Paris on a shoestring

It is about time to move south and leave the wonderful city of Paris. Our visit here was amazing, from visiting the Mona Lisa to touring Notre Dame, Paris was a great stop on our long journey south. The one draw back of Paris would be the price of living. Paris ranks among some of the most expensive cities in the world along with Tokyo, New York, Seoul and London. However, being on a strict budget Tate and I managed to tour the city completely while spending a very little.

To get a full experience of the city you have to walk but to save time and your legs the subway is an affordable and quick means of getting from point A to point B. The subway can even be free if you are willing to hop the lines or sneak under barriers (we would never do that of course). You can also visit many of the museums and art galleries for free, if you visit during designated times. For people under the age 26 you can visit the Musee du Louvre which houses thousands of pieces of art including the Mona Lisa for free on Friday and Wed after 6 pm. Many of the cathedrals are free as well and definitely worth the visit.

For a good night out instead of spending 15 or 20 euros on dinner, you can pick up a delicious baguette and a bottle of wine for less for a less then 4 dollars. It is also worth the trip to a local market to buy noodles and vegetables to cook up a decent pasta. You can then spend the night watching the FREE, yep FREE light show at the Eiffel Tower, and instead of spending the 8 euros to visit the top of the tower to get a view of the city. You should head over to the Sacre Coeur which has an amazing panoramic view of the entire city and is absolutely positively FREE.

The most expensive part of Paris is finding a place to stay, if you are willing to rough it you can always camp out but you can also stay at decent hostels for about 15 to 25 euros a night. The other option of course is to make a friend but that could get kinda sketchy.

Some other highlights of our trip include visiting Hotel Des Invalides which has Napoleons tomb and houses a vast array of ancient weapons ranging in date from the mid-evil days to World War II. We also visited the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde and walked around the Arch De Triomphe all of which were....... yep you guessed it FREE!

That concludes our time in Paris so far. I also got a recent update on our vehicle situation and our car finally got delivered to the right port. Thanks to Deeks! The COW mobile is set to arrive in Dakar, Senegal around the 13th of January. We got a late start but our luck is finally turning around and it was worth all the trouble bypassing Mauritania. Yesterday two Italians were kidnapped bringing the total to six people in the past 2 weeks. The government also fears that local gangs in the area are beginning to target westerners to sell them to Islamic extremest groups in area. Its all fun and games until you are being bound by islamic terrorists in some dark cave.

For now we are safe and are working hard to plan the rest of our trip in order to remain as safe as we possibly can on our road trip across Africa!

Enjoy the holidays and good luck tonight Beavers!!

Since it is the season of giving now is a great time to donate to charities, a few dollars here and there can go a long ways.

-Keegs