Paris is Burning A Seven Day Guide - On the Cheap by Jerry Brown Black & White Magazine, September, 1993 Life had come to that point again. It was clear that I not only needed to pack my khakis and get the hell out of town, but, much to the horror of those nearest and dearest, that I needed to do it alone. I only had a week, but the possibilities turned out to be surprisingly rich. I could take a nice little place on the beach in Gulf Shores, where I could doze in the surf and drink all night with the rednecks I was trying to escape. Or I could take a different route altogether, book a small room on the Right Bank in Paris, indulge myself in a heady dose of culture and vin rouge, do everything imaginable, physically, intellectually and otherwise, and have the time of my life. I decided on the latter, not for the obvious reasons, which are numerous, but because, hard as this may be to believe, Paris is cheaper. I decided to find out how cheap. I knew the city well, but had never trekked through it alone. And certainly never on a budget. Quite the opposite. So in that sense, at least, it would be an entirely new experience. With that in mind, what follows is Black & White's Guide to Going Solo -- on the Cheap -- in the City of Lights. A Commencer First of all, there are at least three cities that occupy the site called Paris. One is haute Paris, where a decent room will set you back six big ones and the bill for a pleasant dinner will produce an effect similar to cardiac arrest. This is a city woven into a shimmering double helix of big money and serious chic, where families are as old as the moon and sex is rarely as civilized as the silver. This is the big table, folks. Take a seat here, if you can afford it, and beautiful women will gush, head waiters will grovel and hotel managers will bend at the knee. Speak more than two words of French and they will all slobber at once. Your every need will be seen to, and most of your jewelry, along with your wallet, will be gone within a week. Outside that orbit, however, you're just a tourist, no matter how high your Visa limit. This is a very different Paris. It can be a slap in the face to the uninitiated and can strike you as sharp and chilly even at 80 degrees. But if you walk around with your nose in a guidebook and take up the whole sidewalk, you probably deserve it. But neither of these is the Paris we're going to. Ours is a hearty, fun-loving city, more sausage than tournedo, a Paris on foot, starting early in the morning, our eyes up, our imaginations engaged, discarding everything but the glory of the city itself, the people that enliven it and the history that has created it. But first, some advice. Buy a good guidebook on Paris and read through it before you get there. I bought Frommer's, Fodor's, which are terrific, and something called Let's Go, which I never read. Most importantly, learn some French. Check out one of those cassette things at the library and spend a couple of weeks getting a handle on the language. Even if you only learn a little, you will have a much better time. Parisians, who generally don't waste time with anyone, will be impressed, if not touched, by your efforts and actually attempt to be helpful. Otherwise the earth could open up and swallow you whole before they would offer a hand. This is especially true if you're traveling alone, which turned out to have both its pleasures and its hazards. It's the easiest thing in the world to meet people in Paris, especially if you know a little French and can help out a fellow tourist. Depending on your mood, you can choose to be with other people or not. And there were times, I must admit, when I felt a painful twinge or two of loneliness, but it was significantly less annoying that the fights and bouts of clinched teeth I would have had with a traveling companion. So, go for it. With 7 days notice, American Airlines can fly you from Birmingham to Paris for only $186 more than their regular coach fare to Mobile. Hard as that is to believe, I flew for even less, $22.44---including $1.44 for Agricultural tax, whatever the hell that is---for which I got a First Class seat on TWA, thanks to whoever invented frequent flyer programs. But a good travel agent can always get you a deal, especially if you go in September or October, which many consider the best time to visit. For a place to stay, I recommend the Hotel Britannique, at 20, Avenue Victoria, which is one block off the Seine, five blocks east of the Louvre and four blocks from Notre Dame. More central than that you can't get. For only $111 a day, I had a double bed in a room that was spotless as a nickle and about as big. Loaded with character it was not, but it had a full bath, a mini-bar and two french doors onto faux balconies overlooking the Avenue. There was also cable tv, complete with CNN and MTV in English and a channel that played reruns of Married With Children dubbed in