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J-27: Project Paris
I’m a terrible person I know :( I said I would write something about the Paris trip everyday, but I didn’t keep my promise… I am very busy with studying and learning for my final exams, and therefore I don’t have a lot of time to write posts. I also got to know that I prefer writing the post over a large period of time meaning that it could take hours, or day (in the way that I write something then save as a draft and after sometime, write again). So I would like to apologize for that. Also because my exams are getting closer, and tomorrow I’ll be going back to school after a week of holidays so it will be difficult for me to keep up this “regularity”, this frequency of posting but I will do my best.
I got the time though to think about some of the next posts I will publish, and I already know a subject for two posts:
- My schedule, plan of things I will visit,for everyday.
- My packing list. It’s pretty much a long weekend so I won’t need a lot, but I know that if I don’t do it I will end up with the whole content of my closet in my suitcase/bag. And it will also be a way afterwards to determine what I could have changed, taken, not taken and so
Anyway, that will be it for today,
Lots of love,
Ines,
Xx
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J-30:Project Paris
There goes my budget! Until this afternoon around 1:30, I completely forgot about the fact that there was an Abercrombie&Fitch store in Paris. Someone just mentionned the name, trying to make me jealous, and I realised that I was going to Paris where one A&F store opened recently (well, last year, that’s pretty recent :p) in the Champs Elysées. So I thought I had to take the chance and just go there, even though I can’t aford anything there, I mean who cares…
I once went the A&F store in London, at that moment I didn’t know anything about it, and when I entered the store I was like “WTF is happening? Where am I going?” But it wasn’t too bad. I just didn’t get a picture with one of the Londonian/Londoner (I don’t know) A&F models :( Maybe I’ll get more chance with the Parisian models ;p
I guess you now know why there is probably no chance I keep it under 100€ :p
Anyway that was it pretty much,
Lots of love,
Ines,
Xx
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J-32: Project Paris
It feels like it will take forever before I go there but I honestly think that time will pass so quickly that once there I will feel how fast it goes.
Today’s post is about transport in Paris, how I planned on doing it, and stuff.
First of all Paris has 20 “arrondissements”, which are kind of neighbourhoods. To travel you have the metro, the RER and the bus, but it’s better to use the bus if you missed the last metro at night.
The price of a ticket is around 1,70€ for a single ticket that you can use during 1:30 h. But you can’t for example, if you buy a ticket for one bus line, use the same ticket for another bus line.
I will buy I think one ticket a day so 4 days=6,80€ but I will do is that I will just walk in the morning and then go back by metro or bus or whatever, or just take the metro in the morning and walk back in the evening. That way I also get a chance to see other stuff than all the tourist attractions. This way I save money, I get to see more Parisian stuff, that are better known by locals, and I get some movement in the day, a bit of walking doesn’t kill. And who knows, taking the stairs while in the Eiffel Tower, a bit or more appropriate, a lot of walking during my stay, maybe I’ll even loose weight :p
Anyway, I’ll see,
Spendings:76,80€-81,80€
Lots of love,
Ines
Xx
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J-33: Project Paris
This post is about the activities in Paris. You might think “well you obviously have to pay for the Louvre, or the Musée d’Orsay” but I found a way to keep it free.
Being seventeen, I don’t have to pay to get in the museum, which obviously is nice, keeping my spendings down. People under the age of 25 can also get free entrance on some days depending on which museum you want to visit. Most museum allow you in for free on the 1st Sunday of the month, but I also know that on fridays you can get in for free at the Louvre between 6 pm and 9.45 pm IF you’re younger than 25.
The activities I had planned:
- Eiffel Tower: 12,50€ maximum but I decided to take the stairs so 3,50€
- The Louvre: Free
- Jardins du Luxembourg: Free
- Musée d’Orsay: Free
- Galleries Lafayette: technicaly it’s free, but buying stuff obviously costs money and knowing myself I’ll just have to see.
- Parc Georges Brassens
- Basilique du Sacré Coeur: 5€
- A walk in Paris at night: Free
- Eating a crêpe near the Seine
- “Visiting” the Café de Flore, just visiting because after looking at the menu list (not a very chic name, knowing the place, and prices) I could conclude that a cup of tea was already over my budget: Free
- Looking around a bit in Montmartre: Free
- Maybe having dinner or lunch somewhere: around 25€-30€
I’m saving a lot of money thanks to my age. And otherwise I just would have planned my trip around the specific dates that the entrance is free in most museums.
