Travel with me: visiting Paris on a budget

New year, new adventures! What a better start for the new year than visiting the city of Love? Paris is one of the most popular cities in the entire world, but it can be pretty expensive as well so it can be tricky going there when you don't have the extra money to spend.

Usually, I would try to walk as much as I could around the city to really enjoy it and also to save up on the metro fare. Unfortunately for me, it was winter, so all the beauty of the city came combined with strong winds, low temperatures and water falling from the skies straight onto my face (a.k.a. rain). I hat to take the metro.

The good thing was that there are some discounts for youngsters (25 y.o. and younger), so the day pass is cheaper than advertised online. Also, if you won't use the public system that often, you can buy the 'cadernet' with 10 single tickets and share with someone else traveling with you. Because Paris is a HUGE city, you might need to use the metro once in a while to get from some touristic sights to others, where you can take pictures with the city features as the background.

You know, Paris is a city that has so much to offer for the tourists: Eiffel tower, museums, Versailles, churches, etc. So in just a few days (and with a tight budget), a girl gotta choose one or the other. Lucky for me, I was in Paris just 10 days before my 26th birthday and I could access some of these attractions for FREE!!

That's right! If you are a citizen for the EU (I also have an European nationality) and younger than 26, you can get access to a bunch of interesting places for free.. including the Louvre*. The only downside is that you have to wait in a huge line, but hey, it is part of the experience.

This made me super happy because otherwise I would have probably just passed by some of these places and waved 'hi' from the outside, like the Arc de Triomphe.

I must confess I was not even that excited to see the Louvre because I had been there before, but the first time I went there, it was all because of Mona Lisa (shame on me) and I didn't even enjoy the Museum properly. This time around, I had time to kill and what impressed me the most were some of the sculptures of the Greek gods. I'm a bit of a sucker for Greek mythology and they were breathtaking.

Once again I was disappointed by the Mona Lisa. Don't get me wrong, the painting is beautiful and indeed looks like her eyes are following you from anywhere you stand in the room, the painting is just much smaller than I imagined or remembered (and it is always super crowded there with people trying to take selfies with her).

Apart from the cultural aspect of it, the Louvre was also a nice resting place and I went there a few times when I wanted to sit and use the wifi, or if it was raining a lot outside, etc. The thing is, when you see the beautiful glass pyramid of the Louvre (with the queue in front of it), you get the impression that after that queue, you get straight in the admission, ticket office, whatever. But, that is not true.

(This pyramid)

That queue is only the security queue, so you can have your bags checked and pass through the x-ray machine. You then go down the stairs into a kind of huge lobby, where there are benches, a cafe, free toilets and wifi, the gift shop, machines to charge your phone, etc. So it is quite handy if you need to kill time or just use the facilities and before you ask me... No, I did not wait in line just to do that. But there is a kind of 'back entrance'. via the Carrousel mall, where you get straight into the same lobby, without waiting in the long queue (you're welcome :).

What I thought it was actually very funny was that the prices for food and drinks at main attractions like the Louvre or the Eiffel tower were just normal. In fact, they were cheaper than in bars/ restaurants outside. So if you want a nutella crepe or a hot chocolate to keep you happy while you wait, it will not set you back dozens of euros (unlike the rest of the city).

I know that food is very important when traveling, because you cannot cook for yourself and you wanna try the local cuisine so I will be talking about this in my next post (it will be like visiting Paris on a budget part 2, so this won't be too long). But at the end of the day, like me, if you are traveling on a budget, it can be done. You should not pass the opportunity of visiting somewhere I'd like to go because I won't be able to have a luxurious holiday or just try everything there... You will enjoy more going around the city and trying random things than just going to the 'touristic recommended spots'. Paris is a such a beautiful city, the buildings, the bridges, the entire atmosphere of the city makes you want to discover it more. So even with bad weather, even in the middle of the winter, you will enjoy walking outside and appreciating what it has to offer, to you and your camera.

• The Louvre also offers free entrance for all nationals under 26th on Fridays from 18h (but please check their website just to confirm).