German, an experience not to be missed. With any luck, your flight will be uneventful, but when you land at Charles de Gualle---the closest thing on earth to DS-9---be prepared for a shock. The taxi into town will set you back forty to sixty bucks---your biggest cash outlay, unless you buy a tie, which for some reason are always sixty bucks, on sale, even at the tackiest shops. Since most flights from the U.S. arrive early in the morning and since checkout isn't until noon, your room probably won't be ready. Which is the way it should be. Store your bags and valuables and get started. Day 1 - Je Suis Ici! Head straight out the door of the hotel for the Seine, one block away. When you reach it, the view---in either direction---will take your breath away. Collect yourself, and head for the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris. Cross it to the Ile de la Cite, take the ancient steps down to the tip of the island, past the tourists boats---more on that later---and head for the angled point which juts out into the river. At the very tip is an old, solitary chestnut tree that has witnessed everything from Marie Antoinette trundling off to the guillotine to the joys and jubilations of Armistice and the tremors of Concorde. Lean back against the old bark and take it all in. You are at the exact geographical center of everything we know as western civilization. As you look around you, you will see both the origins and the results of everything that has gone into making you who you are. Not just the art and architecture, which are astonishing enough, but the thoughts, principles, politics, dialogues, wars and revolutions behind them. Smile or cry as the mood strikes you, then hike back across the Pont Neuf to the Louvre and check out I.M. Pei's glass pyramid in the courtyard. The effect, when you first round the corner and see it, is like being thrust a thousand years into the future. Since it will still be early in the morning, this will be the only opportunity you'll have to actually get in the Louvre, which opens at nine. By ten, the lines are already spreading like the giant centipedes in Naked Lunch. Once you get in, go through as much of the museum as you can tolerate, then head for the gift shop and buy a nice book on all the parts you missed. If you want to feel like a real cognoscenti, head for the Chalcographie on the same level, one of the Louvre's great secrets, a gallery where you can buy prints from an extraordinary collection of antique and contemporary plates for as little as forty or fifty dollars. After the Louvre, head for W. H. Smith, the English bookstore nearby on the rue de Rivoli. Inside the front door will be stack of free tabloids---in English---which list all the upcoming events for the week, along with some relevant gossip on the English and American communities. Get back to the hotel---your room should be ready by this point---shower and change for lunch. Your stomach will probably be a little wheezy at this point---especially if you've flown coach---so I'd suggest a traditional omelet with pommes frites, a bottle of sparkly water and a couple---or several---glasses of good wine. I stumbled onto a surprisingly trendy spot to satisfy all of the above right in the middle of the Seine, the Brasserie de l'Ile, beside the footbridge to Notre Dame, on the tip of the Ile-St-Louis. The menu was moderately priced and the terrace was peppered with what looked like movie people---they were probably in advertising---and only a spattering of tourists. The atmosphere is lively and view of the river, Notre Dame and the surrounding city is the perfect aperitif for the experiences to follow. After lunch, take in the rest of the tiny Ile-St-Louis, which is mostly residential---a branch of the Rothschilds live here, which tells you how much a 17th century town house goes for---then cross over to Ile de la Cite and check out the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned during the Revolution, Notre Dame, La Sainte-Chapelle and anything else that strikes your fancy, including some wonderfully tacky souvenir shops. A helpful hint. On your way back to the hotel, stop at the Codec supermarket, which is around the corner on the rue Deux Boulles---and, yes, that's exactly what it means. The store is like a tiny, downscale Vincent's, where you can buy wine, soft drinks---Diet Coke in France is actually Tab, so be warned---and freshly prepared snacks for the room for a lot less than the mini-bar. After you've rested up, head for dinner at a Parisian institution famous for bargain meals, Trumilou, six blocks up river. Noisy, bustling and bright as the Sahara sun, it is a brash mix of locals and tourists and a perfect introduction to some real bistro cooking. You can spend a little or as much as you like, since they offer two prix fixe menus, one of which starts at a little over ten bucks. If you're alone, you'll be seated at the