Challenge: Part 1 of 2 in Daytrip to Paris for £50

You’re sending me to Paris for the day? Tres bon!

(Actually, that was my initial reaction, until the £50 limit started to sink in. Then I had a terrible feeling that I’d been set up for failure. I mean, where on earth does one start with that kind of budget?)

First stop: the Eurostar website. My heart skips a beat when I notice that there’s a £59 return trip offer running at the moment. But that’s £9 over my budget, and I haven’t even hit France yet. How will I afford to get around in Paris, let alone pay for food and gallery admission? And I guess shopping is completely out of the question. Quelle horreur! Still, I take note of a few dates available. The one thing about this deal is that it pays to book well in advance. Right now all the March dates have completely sold out.

Second stop: Facebook. I search for “Eurostar” and “Eurostar tickets” and find a few posts. But I can’t find anything cheaper than £59, unless you count the odd single ticket.

Third stop: Gumtree. I search in the tickets section but only find a few old ads for London-Paris. What I do notice, though, is a lot of people selling tickets to bands. And the prices are really good, too. Bookmark the page and make a mental note to keep checking back for new listings.

So at this stage, the Eurostar £59 deal is looking pretty good. But I’m going to wait it out and see if something better comes up.

In the meantime, I do a few google searches in “Free Paris”. Apart from finding quite a few pages dedicated to freeing Paris Hilton from jail, I discover some excellent articles about what’s free in Paris. The last time I was there I spent quite a bit on admission to galleries and museums, so I start compiling a list of what I can do for nothing.