Here is the first of my Paris tips!
I'd only had the pleasure of going to Paris once before, for a day (apparently, though my memory is vague) when I was around 7 years old.
All I recall is sitting in a restaurant feeling sad due to the waiter who told me I couldn't eat my steak unless I had eaten at least one snail! (and yet my parents say that this wasn't Paris - it was Ostend!) But yeah - one day is all I had had.
I've always wanted to go back to Paris, but all I ever heard was "Paris is too expensive!".
It is not.
That's just a load of shit.
Sure, it might cost a little bit more to eat out. Use some imagination then and have a picnic!
Sure, it might cost at least 5 Euros for a beer. Get a bottle of wine in a Monoprix for 2 Euros, several strong beers and neck them on a park bench!
In my (few) tips I shall try to remember what we did to have such a fucking super amazing awesome time whilst sticking to a £30 per day food-activities-and-booze-budget!
One - accomodation
We stayed in a nice little 3* in Pigalle called Hotel Atlanta Frochot. It was cheap (!!!) and had the customer service of a 4*, perfectly sized rooms (especially if you had a front facing room with bibalcony windows!) and amazing breakfasts!
The only flaw is that the hotel is slightly outdated. But it's spotlessly clean and the location is superb! If you like hookers and pimps that is. And I do ;)
The area used to be pretty sleazy, but now it's morphing into something nicer, with just an added smidgen of sleaze...which is always good! Cheap hotels, great location and it's not packed full of tourists! :)
Take a look up and down the street and the neighbourhood on Google Maps!
It's right by the Pigalle metro station, which let's you get pretty much anywhere for less than 2 Euros!
The area is home to the Moulin Rouge (don't go there unless you're a 60 year old American woman with 150 Euros to spare), Dirty Dick (some sort of awesome brothel - just do NOT take photos of Dick or the lovely ladies...or the hotel staff will have to usher you out of the hotel when you leave so you don't get a pimp-slap!) Sexodrome (a massive sex shop!) and cool little hidden bars!
Walk for a couple of minutes and you're in Montmarte, home to plenty of awesome restaurants, bars and shops and Sacre Couer. Your legs might ache from the steep steep climbs and the hundreds of steps but it's worth it!
