At the start of October, my boyfriend and I spent a weekend in Paris, a trip motivated almost entirely by Eurostar’s summer sale. Among the world-renowned streets of striped café awnings, boulangeries and keen Instagrammers, we made the most of our pre-purchased discount tickets with museum exploration, canalside strolling, bar hopping, and indulging in excessive cheese.
The weekend of our visit coincided with Paris’ annual Nuit Blanche, when museums, galleries, churches, and cafés across the city stay open all night to showcase art installations and unique events, firmly marking this on our radar as we waved London bon voyage.
Pre-trip Spending
Transport: £68 each for a return Eurostar ticket from London (£29 out, £39 back) purchased during the summer sale, with full-price tickets being considerably more.
Accommodation: £316.76 through Airbnb for three nights. This cost was split evenly between my boyfriend and me at £158.38 each. We opted to stay in Montmartre, Paris’ 18th Arrondissement, providing good transport links into the center while being a popular area in its own right—think lively bars, ivy-clad walls, ornate street lamps illuminating steep cobbled streets, and stunning skyline views from the majestic Sacre Coeur.
Total: £452.76
On the Ground
Thursday
Total: €75.20
4pm: After narrowly avoiding missing our train due to a fire alert at Kings Cross St Pancras, we decide to unwind with coffee in Eurostar’s dining carriage. We hand over €10.46 for two lattes, a few biscuits, and a KitKat.
9pm: Following a short walk to our Airbnb from Gare du Nord and enjoying a welcome beer on the apartment’s swanky balcony, we head into Montmartre. Hunger and a thirst for more beer lead us to a nearby café, where we order two happy hour bières at €5 each and a medium cheese selection (€9.90), much to the chagrin of our waiter who tries to suggest a larger option.
10:30pm: We relocate to a busier bar, Le Village, further into Montmartre, where we indulge in two small beers and fresh sardine pâté with crusty bread for €15. The barman is unusually chatty, which is fortunate since my French is très bien.
Midnight: Wrapping up our evening in another café after taking in the view of the Sacre Coeur, we spend €9 on two additional small beers, eyeing a sizable croque madame at a neighboring table, lamenting the fact that the café has just stopped serving food.
1am: After asking nearly every weary café owner about their kitchen hours, we spend €20.84 in a corner shop for bread, eggs, cheese, and ham. We then drunkenly attempt to prepare our own croque madames in the apartment’s tiny kitchen. When in Paris…
Friday
Total: €183.73
1pm: Indulging in a lazy start, we grab a couple of croissants (what else?) for €2.40 from a boulangerie on our way to the Louvre. While it would have been easy to hop on the metro, we choose to walk instead, taking in sights such as the world-famous Moulin Rouge cabaret house and its surrounding sex shops.
1:30pm: The croissants barely satisfying our hunger, we stop for two goat’s cheese tarts and two chocolate beignets for €8.60.
3pm: Thanks to some pre-trip research, we manage to bypass the monumental queues outside the Louvre’s main entrance by sneaking in via its underground shopping center. Unfortunately, a sign informs us that tickets for the day have sold out, and only online purchases are being admitted. Undeterred, we quickly grab two online tickets for 5:30pm using the museum’s free WiFi (€40.25).
4pm: To kill time before our Louvre slot, we stroll along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. After a thirty-minute walk, we realize we misjudged the distance and speed up by renting two Lime electric scooters for the remainder of the journey (€8.68).
5pm: Recognizing that the metro is superior to both walking and scooting in efficiency, we purchase two single fares and a large bottle of water at a station kiosk for €6.80. The Louvre proves worth the minor hassle to get in. After indulging in artistic masterpieces from Rembrandt, Monet, and Cezanne among others, we finally navigate towards the Mona Lisa, enduring a 1.5-hour queue before our brief, 30-second glimpse shared with a group of enthusiastic Japanese tourists.
