Holiday Money Diaries: Flea markets and extortionate macarons - what I spent on an overnight break in Paris

When I was younger and infinitely cooler, I spent brief stints working in Paris, both as a frazzled assistant during Fashion Week and with a group of aspiring writers on a new magazine - a very Parisian cliché.

Despite my fondest hopes, I didn't waste away in a cloud of absinthe and syphilis in the city. Instead, I got a full-time job in London, forgot half my French and moved in with my partner, Alex, like the member of the bourgeoisie my parents always hoped I'd be.

But a recent Eurostar sale meant that I could once again travel back, this time with Alex in tow, for a one night mini-break. As we'd recently dropped a lot of money on a weekend in Budapest, we hoped to spend as little as possible, something that's difficult to do in Paris.

Read on to find out how we got on.

Getting there

Total: £99.70

Eurostar: My return ticket to Paris wasn't quite the base rate of £29 each way, but was still a steal at £88.

Tube: A direct tube ride to Kings Cross was £4.90

Pre-train spend: On a bit of a health bent, I stopped into the Kings Cross branch of Joe & the Juice to order a Green Mile to go, without checking the price. “How much could a juice cost?!” I thought. Readers, the juice was £6.80. That is nearly seven pounds on some fruit and veg, whizzed up in a blender. Was the apple stolen from a European royal's private orchard? Were the broccoli stems plucked from the depths of Aladdin's Cave? I can only assume yes.

Accommodation

Total: £0

My early trips to Paris involved crashing in the spare rooms and on the couches of whomever would have me, friends and employers alike. Now, I can continue that tradition of refusing to pay for Parisian accommodation as a travel writer - a night in the four star boutique hotel, Hotel Monte Cristo was free, as I was reviewing it.

The hotel itself is inspired by the Alexandre Dumas book of the same name, and is a modern take on 19th century opulence. The boudoirs are caverns of rich velvet, dark colours and Impressionist-style art, and the indoor pool is fringed with palms and Moroccan tiles. Rooms start from about £160 a night (not including breakfast).

Getting around

Total: £13.63

Thanks to a baptism of fire with Paris' Metro system that involved dropping off clothes and getting to fashion show locations around the city equipped only with the directions scrawled on the back of my hand, I'm pretty confident with the city's public transport. Especially now I have ready access to Google Maps. A carnet of ten tickets bought on the Eurostar at the discounted rate of €15.60 (£13.63) - a whole euro off the asking price - saw me through the entire trip.

Day 1

Total: £46.30

MORNING

The early morning journey from London to Paris is a dreamy two hours of watching the scenery and marvelling at the amount of legroom we have. I indulge in some delicious mini train saucissons (£3.35) and a cup of tea (£2.50) which is priced the same as airline tea, but uses a fancy Taylors of Harrogate loose leaf bag. Had I opted to fly, this might have been a wasted two hours in cramped economy, but instead feels like part of the holiday.

AFTERNOON

We arrive at Gare Du Nord just before midday, and I march Alex past the touts murmuring "taxi?" to the metro. In less than half an hour we're at the hotel. We mooch around the room a bit - these rooms are made for mooching - before heading for St. Germain Des Pres.

Though the highly visible brasseries of Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore were once the stomping grounds of French writers like Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus, they're now expensive and largely full of tourists. A stroll across the road and down a smaller alley turns up Bistrot d’Henri, a cosy lunch spot. A plate of escargots (€15 / £12.65) and a beef tartare (€17 / £14.34) are buttery, garlicy examples of why the French so often stick to their national cuisine. We're obvious foreigners in a crowd of regulars bounding in to smack kisses on the face of the manager, but the hospitality is just as warm for us as it is them.

Afterwards we opt for a less traditional taste at Maison du Mochi. This brand sold their sticky Japanese sweets online for years, but opened a blush pink store in spring this year. We get a box of four bergamot and almond mochi to share (€14 / £6 each) and a floral tea (€5 / £4.29). The store is tiny but we manage to nab a table and spend the next hour watching a huge array of Parisians bustle through.

LATE

The rest of the afternoon is spent window-shopping. As we're in the process of decorating our flat, a walk down rue de Furstemburg to browse the many showrooms is useful, given my interior design vision is 'Lord Byron languishing away in a palace of soft furnishings' - something Paris does very well. Against all odds, I manage to resist tempation and spend nothing, even in the face of the luxe packaging of Buly 1803's perfumes and the spicy candles of Alix D. Reynis. We also swing by the Galeries Lafayette shopping centre to see the new festive installation, where I, again, manage to hang onto my wallet. An early Christmas miracle.

Back at the hotel we manage a quick dip in the pool before pottering over the road for dinner in Le Grand Dictionnaire - the Monte Cristo's new restaurant. The decor is a continuation of the hotel, with teal velvet seating and dark, encompassing walls.

We devour sharing plates of orange-scented scallops (€12 / £10.12), confit pork belly slow-cooked in beer (€12) and a cheesy, beefy fregola risotto (€11 / £9.28), as well as large glasses of chablis (€8) and a rice pudding topped with crumbled caramalied biscuits (€6 / £5.06). Brilliantly, the meal is comped as part of the review.

The dive bars of Place Monge are one metro stop away, but we decide to be lazy and have a nightcap at the hotel bar. An excellent decision - Bar 1802 has the largest rum collection in Paris (over 500), and my cocktail (€10 / £8.43) is tangy, boozy perfection.

Day 2

Total: £75.58

MORNING

Breakfast is at the hotel, then we metro to Grand Palais for Toulouse-Lautrec: Resolutely Modern, a new exhibition exploring the life and work of an artist who in turn explored the lives of the Parisian demimonde. Entrance is €15, and I buy postcards and a fridge magnet in the gift shop (€7 / £6).

AFTERNOON

After the exhibition, we amble by the Seine, drinking in the wintry sunshine, and then catch the metro up to Porte de Clignancourt, for the Paris Flea Market, a labyrinthine sprawl of over 2,500 sellers. Best visited over the weekend, the market is initially hard to crack, as the pockets of pretty markets full of antiques and vintage wares are hidden throughout the streets and surrounded by noisy, tighly packed stalls of knock-off designer clothes. We spend the afternoon getting to grips with the layout, and inventing stories about the people who once owned the furniture on display.

LATE

Realising we've not eaten, we head back into town for an early dinner at Le Colvert Bistrot. A beautifully appointed restaurant that opened at Christmas last year in Saint-André des Arts, it does a good value prixe fixe menu of two courses for €30 (£25.70). I have a dozen oysters, duck breast paired with hazlenut cream and a coca cola (€3.50 / £3).

The last indulgence of the weekend is a trip to the newest Pierre Hermé cafe, conveniently located around the corner in Odeon. It's neon orange and filled with achingly expensive macarons - a box of eight comes in at €21.80 (£18.67). I can't resist a rose and lychee Ispahan latte (€4.50 / £3.86) to go. I always knew I liked bougie hot drinks too much to ever make it as a real Bohemian.

The last metro ticket from our carnets brings us back to Gare du Nord for a leisurely train journey back home. The tube back to our house is another £4.90.

The grand total: £235.21

Final thoughts

I can't believe how little we spent over the weekend. Obviously, not having to pay for accommodation or dinner helped enormously but even with that added on, our weekend was pretty budget friendly - without feeling low-cost. Paris has a reputation for being hideously expensive, but as I discovered in my younger years, if you eschew the main tourist attractions and follow what the locals do, the city can be very reasonable.

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