i can get by in a foreign city on very little – and paris is no exception. i’m talking food, here. give me a baguette and some cheese and i’m pretty much good to go the entire day. actually, give me bread and cheese just in general and i’m good to go – forever.

the first thing people usually say when they talk about paris is, “it’s so expensive!” maybe, if you eat out all the time and really treat yourself – sure. but if you’re on a budget i find it the same as any other city, if not cheaper. you can buy a baguette for around a euro (let’s say about 10 ZAR) and the same goes for anything you want to put on it. plus the markets are great for food shopping, obviously.

(those are giant balls of cheese, by the way)

of course there’s nothing like actually sitting at a sidewalk café in paris. just stick to drinks… and linger over them.

if you want to splash out a bit, go to montmartre and visit aux bons vins – i had the best white wine i have ever tasted there (i also said this a number of times during lunch) and the food was superb.

also, i didn’t buy any macarons (sacrilege! sacrebleu! etc!) it was my last day in paris and i had just checked my credit card balance (thanks to clothes shopping, not food) when i stumbled upon a ladureé in st germain. went in, appreciated all the goodies, watched the parisians buying giant boxes of the tiny pastel macarons, saw the prices, walked out.

see more of paris at my flickr