long table in the center, where you can keep to yourself or talk to your neighbors, if you find them appealing. You can also sit outside, but be warned, you'll be about three feet from the traffic, which is intense. After dinner---if you can still walk---head back to the Ile de la Cite for one of the Vedette cruises up and down the Seine. These boats are a lot cheaper and less pretentious than the Bateaux Mouches, which are moored further downstream. In either case, the lights and the sights, especially after dark, will absolutely blow you away. You'll be reeling afterwards, so for a steadying nightcap, head for Harry's Bar near the old Opera. (Yes, you'll need a map on this trip.) The place will be filled with other Americans, both expatriates and tourists, who can fill you in on what's hot. If you've decided you don't like being alone, it's also a good place to find someone to team up with. And, of course, this being Paris, the degree to which you want to team up is entirely up to you. Anyway, that should enough for the first day. Now that you've got the gist of it, what follows is a day to day guide on how to see everything worth seeing and still come home with loose change in your pocket. I averaged a hundred dollars a day---on top of the hotel, which had to be paid in advance, in cash---for everything, including gifts and two pair of shoes. Lunch, curiously enough, no matter where I stopped or what I had, always cost about twenty dollars. Dinner was usually around thirty. A cafe or wine at an outdoor cafe were generally two and four dollars respectively. As to the other details, I will leave them to the guide books. Just know that most Metro lines in Paris connect to the stop right outside the hotel. Day 2 - Le Marais The Marais is the oldest section of Paris, and, until a few years ago, its most virulent slum. Many of the old mansions---called hotels, just to confuse you---have been wonderfully restored, making this the hottest real estate in western Europe. The must-sees here are Place des Vosges, a 16th century town square with 39 identical houses, built by Henri IV to annoy his wife, the Hotel de Soubise, now the National Archives and still the most beautiful building in Paris, and the Carnavalet and Piccaso museums, both of which are unequalled, for different reasons, anywhere in the world. The hideous Beaubourg, Paris' contemporary museum, slightly to the west of the Marais, should be seen, if not entered. The only reason to visit is the Cafe Beaubourg, on the square adjacent, for wine or cafe. It's a high-tech eye-opener. For lunch, go to Bofinger's, a classic brasserie a few blocks from Place des Vosges. Prices tend to be more moderate than cheap, but still within budget. Le Bistrot du Dome Bastille, right across the street, is also highly recommended, and has a reasonable prix fixe menu, if you like your neighbors trendy and you fish nouvelle. Soak your feet when you get back to the hotel, then head next door to the pizzeria for a pleasant French twist on Rocky's, or to le Monk Trappist across the street, for a thousand varieties of beer and bowls and bowls of steamed mussels. After dinner, head back to the Marais. Straight, gay or anywhere in between, your street of dreams is the rue Vieille-du-Temple. It's as if the spirit of Soho and Tribeca were suddenly imposed upon 17th century Paris. The effect is intoxicating. The attractions are bars, open air cafes, restaurants, theatres, late night galleries and the lure of doing it in the city where every American needs to do it at least once. Day 3 - Rive Gauche I hate the Left Bank. It's expensive and overrated. Still, if you must, there are some interesting things to see. Like the Arenes de Lutece, a recently excavated arena dating from Roman times, when Paris was a remote garrison. The tiny Place de la Contrescarpe, a few blocks away, is the closest thing you'll find to the Paris of La Boheme. Near the Sorbonne, the square is a notorious student hangout, crowded with bars, cafes and a disco, Le Rayon Vert, that even I was afraid to go into. The Jardin du Luxembourg, a few blocks further, is the most beautiful garden in Paris and is haven to a large number of joggers, male and female, who seem to be there for anything but jogging. If you like the athletic type, this should probably be your first stop. For lunch, you can try the famous Deux Magots or Cafe de Flore, of Hemingway fame, but only if you like being insulted by waiters and bilked as a tourist. My advice is to head back across the river and check out Les Halles, a futuristic re-do of the famous old piss pot of onion soup fame. It's like the Galleria times a hundred, and you can find some good fashion bargains inside. The Cafe Costos, which is on the square beside Les Halles, is truly wonderful. And somewhat moderate. For dinner, I recommend a place you should return to every night. I certainly did. Au Chatelet Gourmand is a