Friday
To start your bargain Paris weekend, buy a carnet of ten single tickets for £10, and take the RER to St Michel/Notre Dame. Home for the weekend is the chic, budget Hotel Esmeralda (+33 43 54 19 20, doubles are £72), a Paris Left Bank favourite among (junior) style editors.
From here, take a walk across to Paris' Right Bank via the historic Ile de la Cité, an island in the Seine river. Spend the evening at a jazz, classical or dance performance at Paris' Châtelet : Théâtre Musical de Paris ( chatelet-theatre.com , tickets from £11), whose programming strikes a cool but cerebral note. Dine late at trendy, youthful Curieux Spaghetti Bar (14 rue St Merri, Paris, £35 for two).
Saturday
Once you’ve heard the bells of Notre Dame chiming 10am, walk to the Marais for a spot of fashion lèche-vitrine (literally ‘window licking’) at loft-style boutique L’Eclaireur (3 rue des Rosiers, Paris), Lacoste designer Christophe Lemaire’s own menswear store (28 rue de Poitou, Paris), and vintage hot spot Free ‘P’ Star (8 rue St Croix de la Bretonnerie, Paris).
Lunch on quiche or onion tart at cosy tearoom Le Loir dans la Théière (3 rue des Rosiers, Paris, £35 for two), and take a post-prandial stroll around Place des Vosges. It’s a moment’s walk to aristocratic Musée Carnavalet (23 rue de Sévigné, Paris, paris.fr/musees, free), which tells the story of Paris, from hairy Gauls to the Revolution, in beautiful 16th-century rooms.
With an hour to go before apéro time, head north up the Rue de Turenne to the Place de la République and wander the Canal St Martin – a great place for bohemian bar-hopping as day turns to night. Sip a beer at Le Jemmapes (82 quai des Jemmapes, Paris, £5 for two), then dine at bargain restaurant Cambodian café Le Cambodge (10 Avenue Richerand, Paris, lecambodge.fr, £20 for two). Drop by an hour in advance to secure a table, where super-fresh salads, noodles and curries ensure it’s always jam-packed.
If you like your nightlife arty and rough round the edges, stick around Canal St Martin for a few more drinks: La Patache (60 rue de Lancry, Paris, £20 for two) is a funky bolt hole in Paris' tenth arrondissement, hosting quirky live performances that get more random by the hour.
Sunday
The Jardin des Plantes (57 rue Cuvier, Paris, free) has been a Paris garden open to the public since 1626, when it was still a royal horticultural medicine cupboard. It makes a lovely rendezvous year-round, thanks to palm- and cacti-filled greenhouses, formal gardens, a menagerie and brilliant natural-history exhibits in the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution (+33 40 79 54 79, £7).
Facing the gardens to the southwest, the GrandMosquée de Paris ( mosquee-de-paris.net ) houses not only a mosque, Islamic school and Middle Eastern bookshop, but also a Paris hammam and the Café Maure tearoom (39 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, {aris, +33 43 31 38 20, £9 for two), where you can pretend to read Libé over sweet mint tea and North African pastries until it’s time to head home.
Paris bargain weekend total per person: £157
British Airways flies to Paris from London Gatwick and Heathrow. Book a flight on ba.com now.
Budget hotels are giving luxe ones a run for their money. Check out the chic new Ace Hotel in Palm Springs.
