Adventures in travelling - 3. Vive la Pareeee

Paris is the kind of place that you can't just visit once. It's a fascinating place ... I love taking my camera and wandering around ... it's so photogenic. I also love the place because you can live cheap and still dine like a king, or when you have some shekels to splurge you can really enjoy la dolce vita (sorry I'm not French enough to coin the right phrase for that one heh). And the people can be friendly, maddening, vivacious and cut you out sometimes all at the same time.


First things first. Getting around ... If you haven't been to Paris and used it's Velib system you haven't experienced it's fantastic rental bike system. You can rent it by the day, by the week or by the year for 1/5/30 euros. The first half hour is free (if you arrive at a full station you get an extra fifteen minutes), after that the price goes up on a sliding scale. The intent is to keep the bikes in circulation but with 1000's of stations, you can keep switching (you can have unlimited number of half hours). In any case if you need an hour it's one Euro. It's a great system and it means you can now get around the city without spending any more than 5 euros for the entire week you're there. I love this system, and it's one of the reasons I love going back to the city.


If you're there in the winter use the metro instead. Get a Navigo card (5 euros) and load a week worth of unlimited travel for about 16 euros. Single trips are usually one and a half euros. The card is reusable so don't throw it away.


Staying need not be expensive. If you don't mind renting a couch or an apartment check out Craigslist Paris, Paris Marais. or even the local backpacker hostels you could get a bed or a place from 20 Euros a night to an apartment for 250Euros a week. My personal favorite is Hotel des Arts Bastille which I've rented from 50 Euros to 60 Euros a night and is very nice round about the Bastille. Another good place is Hotel Du Commerce for 50 euros for doubles (shared bathrooms) if there's two of you on Rue De La Montagne Sainte fairly close to the Sorbonne and Notre Dame.


If you're lucky you can get the second floor of the bookstore Shakespheare and Company for a few hours of work a day. Not always easy to get and you need to speak french fluently so that kind of ruled it out for me, but my friend from London stayed there once and I liked it very much when I visited her there.


Next the most important thing. Drinking. Wines can be found fairly cheap everywhere but you have to know what you're doing. I'm the kind of guy who needs a few pints once it turns dark so I usually head to Chez Georges an old dive but with good food and cheap beer. It opens around 7PM on weekdays (it's closed on the weekends). It's a few blocks north and east to the Arc De Triomphe, at 1 Rue du Mail in the second arondissement. It might be wise to call for a table before you get there if you plan to have dinner. The food is excellent and in fact I also eat there most evenings because of how good the food is and how reasonable the price is. But the main draw are the beers, two euros for most selections.


The best museums in the world I think are in London, England and in Paris. And what's mind boggling is they are free. I've counted at least fifteen museums in Paris that are free and are absolutely superb. Even the ones you have to pay to get in like the Musee D'Orsay are cheap and again absolutely superb. Highly recommend the Louvre (you'll need at least three days and a GPS to make sure you don't get lost in there)


Check out the bakeries and the middle eastern places (they're everywhere in Paris these days) for low cost sandwiches, entrees and/or tasty snacks. Or if you prefer beverages to food go to Le Baron Rouge for nearly fifty wines that cost about or less than 3 Euros a glass. Or on Thursday nights go to the Galleries on Marais (they serve free wine and sometimes cheese)... Yeah go on call me a cheap bastard :) but the wines are delicious and so are the art in these galleries.


And there's lots of free tours. The walking tours by Sandeman are really good. (You give tips to the guides). There's another one by Fat Tire Bike tours that begins near the Seine which isn't bad either. The guides are volunteers (usually from North America or England) and I like that better because I made friends and was able to make their party scene in the night with them.


There's loads more to do there ... one of my favorite things to do is to find a Laduree's cafe (there's several) and get one of their coconut macaroons. Also the Buddha Bar (expensive) is a great place to have a drink and hors d'oeuvres, and as you probably know the lounge music is hauntingly good. Good enough to have made it to ten bloody expensive internationally best-selling CD collections.


Paris along with Cape Town, Rio, London, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Venice, Miami remain one of the most quintessentially fascinating cities you can ever hope to visit. I mean imagine going from an authentic Hammam (steam bath) experience (try Hammam de la Grande Mosquée though it is very crowded by the locals on weekends), to the treasures of the Louvre, followed by a trip to the cafes of Montmartre, or lose yourself in the vibrant Jazz scene amongst the traditional clubs on the left bank such as the Caveau De La Huchette a medieval cellar ... there's no end to the surprises you can find on the market trail on the local flea markets such as the sprawling Marché aux Puces de Clignancourt, the quiet, tree-lined Marché aux Puces de Vanves and the contemporary design market Les Puces du Design. One of the few remaining flea markets where you can uncover gems at bargain prices on bric-à-brac stalls is the Marché d'Aligre, although be warned if you don't have the french for it don't attempt it :) Or visit the new star on the block if art is your scene ... visit Centquatre 104 or catch a film at Le Cinemathaque Francaise ...


Life is an adventure. And nowhere so can you live it with the intensity you can in Paris. Go on. Just do it :)