Enjoy cheaper costs for airfare and traveler's accommodations by traveling to France during the off season. According to the Off Season travel website, by scheduling your weekend trip to France during the winter months, you will save money and enjoy friendlier locals, fewer tourists and better access to local attractions.
In April 2010, British financial magazine "The Economist" ranked Paris as the world's most expensive city. Stay outside of Paris if you want to enjoy a cheap weekend getaway in France.
Choose Bordeaux as your destination and peruse the Marche de Noël, a Christmas-themed market featuring a plethora of baked goods, gourmet food, decorations, jewelry, crafts and toys. Or spend the weekend in Lyon and discover Fourvière's Roman theater and the Confluence Museum. Take a walk along the Rhône and the Saône rivers, which wind a path through Lyon, to experience the city without spending a euro.
Find cheap traveler accommodations at a hostel or guest house. Consider a room at the completely renovated Hôtel des Savoies in Lyon. The hostel offers 46 guest rooms decorated in pastel shades and simple, yet comfortable, furnishings.
Nightly rates range from $86 to $137, as of September 2010, and vary by room type . Standard room amenities at this non-smoking hostel include in-room air conditioning and heating and free wireless access.
Hôtel des Savoies
80 Rue de la Charité
Lyon 69002 France
hotel-des-savoies.fr
011 33 0478376694
A weekend stay at a luxury campground is a cheaper alternative to a $350+ per night stay in a Paris hotel. Use the dollars you saved from off-season travel prices and splurge on a stay at a luxury, four-star campground.
The nightly rate for a stay at Le Camp, a wood-side camping retreat an hour northeast of Toulouse, ranged from $176 to $215 in September 2010. Tents at the resort are spacious and feature six foot wide, handmade beds. Fall asleep to the sounds of the French countryside and experience the well-being that sleeping in fresh air brings you.
Le Camp
Varen 82330 France
011 33 6 11 94 33 68
lecamp.co.uk
Visit the local boulangerie (bakery) or patisserie (pastry shop) to enjoy the same breakfast eats served at many hotels for double the price.
Another fine option for cheap meals is to enjoy a large French feast for lunch and only a small snack for dinner. Many restaurants feature the same dishes on their lunch menu that they serve at dinner for a fraction of the cost.
Seek out restaurants offering a prix fixé menu, which typically includes a selection of appetizers, entrees and desserts for a fixed price. Prix fixé menus are a cheaper alternative to ordering off the menu.
