Actually I went to Germany in oct-2005 and was scheduled to be back from Frankfurt. But paris was quite on my mind, if nothing else could be planned. So at the end of my business visit to germany, I planned a quick, one night 2 day unplanned budget trip to paris and this is how !
1) I took a bus (EUROLINES.COM) from Auxburg (Germany) to Paris (9 hours over night journey) with a return ticket from Paris to Frankfurt (overnight journey for 7 hours). I was to spend just one night and 2 days at paris. Since I had to budget my trip expenses to paris as well, I spent 1st night in the bus 5-10 times better than VOLVO back in India. Yes the bus was such comfortable. It also had a toilet in it. It was a jerk free ride for all 9 hours it feels like your are travelling in planes except the fact that it takes more time but who cares because my travel from Auxburg to Paris and back to Frankfurt took only 75 Euros as compared to 225 euros charged to my friend who travelled by Trains just 3 days prior to me.You get to save 2/3 of the cost !! In addition my journey begun at night hours and ended in the morning, hence saved on hotel bill too...for that night ! I had decent sleep and a decent chat for 3 hours with a young lady on the board who was travelling to paris to meet her boyfriend !!
2) After reaching paris with all my stuff (2 begs, a camera with tripod and a laptop), after having a gentle hug with the german beauty who was thrilled to meet her boyfriend, I firt thought of to searh a budget hotel and there the French Gin popped up for my help. He was taxi driver, who looked at me and figured out that I badly need a hotel. He was there for my rescue. I asked him how much could be the taxi rent and he said 1 euro, I was surprised and asked how much could be the distance and he said 1 kilometer. I couldn’t believe that taxi charge would be such cheap just 1 euro ! I asked couple of times to confirm again but he insisted he will charge only 1 euro. Next moment, I was on his taxi, he took me to a hotel, a budget hotel just near to the bus station, the hotel didn’t have vacancy though, he took me to another hotel. I got the room there for 35 euro double occupancy ! (point is there could be good budget hotels even cheaper than this, because I had lot of stuff with me, couldn’t afford to carry around in search of a hotel). Then it was time to pay the taxi driver, I took out a 1 euro coin and started seeing change in colours on his face !, he show me a calculator with 20 typed on it. Oh great, now he is asking 20 euro for 1 kilometer !, now he is talking !! I had to bargain a lot to finally settle it to 5 euro !!
3) I took a couple of hours sleep in the hotel got fresh and my journey begins ! I enquired about the nearest Metro rail station which was fortunately not too far (around 200 meters) from my hotel. Check with the Paris map at the counter on the station, who gave me 4 different maps, one for train, one for bus, one for trams and one for local tourism ! Check out for ticket charges, I preferred to buy a 5 euro, valid for whole day ticket, which can be used to travel on metros / bus / trams. Next thing to do was to catch hold of an asian person who was selling fruits on the station ! I spoke to him in Hindi and he (a pakistani) was more than happy to guide me ! I marked all the destinations worth visit on metro rail map so that I can travel to those stations which are near by to my destinations. The map was easy to read without any single help from the french persons...
4) I was excited to reach to eiffel tower at the earliest and hence that was the first thing I did ! reached the tower and felt it to be there, wow it was amazing to be here ! romance is in the air !! lip-locks were quite often, I thinkg they would have 3-4 kisses before they even complete a sentence ! (not all couples though) that was the time to take out my photo gears, the slr camera and the tripod ! I shoot whole role from different angles. REMEMBER TO CARRY FILM ROLLS WITH YOU IF YOU ARE USING FILM CAMERA BECAUSE A FILM ROLL IN PARIS COST 8 TO 9 EURO!
5)several days that I didn’t have indian food and I was anyway more interested in visiting the streets of paris rather than LOURE museum. one more pakistani guy came to my help (he also offered my a disneyland pass for free, however I politely refused as I was not really interested in disneyland), he show the area where you find concentrated population of indians and pakistanis. and I had a street full of indian and pakistani restaurents where I took my lunch (an indian thali) for mere 10 euros.
6) next I visted notredame church and other places as were suggested by fellow asians, there is an option of taking city tour bus for 15 to 40 euros. That’s also a good option where you can visit a place as long as you want, then take any next bus of the company to go to next destination. However as you would normally spend so much time at single place, you may not utilise 40 euros really and city bus or tram in 5 euro per day would be quite cheaper !
7) beware of africans boys in isolated underground stations, they work in a group and most likely to snatch your gold ornaments / camera etc
8) they I again came back to eiffel tower in the evening ! to shoot and feel the beauty of paris in the night ! I am trying to attach a photo taken by me. I decided evening time to climb the tower for its third level and I felt amazing.
9) don’t shop much in paris its too costly and everything is available in mumbai even cheaper than paris. Yes original france made perfumes are also available cheaper than paris in mumbai ! You can buy a small souvenier of eiffel tower made of glas with coloured light at the bottom base. It sells 10 euro a piece in shops but you will find it for just 2 -3 euros per piece sold by some asian / african boys beneath the eiffel tower. its worth it. I bought 3 but looks like I should have bought at least 30.
10) try to speak to localites and you will feel happy, however language is big problem, it is said that even if they know english, they won’t speak in english !!