Not in France? Fret not. This week I’m leaving no Francophile or Shopaholic behind! In SELLabration of “Cyber Monday,” most of the shops listed below have online boutiques and offer international shipping. La vie est belle!

Cheaps Ahoy!
Musée national de la Marine
17 place du Trocadéro
Metro: Trocadéro; 16th Arron.
Librairie-Boutique

The Musée de la Marine’s shop is a charmer. Long and narrow like a romantically lit ship’s salon, you’ll think you’re hearing waves softly lapping against the hull as you browse. Here you’ll find ocean liner posters, postcards, books, toy sailors, model ships, and striped shirts by designer Jean Paul Gaultier. Mais oui, so pinch yourself, Matey! Even the shopping bags are suited in stripes. Now that’s an outfit!

Recent scores: A beautifully illustrated “Les Marins Font La Mode” catalog for €2, discounted from €6!

Supercalifrugalistic!
Musée du Louvre
Metro: Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre; 1st Arron.
Boutique en ligne

The Louvre’s shop not only discounts catalogs from its previous expositions by up to 60% off their original cost, but also carries current and back issues of “albums de l’exposition.” Published by Beaux Arts Magazine, Connaissance des Arts, Le Figaro, or the Louvre itself, these slim gems are usually prominently displayed, lightweight and affordable, costing just €2 to €10.

Books and catalogs are located on the first floor, and textiles, decorative arts and paper works are showcased on the second level. Keep your eyes peeled for the Marie Antoinette section! Take heed: alluring and glittery souvenirs beckon on both levels. (Do keep your head.) Also, gift-wrapping with miles of ribbon is free, no matter the price or size of your purchase. You just have to ask for it. Your cat and cat sitter will thank you!

Recent scores: Hand-blown Egyptian glasses in teal, green and cobalt blue for €7 a pop.

The shop vitrine at Musée des Les Arts Décoratifs

À la mode!
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
107 rue de Rivoli
Metro: Palais Royale – Musée du Louvre; 1st Arron.
La Boutique

After shopping at the Louvre’s boutique, saunter on over to the nearby shop at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Designed by Bruno Moinard, this super glam shop boasts extensive and well-organized shelves of books, jewelry, and stationary. You’ll also be wooed by modern and funky table linens, candle holders, vases, dinnerware, stemware, flatware, and things to wear! Groovy entertaining just got easier!

Recent scores: A set of 100% cotton Napkins by Les Arts Decoratifs sets for €4!

Pipe dreams!
Centre Pompidou
Metro: Rambuteau; 4th Arron.
La Boutique du Centre Pompidou

Easy access is just one of the reasons I fancy the Pompidou’s Librairie Flammarion Centre! Nestled on the right hand side of the spacious forum, it’s Bee-line-able. Like the Louvre, the shop frequently discounts its deep inventory of books and catalogs. Lofty ceilings, wide aisles and indirect lighting make for easy browsing. Here you’ll also find films, stationery, calendars, and notebooks stacked on enormous tables as high as the eye of Napoleon’s plaster elephant!

If you need a little mod design to-gos, cross the vast lobby to the mezzanine level on the left, where the Boutique Printemps Design will dazzle you with a range of designer knick-knacks.

Recent scores: A skinny “C’est à ne pas oublier” notebook in cherry red for €5 and exposition catalog Dreamlands: Des parcs d’attractions aux cités du future for €8!

All dolled up!
Musée de la Poupée
Impasse Berthaud
Metro: Rambuteau; 3rd Arron.
Boutique Poupée

After shopping at the Centre Pompidou, pop by the shop at the nearby Musée de la Poupée (Doll Museum). Here, stylish Sybarite dolls coolly hold court at the entrance to a shop stocked with hundreds of other poupées du monde! Created by Charles Fegen and Desmond Lingard for the museum, the Sybarites were inspired by the 17th-century French fashion dolls called the Pandores. Before catalogs and websites, the Parisian fashion industry used articulated dolls to market their creations, targeting and attracting an international clientele for the first time. Even Henri IV sent “jointed babies” to his fiancé Marie de Medici in Italy so that she would arrive at court in Paris wearing only au courant garb!

