Surviving Summer in Paris on a Budget

Paris is not cheap but not as expensive anyone thinks. My college mates, friends and even family told me how the city would break my bank balance before I got to the Summer course. I had the lucky opportunity from my college to study a business short course in Arnhem, Netherlands studying with one of my few closest friends, Sumaiya. So here's how we enjoyed Paris on a student budget.

Gelato outside the Tower

We arrived in central Paris, after a long, tiring nine-hour bus ride from Amsterdam preceded by two 8-hour flights with 4-hour connection. We took a bus from Ouibus services since it was cheaper and well-recommended (I mean a return ticket cost €55) and you get to sight-see a bit of Belgium since we went through the country. We had a bit of a hiccup on our first night at a "hotel" that we would probably never visit again. The hotel matched its price (€50), but it's reviews were super-flawed. The whole area where the hotel was situated was quite dodgy, except for the pizza place we went to for assistance, but let's just say at least we went to the ghettos in Paris.

The next day, we went to Gare du Noisy-le Grand station to meet up with my long-time Parisian friend, Tatiana, and since we are students, we would be crashing in her student apartment in Champs-sur-Marne before vacating out for Summer break. While Tatiana was out, Sumaiya and I were familiarising ourselves with the area, to our takeover of Paris. Taxis are quite expensive in Paris so don't be afraid of using the metro. We got a week metro card for €22.50 and it's unlimited train rides for a week.

Leaving the ghettos of Paris

Considering I had been Paris before, in 2013, I still had vague memory of where certain places where. Tatiana lived in Champs-sur-Marne which was two minutes away from her college, affordable places to eat from, the metro station and twenty minutes away from Euro Disney (get week tickets as they work out cheaper than weekend passes - luckily we took ad . Actually, we could see the Sleeping Beauty castle top outside her apartment. After Sumaiya broke her fast (religious fast aka Ramadan Mubarak) we headed down to a halal version of McDonald's close to our apartment, note this was my first time having a MACON cheeseburger. Yep, macon also known as fake bacon. Besides the fact that it was fake bacon, the burger was divine. 

Next two days were our outing days, we first headed off to the Eiffel Tower (my second time), unfortunately, this time it was rather a bit crowded than my previous time in 2013, especially now they have additional security and a security gate after the 2015 Paris bombings. I have a bit of a sad thing to report about this visit to La Tour Eiffel, I got robbed.

Merci beaucoup Tour de Eiffel

Yes, I have only been been robbed once first hand in South Africa, but as soon as I got on a plane, I became a victim all over again. Okay, it was not a hectic robbery, more like daylight robbery as two women posing a charity asked us for a donation, I planned on donating €2 which may seem cheap to them (in rands = R32) but they took a whole whopping €10 (R320) from my wallet, which upset me, only to be told by one of the French policemen that those ladies are GYPSIES (and not the cool kind). However I didn't let that damper my mood for the day. We headed for the infamous Champs-Elysèes Avenue, and every time I visit the avenue, I just get awe-struck by the number of clothes that my bank account can handle! 

Nothing says I love shopping more than visiting every single shop on Champs-Elysèes Avenue. Regular department stores to Designer stores, we did not even have the money to purchase at the designer stores such as Gucci and the Louis Vuitton House but the mere fact that we could go inside look and touch expensive designer wear and get our hearts broken by the prices made the experience worthwhile. And of course, the scenery. If you take the metro, the station is on the corner of Arc-de-Triomphe monument and Champs-Elysèes and it was amazing. We even visited the Bastille monument and the Notre-Dame cathedral.

The following day, we visited the Louvre museum, the Tuileries garden and the Champs-Elysèes Avenue again (believe me, this was a shopping paradise at the expense of my sunken bank balance). Now believe me, the Louvre is no child's play. This is well-secured no-nonsense taking museum. And for extra Euro's you could get a private tour around the entire museum (including the sacred areas) otherwise, if you were like us, you'd follow the marked areas and security to places the general public can see. But you see a whole lot, it would take more than a year to see all art pieces in the Louvre, but at least we saw the important ones such as the pyramid, the Mona Lisa (although the digital modified version not proper original) and others.

Skylighting Pyramid inside the Louvre Museum

Later, we headed to Creteil, a suburb just outside central Paris, where again I shopped, but at a bargain. Let me tell you a secret, every time I travel abroad I always look for Primark shops - a franchise shop filled with past season trends and designer clothes at amazing prices, similar to Mr. Price in South Africa. After this thrilling shopping experience, we had dinner courtesy of Ms Josiane and Esther (aka Tatiana’s mum and sister) at Del Arte Ristorante – an artisanal restaurant that serves pizzas, pasta and tapas. And a great way to end the evening, a little African reunion in Tatiana’s family. It was honestly an amazing evening out.

Artisinal dinner with Tatiana's family.

The weekend festivities were quite a blur from all the fun. On Saturday, we went to Euro Disney. Aah, had an amazing experience again an exhilaration and flashback of my childhood faves. Since this was not my first time at Euro-Disney, I had a few surprises up for Sumaiya but it turned out I still know nothing about the place. Compared to my visit in 2013, things had changed, a few of the fantasy rides I went on were either gone or busy being maintained. Quite a lot of the rides in Disneyland Park were being maintained but that didn’t distract the crowd and since it was Summer it was rather a bit crowded compared to my 2013 visit (went during March aka end of Winter in Europe). 

The life of Euro Disney lies on this side of the amusement park, they have hourly parades from different Disney princesses and other characters (I got a selfie with a gorgeous, hunky Aladdin and pretty Elsa from Frozen) ending off with an extravagant parade from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang, Disney Princess with their beaus and other characters like Olaf, Elsa and Brandy (from Brandy and Mr. Whiskers). I wish I went later in the year though so I could see Moana of Monutui, apparently, she made her debut appearance during the Christmas season. 

Walt Disney Studios is also a great amusement park, most of the rides on this side of the park are your action-packed or scary-thrilling rides. My heart is still racing after I took a leap of faith on the Big Thunder Mountain, the ride went in loops: up, down, sharp left, sharp right and over. At some point, it stood still, while I WAS UPSIDE-DOWN!! And don’t even get me started on the Haunted Mansion, five floors of pure scary antics and pranks.

Sunday was dramatic story, firstly we missed our scheduled train to the bus station to go to Amsterdam. Secondly, we took a cab to the bus station (Ouibus) but we were just a minute late. Our bus pulled off to the Parisian traffic on its way to Amsterdam, wow – Europeans are punctual – so we had to wait three hours for another bus, but at least this bus ride was quicker since there were 15 of us from Paris and it even arrived 20 minutes before our scheduled one! Lastly, but most hilarious and scary simultaneously, our bus went through an expected checking point before we left Paris. The police ransacked our bus and luggage, we were checked for drugs and other illegal substances. Please note I have a huge fear of dogs, especially police dogs. And these were French! After an intense and gruelling “interrogation”, a couple from our bus had to remain behind since the man was carrying some suspicious pills.

After that long journey, we finally made it to Amsterdam, we got a train to the airport to meet up with one of our Summer school co-ordinators, but not without a minor argument between friends.

More about my summer school experience and the travels in-between to follow on my next post in August.