Anyway, if there are more ideas on activities I can do in Paris, just send me a message or something and it will be more than welcome
Spendings:70€-75€
Still under my budget,Lots of love,
Ines
Xx
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J-34: Project Paris
I missed a post yesterday, I’m sorry, so I will catch up by posting twice, I’m not sure if it will be today, but it will definitely be done by tomorrow. Paris is getting closer and closer (I’m three days closer to going there, that’s an improvement :p), and I’m getting more and more excited.
This post will be about accommodation during my stay in Paris. Looking back at my previous post I saw how I “annoyed” you with all the calculations, and unfortunately it will happen again in this post. If it really bothers you just don’t read the calculations, it’s just some kind of update on the budget.
So, accommodation, a pretty expensive part of the trip (I think that everything seems expensive to me…), but I managed to arrange that well. In the beginning I was thinking about 5 possible places to stay in Paris: An apartment that I would rent via airbnb, a hotel, a hostel, CouchSurfing, or just doing it hobo style, under a bridge.
After looking for cheap hotels, staying in a hotel wasn’t an option anymore. They were all at least 50€ p.p.p.n. (per person per night) which would have cost me 150€, no, not an option, and the hotel I found that would cost me 29€ for the whole stay made me want to rather sleep under a bridge than in one of their rooms. So the hotel was a big NO
After looking for hotels, I posted something on CouchSurfing and hoped that some people would send me a message, or show interest. I wasn’t really hopeful as I don’t have any experience , but there still were more than 5 people who replied to the notice :) CouchSurfing seemed also nicer than just staying in a hotel/hostel/apartment because somehow you get to know more about the city, the people, you get to socialize, and everything more contact with people. So that went OK and I had good feelings about it.
With the notice on CouchSurfing, I also started looking for hostels and apartments, in case CouchSurfing wouldn’t work, and we found some nice small apartments for 15€ p.p.p.n. But that didn’t work as people don’t answer back to my messages… too bad.
Looking for hostels was more successful. Having heard a lot about the St. Christopher’s hostels, I started my search on their website. And everything looked good, well everything but the price, 39€ p.p.p.n was way over my budget as we planned on staying 3 nights. So we found two other hostels: Friend’s Hostel and Auberge Internationale des Jeunes, costing 54€ and 57€ for 3 nights. That was still in my budget, and reading the reviews was horrible but I needed a place to sleep, I’m not planning on spending my whole day in the hostel so that was OK for me.
Therefore:
Hotel:NO- CouchSurfing: If everything goes as planned YES
Airbnb:No one replied to my messages so NO- Hostel:If something goes wrong, like it’s not possible to be hosted anymore we chose Friend’s Hostel as a plan B
- Under a bridge:This is plan C, I hope it won’t be necessary, but we never know :p
Spendings: 37€
Lots of love,
Ines
Xx
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J-36: Project Paris
So, one of the important parts in organizing the trip was finding a way to get to Paris without spending a lot of money. Before looking for prices and getting information, I had 3 ideas: the airplane, the train or the bus. Once I looked up the prices the plane and the train weren’t an option anymore. Taking the train would have cost me around 200€ and the Thalys would have cost me around 91€. Some people might think: “oh but 91€ is still in your budget, why not choose to go by train, it’s fast and probably pretty comfortable?”, well is indeed in my budget but I have 100€ for everything, which means transport, hostel/hotel, transport in Paris ( metro,RER, bus …) and everything that comes with the trip, which made it impossible to me if I would have taken the train.
Therefore I chose the bus. When I checked at first, it was around 56€ plus an extra 10€ for administration fees and insurance so 66€ in total. That seemed ok to me. Being curious I wanted to know if it was a fixed price or that it changed depending on the day you travel, and thanks to my curiosity I found a ticket for 28€+9€ for administration fees and insurance= 37€. That was perfect to me! Leaving me more money for an OK hostel/hotel, knowing Paris is expensive.
I have booked my ticket so everything is getting better, and the bus company is Eurolines.
By the way, the ticket I booked is a Promo ticket, which means that I can’t cancel it, or at least there is no refund at all, and I pay a bit more, I think, to change something like the dates, so that might be the negative point, and otherwise, just choose a Standard ticket, which costs around 20€-30€ more than the Promo ticket.
Anyway, next time I’ll talk about the accommodation/hotel/hostel, and maybe give you some links to some places I have found.
Spendings: 37€
Lots of love,
Ines
Xx
