Day One: $1,000 Remaining
“Nice shoes!” read the welcome mat inside the CitizenM Paris Gare de Lyon hotel —a fitting quip since I already knew I would be walking a lot to avoid expensive ride-shares and taxis. I chose the spunky Marriott property between the Seine and the train station primarily for its location, around five minutes on foot from the train and 15 to the 11th arrondissement and the Marais, the neighborhoods where I planned to spend the most time. The price ($440 for two nights) helped too. First impressions had me doubting my decision: Unfinished plywood lined the cramped elevator and my room—a snug, white space-age capsule—looked like it had emerged from a 3-D printer.
Good thing I didn’t come to Paris to sit in a hotel. Armed with a lobby coffee and croissant (the rate includes breakfast), I was on the Left Bank of the Seine within minutes.
Along the riverside path, cyclists rode with the wind and a trio of young filmmakers recorded pigeons fluttering around “La Grande Fenêtre,” a 1974 abstract work at the Outdoor Sculpture Museum . After touring the free collection, I headed to the nearby Arab World Institute ($13), where I spent much of the visit gazing at a Persian calligraphy kit. In the next gallery, a 15th-century Quran was displayed alongside a North African Torah and Coptic Christian Bible.
My first splurge came in the Marais. I knew my budget wouldn’t work for dinner at Datil , a petite one-star-Michelin restaurant, but I thought I could swing lunch. In the rear open kitchen, Manon Fleury turned humble winter produce into memorable dishes: Fried sweet-potato threads mimicked a mini funnel cake, dabbed with loquat jam. Carrots came liquefied into a ginger consommé. Among the many memorable meals I’ve had in Paris, it stood out—and at $120, it would be the most expensive of this trip.
Nearby at Café Nuances , a cool-kids hangout with Kool-Aid-red lighting, a barista in a vintage Harley-Davidson bomber passed me a latte prepared with a smoky Indonesian “Coffee & Cigarettes” blend ($6). I’d stopped in on my way to the free Carnavalet Museum . Among the oil paintings, art deco ephemera and geological artifacts, I wasn’t expecting a preserved memorial from the days following the 2015 terrorist attacks, and it leveled me. My wife and I were in Paris during the tragedy and a decade later, the emotional tether I feel to the city remains taut.
Come nightfall, I walked to the 11th arrondissement, known for its dining and shopping. At Ursa Major , a boutique chocolaterie inspired by the solar system and run by a trio of sisters, a clerk boxed my 12-piece cache of glitter-dusted bonbons and painterly planets ($15). Another gawked in horror as a squealing toddler tore through the store while their mom examined the chocolate moon rocks.
For dinner, I went old school at À La Renaissance , a century-old, recently revived bistro with chunky terrazzo floors and burgundy banquettes. I opted for the classics: onion soup, retro vol-au-vent overflowing with mushrooms and, for dessert, an île flottante heady with vanilla and caramel. Dinner cost even less than I’d planned ($69), which left room for a nightcap ($15) at Tarántula , a new Franco-Mexican spot with sexy black and white interiors that immediately made me feel like I’d stepped into a 1930s noir.
Day Two: $322 Remaining
Despite my shaky initial impression, I soon came around to CitizenM. I slept peacefully and appreciated the room’s functionality, including a tablet that controlled the lights, thermostat and TV. It’s no Ritz, but a quick search showed rooms there going for around ten times the rate of my chosen abode.
In my quest to prove that quintessentially Parisian experiences can be had without exorbitant fees, I went in search of affordable perfumery workshops. I found one in the Marais, at the tranquil Japanese concept store Ogata . Fragrance specialist Eriko Kobayashi led me down into the atelier, a barrel-vaulted cellar furnished with glass curio cabinets, hanging brass scales and a long table for my scent-blending experience ($92).
“In Japan you want to have an identity with fragrance but without disturbing [others],” she said, advice I could have used in the early 2000s when I’d bathe in Acqua di Gio. The Japanese accomplish subtle scenting with nioi-bukuro , breathable sachets. To make my own, I alchemized a potpourri of sandalwood, hinoki wood, palo santo, mint, patchouli and tachibana orange. Tucked into a pocket, the muslin pouch has kept my wool winter overcoat smelling fresh—and reminding me of Paris—all season.
Parisian set menus are a budget-conscious traveler’s best friend and at Pluto , a lively cafe nearby, I ordered one that included crispy Scotch egg, tomatoey Réunion Island stew and citrus cake soaked in orange-blossom syrup ($47). The Metro is cheap, but walking’s cheaper, and this being Paris, I happily strolled half an hour to Fondation Cartier (admission $17), which recently relocated to the 1st arrondissement.
Architect Jean Nouvel hollowed out the 19th-century Haussmann building to easily adapt tech-heavy immersive installations, including a typically trippy James Turrell. To kill some time before cocktail hour, I visited the free Richelieu Library , where I joined other tourists peering into the Labrouste Room, canopied with a Byzantine-inspired nine-dome ceiling.
At the Bar Les Ambassadeurs at Rosewood’s lavish Hôtel de Crillon, a bartender in an immaculate white jacket stirred together a drink called Flowers, a cognac old-fashioned perfumed with vetiver and vanilla, before pouring it over a large cube embossed with the Crillon’s monogram. At $54 (including tip and water) it cost more than the dinner I’d lined up at Breizh Café .
The Metro ($5) brought me to the Marais location of this Breton-style crêperie where I paired a potato, bacon and Reblochon Savoyard galette with a crêpe filled with housemade apple compote and salted caramel ($31). For the whole walk home, my clothes smelled of Breizh’s signature buckwheat and brown butter. They could sell it at Ogata.
Day Three: $76 Remaining
Up against an early afternoon flight, I cut two more museums from my list: the Victor Hugo House and the Cognacq-Jay. Instead, I looped the Seine and the Bastille and on the way back to the hotel, stopped at Olga Vins et Fromages and picked up a baguette layered with racy Bleu d’Auvergne and preserved Amarena cherries ($11). With $65 left, and no time to spend it on souvenirs, I nixed my plans to take public transportation to Charles de Gaulle and hailed a completely unnecessary—but spectacularly convenient—car service ($63).
What to
Skip
and Where to
Spend
On your next trip to Paris, consider this your cheat sheet to making sure your euro goes far
SKIP high-end dinners, SPEND on splurgey lunches
Lunch is the less-expensive back door into Paris’s acclaimed restaurants. At Datil, for example, the five-course meal costs around $113 versus nearly $200 for dinner’s seven courses. The exquisite cooking and warm service remain the same.
SKIP the Museum Pass, SPEND on individual visits
At around $101 for two days, the popular Museum Pass stinks like Époisses unless you’re definitely doing the Louvre (about $38 on its own). Instead, pick and choose your paid museums and balance with the many free ones.
SKIP viral pastries, SPEND on everyday excellence
Influencer-driven bottlenecks have become commonplace at Paris’s Insta-famous patisseries. Why deal with that when the fruit-filled madeleines at Le Comptoir , the shop at the Ritz hotel, and berry-jeweled tartelettes at Tapisserie , from the Septime gang, offer excellence without the drama?
