Prices in Paris and London

After spending two weeks in Paris, May 9-22, 2008, including a day trip to London on the Eurostar, I thought, in view of the falling dollar, a few notes on prices might be of interest to ITN readers.

• For some years, my wife, Josie, and I have visited PARIS annually, and in that time there has been a small increase in prices generally, as there has been in the USA.

Early on, with the strong dollar, the hotel we’ve been using in Paris was a 2-star undervalued find. Since the introduction of the euro, the rates have gone up about €20-€30. Last year it wasn’t so good a bargain, and this year the dollar-to-euro rate makes it even less so.

New owners have changed its name from Residence Monge to Acte V Paris (55 rue Monge, 75005 Paris; phone 01 43 26 87 90, e-mail hotel-monge@wanadoo.fr or visit www.hotel-actev.com), it is now rated a 3-star, and the rates are at €120-€130 (near $189-$208) per night, double occupancy.

This is pretty much consistent with prices we’ve checked at comparable 3-star hotels around Paris neighborhoods — not cheap but about what you have to expect.

Still, even with the current exchange rate, many restaurants in Paris are affordable and enjoyable. The fixed-price rate in the range of €17-€18 ($27-$28) per person for a starter, main course and dessert has remained fairly consistent.

With dining, it’s the shrinking dollar that hurts, but, depending upon the restaurant, that’s still not a bad price: under $30 for a meal nicely served. Your wine, coffee, etc., will be extra, but house wine is usually decent quality at a decent price.

• We feel, however, that in LONDON the basic prices have gone up much more than in Paris and, with the pound the equivalent of over $2, prices there are quite a bit steeper.

This year we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel to London. Nice trip! The advance round-trip fare came to a little over $100 apiece. But look at this: one ticket on the London underground is £4 ($8), while one on the Paris Métro is €1.50 ($2.25). In each case, one-, 3-, 5-day and weekly passes provide big savings.

Our main objectives in London were the new Tate Modern museum and the London Eye (the Ferris wheel from the Millennium celebrations).

We had a tiny little snack in the Tate’s attractive café. The price for two was £14, or $28 (potted beef for £6.95 and onion-and-cheese tart for £6.95).

Aboard the London Eye, one revolution took approximately 25 minutes, and as seniors we paid £12, or about $25, each. For nonseniors the price was £15 ($30) each. Visit www.londoneye.com.

At 11:45 a.m. on a Tuesday morning we had no wait, but it is set up with an extensive maze, à la Disneyland, for busy days and we were led to believe the wait could run into hours.

• Speaking of weekly passes, in PARIS we each bought a one-week pass for the Métro. At €16.30 ($26), this is a terrific bargain if the timing works for you. Just remember that the week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, and you may buy the current week’s ticket on Monday through Wednesday only. Tickets purchased any day Thursday through Sunday will become good the subsequent Monday.

Referred to as a hebdomadaire (French for “weekly”) pass, this white ticket with orange bars is the same size as a single ticket and has a magnetic strip. On one side are the words sumaine du (“week of”) followed by the Monday date upon which its validity will commence. It is good for zones 1 and 2, which cover all of central Paris.

Although we had taken extra passport-sized photos with us for purchasing Carte Orange tickets, they were not needed for these hebdomadaire tickets.

While walking around, we saw a No. 3 tram and asked if our passes would work. We were told, “Yes,” so we boarded and rode the full length of this line. We disembarked, walked around some more and boarded a No. 2 tram, which took us to its terminus at La Defense train station.

There we tried using our passes to exit the gates but to no avail, and, being on the train side of the gates, we had no access to ticket agents or machines. A kind Frenchman understood our plight and used his pass on the gate three times so we all could get out.

We learned that we had managed to WALK out of zones 1 and 2 into zone 3, where we had boarded the No. 2 tram.

After exiting into La Defense train station, we simply walked a block (all underground) over to La Defense Métro station, which IS in zone 1 or 2, and, using our pass, took the Métro back to our hotel.

In closing, I’ll add a bit of good news. The stainless-steel automatic street toilets scattered throughout Paris all are now free. You don’t need to worry about keeping the necessary change, just in case.

DONALD KINSER

Hillsboro, OR