The Musée de la Poupée’s shop also carries books, catalogs, postcards, and exquisite miniature clothing ensembles. Contact the super helpful Claire Favot Conand with questions about sizes, brands or names.

Just a kiss!
Musée Rodin
77 rue de Varenne
Metro: Varenne or Invalides; 7th Arron.
Boutique

Passionately curated and stocked by Alberto Brusamolino, there’s beacoup to appreciate about the Musée Rodin’s shop. After visiting Rodin’s muscular marvels, I often find myself lingering in the shop in order to prolong the delightfully amorous feeling that all that bronze and marble just induced. Truth be told, it does the trick for me every time.

Here you’ll find replica sculptures, books, catalogs, stationary, jewelry, tote bags, and textiles. Do check out the online boutique. It’s striking, super-organized and almost as fun as “being there!” Questions? Contact Mr. Brusamolino! PDF catalog is also available.

Cheapos, do you have a favorite museum gift shop in Paris? Do shop and tell!

The post Favorite Museum Gift Shops in Paris (with Cheapo Tips) appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The cafeteria conundrum

Without shame, I admit to being a fan of cafeteria food. I find the whole process, from lining up with a tray, to choosing a prepared entree and selecting accompanying vegetables, both fun and weirdly satisfying. (And let’s not even talk about the dessert and drink process.)

Perhaps it’s simple nostalgia for the grade-school cafeteria experience of decades past. Perhaps I like to see my food before I decide on what to eat. Or perhaps it’s a rebellion against “foodie” culture. Whatever it is, to this day I find something irresistible about cafeterias.

Many of my friends, of course, do not share this enthusiasm. They find a trip to a cafeteria to be a depressing experience—one of cattle-call lines, hospital-quality food, and bleak ambiance. Even worse, it could be a missed opportunity. After all, a meal at a cafeteria in Paris is a meal not at a cafe, or a crepe stand, or a boulangerie … or anything typically “French.” This has led to several “one tray at the table” moments for me.

No matter, when I travel I like to drop in on cafeterias and sample their wares. When living in Berlin, I ate frequently in the city’s Mensa cafeterias–and have written my own love song to that slide-and-pay experience. Mensa cafeterias not only offer a cheap lunch option, but also an opportunity to sample German-style (albeit somewhat institutionalized) dishes.

flunch it down?

In France, the flunch restaurant chain takes its name from mashing up “French” and “lunch.” (And not, as I previously thought, from “fast” and “lunch.”) It has even led to the coining of the verb “fluncher,” although I have yet to hear it used in a sentence.

Like most French restaurants, flunch offers several plats du jour, which change daily. Flunch prices them rather low—at €9.45 for one of the five available plats du jour and a drink (which includes a soda, water, beer or a glass of wine). Notably, the plat also includes an unlimited vegetable buffet, where you can graze all day on haricots verts, carottes, pommes de terre, epinards and so forth. Desserts and salads are extra.

And thus, flunch makes Cheapo sense, if it sounds appetizing to you. After all, flunch offers a cooked dish with unlimited veggies and a drink for the same price as a hamburger and a Coke next door at a McDonald’s. And the cafeteria set-up makes sense for non-French speakers. Just point and say, “s’il vous plait”. (And “merci!”)

flunch in Paris

The chain operates 200 restaurants in France, most of which can be found in shopping centers and along the highway. In Paris, however, several flunch outlets are located in super-central locations, including just next to the Pompidou Center and nearby on the street level of the Les Halles shopping center.

So, they’re cheap, convenient, and offer a healthier fast meal option than typical fast food. Why have I encountered so much “flunch-fobia”? A couple of thoughts:

Food quality:

Typical flunch. Photo: Denn

Considering my several flunch experiences, I have certainly never been wowed by the food. The entrees, usually chicken, beef, or fish, have been French classics of a quality that’s acceptable while certainly not exceptional. (Americans could think of it as a sort of Ponderosa Steakhouse “a la Francaise”.) My meals have been a bit salty, and I’ve found the vegetables quite tasty—because they’ve been smothered in butter. It’s not exactly a light meal.