8pm: After our encounter with the Mona Lisa, we wander along the Seine past the hauntingly charred Notre Dame towards the Latin Quarter. Having not eaten a proper meal since our arrival, we feel a strong need for food. Deciding to splurge a little, we head to Le Petit Pontoise, a cozy bistro known for traditional French cuisine. Despite initially being told there are no tables available inside, the waitress kindly turns on the outdoor heaters and seats us under the awning. We order a bottle of Sauvignon (€30), a large bottle of water (which regrettably costs €8), and a shared starter of Ravioles du Dauphiné for €14. For mains, I choose sea bass in vanilla sauce (€26), and my boyfriend opts for spiced braised pig cheeks (€26), alongside an impressive amount of complimentary bread.
10:30pm: Feeling overly satisfied, we decide to Uber back to the apartment for €13.
Saturday
Total: €213
10:30am: While munching on cereal from our previous escapade (Miel Pops, to be specific), we secure two tickets for the Rodin Museum online for €26. We then walk to the nearest metro stop and hop on for €3.80.
12pm: After spending an additional €12 on audio guides at the museum, we explore the grand chateau and gardens housing Rodin’s masterpieces, including his renowned Thinker.
2:30pm: Our energy waning, we venture to Zia, a trendy brunch spot nearby. Although we have to wait for a table since it’s small, we soon find ourselves seated and ordering a massive breakfast burrito (€16), veggie Dutch pancakes (€16), a chai latte (€5), and freshly squeezed orange juice (€5). After devouring both meals, we chat with the café owner, who shares insights on the upcoming Nuit Blanche festivities.
4:30pm: We take the metro (€3.80) to the Canal Saint-Martin neighborhood, strolling along the canal and over its bridges, before grabbing two lattes and a small sandwich in a boulangerie for €10.
6:30pm: On our way back to the apartment, we stop at a corner shop for a couple of beers to enjoy on the balcony for €6.20, preparing ourselves for the Nuit Blanche activities ahead.
9pm: We hop on the metro back towards the Latin Quarter and head straight into a café where we order a cheese plate, a beer, and a glass of red wine for €26.90. While spreading fragrant brie on crusty bread, we plan to visit a nearby cathedral hosting a Nuit Blanche exhibition and then head to Place de la Bastille to catch the end of the parade, which appears to be the main attraction for the night.
11:30pm: Upon finding the queue to enter the cathedral exhibition nearing Mona Lisa levels, we proceed to Place de la Bastille, only to discover the parade has concluded. We take refuge in a nearby bar, ordering a small beer and a glass of white wine for €9.90, indulging in the ultimate Parisian pastime—people watching.
12:30am: Heading back towards the Latin Quarter, we stop to sample live choral singing in a nearby church. We then settle in a café with one large and one small beer for €13.90, accompanied by a cigarette kindly shared with us by a waitress.
1:30am: After picking up a beer for the road in a nearby off-license (€3.60), we revisit the cathedral, successfully managing to enter the exhibit this time. While I can’t fully express its worth, there was something magical about being inside the ancient building after dark. Plus, it was free.
2am: We duck into one of the few remaining lively bars in the Latin Quarter, sharing a carafe of red wine for €12 while enjoying a live performance, which included audience participation.
3:30am: Finishing off with a final beer in a lively Spanish bar sets us back €9.90, and we brace ourselves for a wince-inducing surcharge to Uber back to the apartment for €33.
Sunday
Total: €0
8am: We trudge through a combination of heavy rain and our lingering hangovers on the half-hour walk through Montmartre towards Gare du Nord, catching our 9:13am train back to London. As it turns out, cheap tickets come at quite a cost.
The Final Tally
€471.93 + Eurostar (£168) + accommodation (£316.76) = €1,032.93/£891 (we split the cost evenly)
Notes: While we made substantial savings on our Eurostar tickets, flights from London to Paris can sometimes be cheaper than our train fare. Savings can also be achieved by choosing less touristy areas than Montmartre—consider Belleville, which is not as tourist-heavy but has a reputation for being trendy and lively. Additionally, it is possible to spend significantly less than we did on beer.
