A tight wad's guide to Paris

We visited Paris the same way as we did 2 years ago - on a shoestring. This means instead of staying in one of these...

Three of us stayed in one of these, just 15 minutes by train outside of Paris, but situated on an Island in the middle of the Seine. A snip at £165 Monday - Friday including the ferry crossing! Staying here means that we can make ourselves a decent breakfast before we go out, buy ham and cheese baguettes at the local Boulangerie for 3 euros each before we get on the train, and return to eat in the local town instead of paying Parisian prices. When 2 x coffee's, a coca cola and a very small bowl of ice cream cost 25 euro's in central Paris, you can see why it makes sense to do this!
The Eurocamp caravan was really comfy and they even greeted us with a free bottle of wine. Its not the quietest place on earth with a train line nearby,aeroplanes coming in to land and huge barges passing by, but this is a city break after all. We were very luck with the weather again and got to sit out on the deck on a couple of occasions.

The railway station is a 10 minute walk from the camp site, and the trains are every 5 minutes. They deposit you on the top of the Champs Elysee - right under the Arc de Triumphe.
The young man hates shopping, but would happily spend all his holiday in the spectacular shops on the Champs Elysee. We saw our first "celebrity " spot of the day in the Adiddas shop - Nigel Clough - son of Brian and current manager of Derby County.
We walked down towards the Place de la Concorde, the Tuilleries Gardens and the Louvre. This is one of my favourite bits of Paris.

I am blown away by the scale of everything here. The little black machine on the pyramid was cleaning the glass - so thats how they do it!

One thing I really love about Paris is that if you have enough stamina, things are close enough to see most of them in one day. We certainly charged around like loons on our first full day in the city.
I had read about the bridges where lovers leave padlocks - to signify that they will return again as lovers on Paris Daily Blog, and was delighted to come across these. Next time I am taking a padlock!! Most had their names and dates engraved on them, some had just written on them in felt tip pen. Its wonderful to know that there is so much love and hope in the world.
We hot footed it over to the left bank to find another haunt - which much to my disappointment was closed!! (just for the day!!). Its here we saw our 2nd celebrity spot - but I cannot think for the life of me what her name is. Can you help? She is a Black American lady who appears on TV - I thought she was a comedienne, but I'm sure Ive seen her on Andrew Marrs show recently. She used to be fairly large, but she has had weight loss surgery and is much slimmer now, and she has short hair. Any clues? Any way, she was as disappointed as I was to find the Shakespeare and Co closed.

Edited to say "many thanks" Rosie - it was indeed Jenni Trent Hughes.
At 6.30pm, we decided to take a trip on a Baton Mouche. Nicely timed as we were on the point of collapse! (especially the teenager!)

You get to see the fabulous detail on the amazing bridges. I introduced the phrase "Belle Epoque" (Beautiful Era) to the young man and pointed out features in the Belle Epoque style. I realised a few days later that he though I was saying "Belly Pork"!
As well as providing a nice sit down and a running commentary, we got to float through the city at dusk, and watched her change from her day time attire, into her sparkly evening gown.




A great way to end our first day.