true life planet

So, alot of people told me it was impossible to spend two weeks in Paris on a budget of 12 dollars a day. Well, guess what? You guys were wrong. I managed to be there for two weeks-and had a wonderful time-by doing almost everything on this list. Read it and weep- or go buy a plane ticket to the City of Lights and try it out for yourself.

60 Free Things to do in Paris, in no particular order whatsoever: Number 1-20:

1. Listen to country music. You’ll hear it..eerily enough, right by the famous ferris wheel in near the Tuileries garden.

2.Learn all about gardening-and appreciate a few of the world’s most beautiful gardens. Tuleries,Luxemburg, and the Botanical and Alpine gardens are good places to start.

3. While you are in the Tuleries, keep on walking..and looking around at all the free sculpture, by everyone from Rodin to Moore to Roy Lichenstein. Yes, the Rodin museum is great-but there are loads and loads of his sculptures here, too-all for free.

4. Come to think of it. while you are at the Botanical gardens, keep walking towards the Seine and you’ll find a wonderful Plein Air Museum, full of outdoor sculpture.

5, If you time your visit to Paris between May and September, you can walk just below the Plein Air Museum and watch tango dancers every night of the week, dancing on the Quai St. Bernard. Or, if  you show up at 7pm, you can get free dance lessons.

6. Go hunting for antiques. It’s still fun if you can’t actually afford to buy them. Good antique shops-over a hundred-line the Rive Gauche. One of my favorite antique shops was off the Place de Palais Royal, called the Louvre des Antiques.

7. Meet Parisians. I can’t tell you how friendly and nice most Parisians are. Their crabby reputation is undeserved. Be nice and make an effort and they will generally go out of their way for you in return. I made alot of friends in cafes, in art museums, in parks, in bakeries..you name it. But the city also has a program for tourists where you can wander around and meet Parisians where they work-for free. Go to www.parisinfo.com and scroll to the “meet the Parisians” page, and it will tell you how. I suggest the “Parisians at Work” program.

8. Be an art snob. You don’t have to have money to like-or not like-art. There are loads of free art galleries around all of the museums, some more friendly to tourists than others. My favorite one is called La Maison Rouge, and it’s in the Marias district. It’s wacky and modern, and changed  the shows hanging twice in the two weeks I was there.

9. Hang out with students. One of my favorite places I went was the Sorbonne University. It’s beautiful, it’s walkable, it’s full of interesting people..and there are many interesting things to do, all for free-like free art, for example. Students also will know about things to do in the city that are free.

10. Go where students hang out-visit the Latin Quarter. 

11. Discover Arabic culture, which is thriving in Paris. The Latin Quarter is a good place to start, but there are other places around Paris with a Middle Eastern feel. The Latin Quarter has some wonderful Arabic bookshops to browse in, which have many interesting books, artwork, and so on. The Arabic Institute in the neighborhood, is beautiful, and you can see some of the things for free. There are free Arabic music concerts and events-, which are advertised in the bookstores and cafes-particularly at the end of Ramadan. the view from the top of the Institute is one of the nicest in Paris, with out the crowds-or the hefty ticket price-it’s free, of course!

12. Walk around the Pletzl. This Jewish neighborhood, sometimes referred to as the Marais neighborhood, is my favorite neighborhood in Paris. It’s the closest thing you will find to what Paris kind of looked like in Medieval times, and it has some lovely old timbered buildings. It also has beautiful temples and the oldest synogague in Paris.It’s also a wonderful glimpse into Jewish culture in Paris today..full of shops, bakeries, and great people watching.

13. While you are in the Pletzl neighborhood, visit the Memorial de la Shoah. This fantastic memorial to the Holocaust will be something you never forget. It’s informative and well thought out, and you will end up knowing more about the Vichy government than you ever thought you could. A valuable history lesson for every visitor to Paris.

14. The neighborhood of Montmarte is another favorite of mine. It’s got a seedy side, but get past that, and you’ll fall in love with it’s buildings and history. It’s very walkable, too.

15. Cemeteries. There are loads of them, from the Montmarte Cemetery, which was my favorite, to the enormous Pere Lachaise Cemetery, to the smaller ones on the outskirts of town. They all have maps for free, and they all have famous people buried in them.

16. Visit the markets. There are so many, from the famous flea markets, to the smaller, more intimate farmer’s markets. My favorite two markets in Paris are quite small (not so many pickpockets there, either! ). One is a small farmer’s market near the Rue Monge metro station (open Mon, Wed, Sun) because its cheap and there’s a lot to look at, without it being overwhelming; and I love,love, love the bird market which is on Sundays at la St. Chapelle. A must if you love animals.

17. Take a 1/2 day and visit Parc de la Villette. This amazing place is free, and it only costs the cost of a metro ticket to get you there. There’s a canal splitting it into two, but all the free stuff is in the part called the City of Sciences and Industry. This place is amazing-and, it’s not just for kids. It’s got a beautiful free aquarium and an excellent multimedia exhibit that is free, and that changes all the time. The park itself is incredible-a huge, open green space, which comes as a welcome relief after a few days in the city. It’s a fanciful park, full of art and crazy outdoor furniture to lounge on.

18.  The Cite de la Musique, or Music Museum..isn’t free, unfortunately. But what is, is the awesome Mediatheque, a free media center,  with loads of computers waiting for you to ask any question about music in the world, from rap to indigenous music.

19. Or, maybe a  catch a film… And if you want to watch a movie for free-a good one, because the French love films and are real film buffs-with thousands of Parisians in the summer months, you can do that at Villette Park, too. Go to the Villette website above for films and times.

20. Have another  1/2 day? use another metro ticket and get yourself over to the Vincennes Wood, a breathtaking, beautiful woodland that you won’t believe is just a metro ride away from the city center. Most people go there to go visit the chateau, but..I just walked around, looked at the moat, and thought it was wonderful without paying to go inside. The Paris Floral Park is almost free, at 1 euro to get in, so I’ll list it here. It’s supposed to be for kids, but I enjoyed it tremendously-it has a puppetry, a nature library, and a gorgeous butterfly garden. But even if you don’t pay the euro for this, and just stick to the woods, you’ll love it. It feels like the past.

gigi

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