounted admission at galleries and museums – be prepared to prove it but definitely also to chance it if you're past the quarter-life crisis. Most of these (including the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay and Centre Pompidou) are free to all on the first Sunday of the month, and although you will have to queue for this privilege, this is true of any weekend – Parisians do take advantage of the endless wealth of culture on their doorsteps in their free time, all 2.2 million of them at once it sometimes seems. The city's holy trinity of tourist attractions – the Eiffel Tower, Sacré Coeur (including the show laid on outside by lamp post-straddling, footballing acrobat Iya Traore) and Notre Dame – are all free, as are the City of Paris-run museums, including the Petit Palais, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Musée Carnavalet, which covers the history of the city. Entry to the Grande Mosquée de Paris is a mere €3 while entry to the tea room in the exquisitely tiled courtyard (where mint tea is €2) is free. Street art abounds in Paris, and a wander through Oberkampf, Ménilmontant and Belleville will provide particularly rich Instagram pickings for free.
Bargain hunting
You are not going to come to Paris and not shop. But it can be done on a budget. The flea markets at Porte de Vanves and Clignancourt are treasure troves of Selby-worthy interior gems. At APC Surplus on Rue André del Sarte in Montmartre every day is a sample sale, with 50 per cent off the quintessential Parisian label's last-season wares. Over in the Marais, interiors empire Fleux (spread across four shops in one street) has quirky and kitsch covered for not much cash, and prices at the Free'P'Star chain of vintage shops start from €1 if you're willing to rummage. Mother of all concept stores Colette might be where Kanye shops, but there's also a pick'n'mix style array of key rings, lighters, stationery, candy and CDs that make much better souvenirs than anything with the Eiffel Tower on it. Citypharma on Rue du Four in Saint Germain-des-Prés is the place to go for cut-price cult French pharmacy products from brands such as Nuxe, La Roche-Posay, Bioderma and Embryolisse, and pick up prints and vintage paperbacks from the bouquiniste booksellers along the Seine for as little as €1. Even browsing in Paris is fun, with the displays in the grands magasins blurring the line between art installation and visual merchandising – head to Le Bon Marché, Galeries Lafayette, Printemps and hip ethical design store Merci to lécher les vitrines (not literally: “licking the windows” translates as window shopping).
All you need is the air that you breathe (although maybe check the pollution levels first)
Paris is a city of open spaces – with parks, public gardens bursting with cherry blossoms, long stretches of riverbank and a law prohibiting high-rises (prompted by the erection of the only one you'll see inside the city boundary, the despised Tour de Montparnasse). The Palais Royal, Place de Vosges, Jardin des Tuileries and Jardin du Luxembourg are all centrally located, while the Bois de Boulogne just to the west of the city boundary is home to lakes, landscaped gardens, glasshouses, a zoo, the tennis stadium where the French Open is staged and now the Frank Gehry-designed arts institute Fondation Louis Vuitton (€14 if you go in, still stunning from the outside for free). You'll find free-to-use ping pong tables and basketball hoops in many of the city's numerous playgrounds, and a game of boules is a local ritual on the Canal Saint-Martin or Canal de l'Ourcq. Entry to Cimetière du Montparnasse and Père Lachaise for a visit to, respectively, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Serge Gainsbourg and Man Ray or Balzac, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde, is free. Ditto the disused train line between Bastille and Vincennes now known as the Promenade Plantée or la Coulée Verte – a 5km trail of elevated gardens and cycling paths. For panoramic views without paying, head to department store Galeries Lafayette or the Institut du Monde Arabe, both of which have free-access roof terraces.
Economical eats
The best baguette you'll ever eat is available from one of five boulangeries on every street for less than €1. Splash out a few more euros on some cheese and a bottle of wine (cheaper than domestic water, as everyone who has to pay for this jokes/sobs), and you have yourself a feast. Pick it all up on Rue Montorgueil, Paris's premier food shopping street, making a stop at the city's oldest patisserie Stohrer, and it turns into an expedition too. L'As du Fallafel on Rue des Rosiers at the heart of the Marais' Jewish quarter is a guide book cliché for good reason – it's the best in the city and it's €5. For even less than that, get in line for an ice cream from Berthillon on Île Saint-Louis – another Paris best, where flavours on rotation include lavender, pineapple and basil, even foie gras. The concentration of restaurants near Bourse on Rue Saint Anne is the best place to eat Asian food in the city. Higuma is a standout, with a nightly (fast-moving) queue to prove it: a no-frills diner with an open kitchen where you can watch the must-order gyoza dumplings being batch-cooked by the dozen, serving up seemingly bottomless bowls of ramen (lamen) for under €10 – otherwise known as less than £7.50. And as a final tip for the budget-minded: in this city's café culture, nursing the same coffee for an hour is nothing to be ashamed of.