beautiful little place right around the corner from the hotel. Michel Foussard, the chef, and his wife Roseline, the maitress d', have created something truly extraordinary. The restaurant features classic French cuisine at its best, if a little lighter, with two prix fixe menus, one for a little under twenty dollars, another for around thirty. My first meal included escargots in tiny little pasties, sliced duck breast over a Calvados sauce with a heavenly and almost sweet ratouille, various cheeses and an array of sorbets. I was in such ecstasy that I attracted the attention of Roseline, and ended up getting into conversations with just about everyone in the restaurant. I had found a home. After which I went out and played heavily. So should you. Day 4 - Versailles or Euro-Disney You can take your pick on this one. Both are reached on trains that go in opposite directions. Euro-Disney cost $40+ to get in, t-shirts start at $35 and a hot dog, small bag of chips and a flat coke will set you back $10. And they wonder why nobody buys anything. But there's Star Tours---in French, which is weird---and a new Indiana Jones ride that's the equivalent, times ten, of Space Mountain. Versailles, on the other hand, is the site where most of modern history first gained its momentum. It is the mind-boggling palace built by Louix XIV, the Sun King, and inhabited by his heirs until the invention of the guillotine, which, after experiencing the staggering excess of the palace and gardens, seems a lot less cruel. A visit to the Hameau is almost a must, the small village Marie Antoinette had built to architectural perfection so she could milk cows and gossip with her maids. That and the trianons, the small palaces built as getaways, a few yards from the big house, as it were, will also set your mind agog. Napoleon was especially fond of the "grande" one when he took it over, which should come as no suprise. If you haven't seen Versailles, do. Enough said. For dinner, head straight back for Au Chatelet Gourmand. Then go back to the hotel, watch tv and get some sleep. Day 5 - Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower, La Defense You'll need an early start, because we've saved all the traditional stuff for today, which takes longer because the lines are longer. Check your map so you'll be sure to stroll by the Place de la Concorde, Place Vendome, home of the Ritz, Maxim's on Rue Royale---just to say you've been there---Le Madelaine, an 18th century imitation of the Parthenon, the rue du Foubourg St-Honore, home to Cartier and most of haute Paris, and the Champs-Elysees, which has, unfortunately, grown to resemble some of the worst parts of Fifth Avenue in New York. But the Arc de Triomphe and the Tour Eiffel, a few blocks away, still stand above the pale. (We saved these for last, by the way, so that you'd know what you were looking at when you got to the top.) For Lunch, stop in at L'Assiette du Boeuf on the Champs-Elysees. It's a chain, surprisingly enough, but it's very good and very cheap. Try for one of the tables outside to make the experience complete. Then you can leave this part of town forever. Take the Metro out to La Defense after lunch for a truly shocking look at modern French architecture. The place is quite lively, considering, with all sorts of raucous games in the public square which, you'll be happy to know, are open to the stout of heart. For dinner, try something else wonderful at Au Chatelet Gourmand and head for the pleasures of your choice. Day 6 - Souvenirs Now that you've completely indulged yourself for almost a week, think about your loved ones and go buy some presents. It will probably be an interestingly melancholy day for you, just thinking about going home. Go back and revisit some of the places you enjoyed and you'll be surprised how much you missed the first time. For dinner, ask Michel and Rosaline at Au Chatelet Gourmand to make you something special, a la carte. Leave it up to them, as they will know your tastes by then. If you're lucky, Sandrine, their exceptionally beautiful daughter, will wait on you. After dinner, stroll back to the Pont Neuf and the old chestnut at tip of the Ile de la Cite. It will be completely different at night. If you've met someone by this point, it can be truly astonishing, as this is the world's most intoxicating spot for lovers. You will now be looking out over a city and a people you've come to know, listening to the rhythm of reggae and the steel drum bands from the Pont des Arts across the river ahead of you. To me, this is always the final nightcap, the place I always return to before leaving, looking into the heart of a city that can offer everything that really matters, a city of perpetual surprise and delight. Stand there and take it in for all its worth. Because tomorrow, you'll be heading back for reality and a city that has the audacity to call itself magic. ‹back to top›‹close window›