Paris on a budget

Every so often I get the chance to do a bit of overtime at work. I don't particularly like to do it, as I have enough to do outside work, but I see it as 'free money' and can't say no. The agreement at home is that I do the work, but any extra I earn goes straight into the 'having fun' pot so we all see the benefit. Last year the extra went on finishing off the kitchen we'd wanted to change for the past seven years. There was just a little bit left over, and I decided I wanted to see Paris again. I didn't just want a weekend though; I wanted time to mooch about and relax.

Paris perhaps isn't the best place to choose for a cheap break! However, I was sure it could be done. I decided the whole of October half term was a good time to put my elastic purse to the test.First thing to do was book flights. Working on the basis that the earlier you book the cheaper the fare I booked flights months and months ago. Unfortunately at the time I booked only the budget airlines outgoing flights were available. That wasn't a problem at all as surely they couldn't change too much when making the move from summer to winter schedules. Our flights, from Liverpool, were an absolute bargain. I don't think we could have caught a train as far as Birmingham, for the same price. 

Next on the list, accommodation. The last time we went to Paris we stayed in a Novotel hotel. It was lovely, and we got a great deal on it. This time however we wanted to stay for eight nights. We could afford bunk beds in a hostel but certainly not a nice hotel, so I had to get my thinking cap on. I looked into apartments in Paris and made a few enquiries. I found a one bedroomed apartment in the 5th arrondissement, just next to the Jardin Des Plantes. It appeared to have everything we needed, including a comfortable sofa bed, and was within walking distance of most attractions. The apartment was booked, but I was a bit worried about what it would be like as it cost a fraction of the cost of even a cheap hotel. Finally the return flights were released. Of course the schedules had changed, quite a lot. Booking flights on the day they were released meant we got a great price again.....but we had to fly back to Manchester, not Liverpool. Luckily we have a great neighbour who didn't mind transporting us to Merseyside (I normally park at the airport, but couldn't do that this time). 

We had a list of places we wanted to visit, but the most important thing on our list was to have relaxing family time. Again, Paris possibly isn't the first place you'd associate with that. Harrison wanted to see the Mona Lisa, I wanted to visit Les Invalides, and Paul wanted to go to the outside of Musée du quai Branly, where grass and shrubs grow all over the walls of surrounding buildings. Apart from that we were going to take each day as it came.

The apartment was absolutely brilliant. It had everything we needed and was in a great spot. Having an apartment meant we didn't have to eat out all the time, or at all. Harrison was quite happy eating in, and it saved us a fortune. We took some food with us and visited the local supermarket to buy our other meals. Each morning we went along to the boulangerie on the corner of our street for fresh baguette and pain au chocolat. We only actually ate out once during the eight nights we were there. Wine in the supermarket was incredibly cheap. I'd say that as far as food and drink went, we spent less than we did during the same time at home!

We knew we wanted to see some attractions that had a cost involved. After sussing out all the alternatives we bought a four day Paris Museum Pass for  €54. Harrison had free entrance to everything we wanted to see. That was easily the biggest expense of the holiday. However that  €54 got us entrance into Musee du Louvre (normally  €12), Musee Rodin (normally  €9), Arc de Triomphe (normally  €8), Hotel National des Invalides, with Napolean's Tomb (normally  €9.50), Centre Pompidou (normally  €13),  Musée du quai Branly (normally €8.50), La Conciergerie (normally €8.50), Musee de l'Orangerie (normally €10), and the Pantheon (normally €7). I couldn't choose which was best, we saw some terrific sights.

An awful lot of what we saw, and enjoyed, was completely free though. We walked absolutely everywhere. We never caught a bus or Metro all the time we were there. We estimated that throughout the week we walked almost 50 miles. One day we did over 12 miles, and a normal trip out would be six. With walking, as well as being able to justify eating the baguettes and cheese, it meant we saw much more. The 'much more' were things perhaps not on the ordinary tourist route. Paris is full of sculptures and street art (graffiti?). One highlight was the pest control shop we stumbled across, with a window display full of dead rats!

So, we did it, and for a lot less than even I imagined we could do it for. Things like this just need a bit of planning and lateral thinking, and you need to take a chance!

Here are some of the many photos I took, but all these sights were free. They were the things outside the museums we saw while we were wandering around.