Possible trip to Paris

This is kind of a wine related question. I have been invited to go to Paris in July and am wondering how much I should budget for food? If I just eat bread, wine and cheese how much should I expect to spend a day?

Not that the bread, wine, and cheese are not fabulous, but don't go all that way and limit yourself to just that!

If you did want a simple bread/cheese sandwich for lunch you could figure between 5 - 10 euros, you can find 3-5 euro sandwiches everywhere, although you could also find a nice cheese shop and a nice bakery and a nice vegetable market and concoct your own, for something inbetween 5-10 euros including non-alcoholic beverage and perhaps dessert. Same price range for similar 'fast' lunches of quiche or other takeaway.

Restaurants are the full range as in any city. There are of course plenty of cheap 10-20 euro bistros and brasseries for dinner, and if you somehow find a good one that is nice. But, like many cities, once you get into the 30euro range you start to find excellent options, and of course can keep going up and up for there.

Depending how long you are staying and how interested you and your companions are in food, I would urge you to at least have one meal in the 30-50euro range, if not more.

Wine is similar, you can find drinkable boring stuff in the supermarket for 2 euros, solid qpr wines in wine shops for 10euros, and then keep going up and up from there depending on the region..

Enjoy

This is kind of a wine related question. I have been invited to go to Paris in July and am wondering how much I should budget for food? If I just eat bread, wine and cheese how much should I expect to spend a day?

Hi Ronica.

Seconding Rahsaan's thoughts, traveling all the way to Paris and not eating anything except bread and cheese would be like going to a concert and only listening to the triangle. Don't you like a variety of food, or are you just on a very tight budget?

You can dine in Paris inexpensively, for about the same cost as greasing in Texas. There is some mark-up because of the Euro being worth a little more than the US dollar, but the food is so much better there than in a typical American city that the QRP is higher.

I know I'm always giving you avuncular advice, whether you ask for it or not, but why don't you plan to spend some money in Paris, because you will have fond memories of food and wine that will last you for a lifetime

You may know that Hemmingway scribed a wonderful travel book about his stay in Paris, in the 20s. He was on a starving artist tight budget, and lived on bread, cheese and charcuterie, which you should add to your menu; but managed to insinuate his way into some fine grub, too. (For wine, you can take a page out of Itzhak Perlman’s book. He goes around telling anybody with a deep wine cellar that he was born in 1945, in order to get free great wine from that year.) Hemmingway called his book “The Movable Feast,” meaning that once you have been to Paris you will always have it with you. So you should take the best of it when you have the chance to be there.

Covert

when were you going? some of us will be there at the end of januaary either before or after a big tasting near lyon. if you do the cheese thing, just buy it at a good store - get the bread at a bakery and don't forget some salami as well. the wine can be bought for 5e/bottle and the badoit mineral water(highly recommended) is de regour also. do you have a hotel? you should check out the hotel suez - it is r. st. michel and very close to a metro stop and is very friendly. there are good wine and cheese shops near there.

Ronica,

My experience in traveling to Paris, on business and pleasure, is that you will not be able to get by on anything less than 25 EUR per day unless you have tremendous will power. I would plan on twice that much to allow for one good meal each day. Have fun!

Hi Ronica.



I know I'm always giving you avuncular advice, whether you ask for it or not, but why don't you plan to spend some money in Paris, because you will have fond memories of food and wine that will last you for a lifetime


Covert

Covert,

good advice. You are right, Paris will always be w/ me and I might as well make room in the budget as long as I'm going.

when were you going? some of us will be there at the end of januaary either before or after a big tasting near lyon. if you do the cheese thing, just buy it at a good store - get the bread at a bakery and don't forget some salami as well. the wine can be bought for 5e/bottle and the badoit mineral water(highly recommended) is de regour also. do you have a hotel? you should check out the hotel suez - it is r. st. michel and very close to a metro stop and is very friendly. there are good wine and cheese shops near there.

If I go it will be w/ some friends in July that will be there for the Paris air show. I will crash w/ them and all I know is that it will be a five star. I have to start saving now, so I wanted to get an idea of how much I needed to save.

If I go it will be w/ some friends in July that will be there for the Paris air show. I will crash w/ them...

Crashing at the air show?

I won't be going to the air show. Just taking advantage of their hospitality and the opportunity to hang out w/ the wife as the hubby is busy doing the work thing. It's really quite charitable of me to go all the way to Paris to keep her company.

[Jenise]

It's really quite charitable of me to go all the way to Paris to keep her company.

Charitable? I think it's heroic! In fact, it may be too big a job for just one person. I should go along to help....

"...traveling all the way to Paris and not eating anything except bread and cheese would be like going to a concert and only listening to the triangle."

Almost poetry.

Ronica, save a lot of money for Paris; it's worth every Euro. But if you need a break or a low-priced meal every so often, check out the spots where students eat (not the fast food ones) or go to Monmartre and eat at the African restaurants, or pop in at Le Sergeant de Recruiteur on Isle St Louis, I believe.

it just occurred to me that many people who go to paris don't realize how close champagne is. you can take a train directly from de gaulle to reims. even driving it is only 90 minutes. once you are there you can walk to everything and see the major houses and their beatiful cellars. then back to paris on the train. good fun trip for wine lovers.

thanks for the champagne tip!

Not going to the Paris Airshow?
This is one of the great events of the world!

something else occurs to me about this first post: i don't know how good the bread is where you have been - but i must say that, especially compared to twenty years ago, the bread in france is nothing to marvel at. i get much better stuff here in ann arbor. now, the cheese is another thing. the bread there is fine, ok, etc. - better than most people get i'm sure; but just not really great anymore. think salami as well - now that stuff really rocks! do you guys have a place to stay or are you still looking?

A friend of mine returned Monday from a month in Paris. Eating from grocery stores daily set him back about 15 Euro per day--eating out one 'nice' meal bumped that to over 50 Euros. He shot the works one night and spent 100 Euros on dinner. I asked since we are going next year!

Of note, Italy from the markets was cheaper, but our dinners out were VERY expensive

Ruth

In my opinion, if the purpose of the trip to Paris is to enjoy food and wine, plan on a budget of $100 per day. Why would you bother with the transportation and housing costs to get there, yet spend less than 25% on food and wine?

If the purpose of the trip is to enjoy the sites and the culture, you can get by on half that amount. Do not plan on less than 40 Euros per day for food or you will go bonkers with self-denial.

College kids could get by on 25 Euros per day eating street food and basics.