Ambiance:

It’s hard for a room to escape the cafeteria aesthetic when there are tray rails lining every fixture. But they try to make the serving area cheery.

The dining areas, however, strike me as rather grim. In my experiences in the central Paris flunches, the dining rooms have been extremely crowded during the lunch hours. Sharing tables is not strange—in fact, during busy hours you’ll probably be seated next to and across from complete strangers. (But then again, I was dining alone!) These locations are also quite popular with bus and student groups—leading to sudden crowding, occasional horseplay and bathroom lines.

Prices:

Really, this place is cheap. If you’re fine with tap water, you can have a full meal for around €6.45.

Final thoughts

Clearly, flunch isn’t for everyone, but it does provide a fast, central, and cheap alternative to typical fast food. If you decide to “flunch it,” don’t expect fine French cuisine. Expect, instead, to experience another country’s cafeteria culture. And then head back for some more buttered veggies.

Have you flunched?

Have you been to a flunch restaurant in France? Have you experienced another cafeteria in the country? Tell us about your experience in the comments section.

The post Paris Cafeterias: To “flunch” or not to “flunch”? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Though these three museums and museum wings may be closed for the time being, here are some ways to enjoy a similar experience in Paris.

Musée Picasso

Picasso Museum. Photo by Jane VC.

Due to a huge renovation project, the Musée Picasso remains closed until 2012. That’s a long time! The museum plans to host exhibits and other cultural events elsewhere, but no details are yet available.

Those looking for a Picasso fix can visit the Musée de l’Orangerie (pictured above) in the Jardin des Tuileries, which houses a dozen of the artist’s works (open every day except Tuesday from 9 AM to 6 PM). Admission costs €7.50, and is free on the first Sunday of the month.

The Centre George Pompidou also has a few Picassos in its permanent collection (open every day except Tuesday from 11 AM to 9 PM). Tickets cost €10-12, but like the Musée de l’Orangerie, admission is free on the first Sunday of the month.

It doesn’t much help Cheapos traveling to Paris, but a touring exhibit of some of the Picasso Museum’s collection is planned for several countries, kicking off at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki and making stops in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Seattle, New York and San Francisco.

The Catacombs

Paris’ catacombs. Photo by Adam Baker.

As a result of a serious act of vandalism, the Paris Catacombs – a massive underground mausoleum created in the 18th Century which houses the remains of some 6 million Parisians – is currently closed indefinitely. (We’ve heard that minor vandalism has long been a problem at the Catacombs. The seemingly random pile of bones near the exit is actually a stack of the artifacts visitors have tried to take home with them.)

While not quite as spine-tingling, another quirky museum that will take you under the city streets is a tour of the Paris sewer system. The hour-long visit gives a history of the city’s water distribution and removal, including the various pumps and engines used throughout the past several hundred years. The entrance to the sewers is located across from 93 Quai d’Orsay. The museum is open Saturday to Wednesday from 11 AM to 4 PM between October 1 and April 30, and closes at 5 PM between May 1 and September 30. Tickets cost €4.30.

For a taste of the macabre, you can also can check out the Centquatre art center (104 Rue d’Aubervilliers). Tours every other Sunday at 3 PM explain its history as the city’s centralized funeral home. The tour costs €5.

The Islamic art wing at the Louvre

Beyond tourist pleasers like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, the Louvre has an excellent collection of Egyptian and Near Eastern artifacts. Part of that includes an extensive display of Islamic art, which unfortunately remains off limits to the public until construction of its new home is completed in 2010. The new wing has been called “the most radical architectural addition since Pei’s glass pyramid.”

In the meantime, visitors can enjoy an exhibition of Islamic art at the Institute of the Arab World, which features manuscripts, tapestries, glassware and ceramics, jewelry and mosaics from Muslim nations across the globe. The Institute is located at 1 Rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard. The expo is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM; Thursday until 10 PM; and weekends and bank holidays until 8 PM. Admission to the exhibition, which runs through March 14, 2010, costs €10.50. For an extra freebie, head up to the roof for a great view of the city.

The post Paris Dilemma: The museum is closed for renovations. Now what? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.