Paris has a reputation as one of Europe's most expensive cities, and if you eat in tourist restaurants near the Louvre, it lives up to it. But the same city that charges €28 for indifferent pasta also offers world-class meals for pocket money — if you know the codes.
We've eaten our way through Paris on shoestring budgets more times than we can count, and our firm conclusion is this: €25 a day for food in Paris isn't a struggle, it's a challenge we genuinely enjoy. Here's exactly how we do it.
The Boulangerie Breakfast
Start every day at a boulangerie — the neighbourhood bakery — and order a proper French breakfast: a croissant or pain au chocolat (€1.10–1.50), a buttered baguette and a café au lait. Total: about €5, and it beats anything served in a hotel breakfast room.
Rule number one: buy from bakeries with queues of locals, and buy bread that's still warm. Rule number two: buy your baguette at lunchtime for later — a baguette at 7pm is a different food from one bought at noon. And if the sign says "artisan", French law confirms the bread was baked on the premises.
Market Picnics: Montorgueil, Enfants Rouges, Aligre
The single greatest Parisian food strategy is the market picnic. On a typical trip we buy two picnics — cheese, charcuterie, fruit, a baguette, a bottle of wine — and eat them beside the Seine or in a park for under €12 for two. Three markets we love:
- Rue Montorgueil — a pedestrian street market in the 2nd arrondissement, brilliant for cheese shops, fish stalls and cafés, lively from morning to night.
- Marché des Enfants Rouges — hidden in the Marais, the oldest covered market in Paris, full of food stalls: Moroccan couscous, grilled fish, crêpes — with benches where you can sit and eat.
- Marché d'Aligre — in the 12th, the most authentic and cheapest of the three: a proper local market with the best fruit stalls and a flea market next door on weekends.
The timing rule: shop in the last hour before the market closes, and stallholders sell off their produce at knockdown prices — you can often halve your picnic bill.
Street Food: Crêpes and Falafel
Two street foods define Paris on a budget. Crêpes — savoury with ham, cheese and egg (€4–6), sweet with sugar and chocolate (€3–5) — are best from stands in markets and near universities. Walk one block off the tourist streets and the same crêpe costs half.
And falafel: the Marais' Rue des Rosiers is famous for it, and the crowds outside L'As du Fallafel — where the queue is always long and always worth it — are a Parisian institution. A pita stuffed with falafel, fried aubergine and tahini costs €8 and is, in our entirely unscientific opinion, the best-value lunch in the city. It's also open on Sundays, when much of Paris shuts — worth remembering.
The Lunch Formule
The city's best-kept eating secret is the formule at midday: nearly every bistro offers a set lunch — starter, main, dessert or cheese — for €15–25. That's the same dish that costs €28 alone on the evening menu, at half the price.
To find the real ones: walk away from the tourist streets, look for chalkboards advertising "formule déjeuner" or "plat du jour", and check the crowd — a dining room full of people in work clothes is a good sign. The plats du jour are the heart of French home cooking — boeuf bourguignon, confit de canard, blanquette de veau — at €12–16 for a main with bread, often with a glass of wine thrown in.
Happy-Hour Oysters
Here's the city's weirdest and most wonderful bargain: oysters at happy hour. Several classic brasseries — most famously the old-school seafood bars of the 1st and 2nd arrondissements — sell half-dozens at discount prices between 5pm and 7pm. For €10–15 you can sit at a zinc counter, drink white wine, and eat half a dozen fresh huîtres with lemon and brown bread.
It sounds like a scam. It isn't — the oysters are the same ones sold at full price at lunch. Happy hour is just how they move the morning's delivery.
Look for the sign "huîtres à prix réduit", or simply follow the crowd of Parisians standing at the counter after work.
Cheese: The Fromagerie Shortlist
No Paris picnic is complete without cheese, and the fromagerie is a rite of passage. Go to a proper cheese shop — we keep returning to the ones around Rue Montorgueil and the Marché d'Aligre — and ask for a selection:
- Camembert — the classic creamy cow's milk cheese from Normandy; buy a whole round.
- Comté — a firm, nutty mountain cheese, usually the best value on the shelf.
- Chèvre — fresh goat's cheese, excellent with figs and honey.
- Époisses — a famously stinky washed-rind cheese; delicious, and the smell is a feature, not a bug.
Buy in small amounts — 100 grams of each is plenty for two people at €3–5 total — and ask for advice. Parisian cheesemongers genuinely love to talk, and their recommendations are rarely wrong.
When to Skip the Tourist Traps
Now, what not to do. Avoid any restaurant with a waiter standing outside trying to wave you in — good bistros don't need to fish. Skip "menu touristique" listings in multiple languages on the Champs-Élysées and near Notre-Dame; the prices are double and the food is reheated. And never buy a crêpe on a main tourist street — one block over, the same crêpe is half the price.
One more rule: check the "service compris" line on your bill. Service is included by law in France, so the 15% tip you'd leave at home is unnecessary — rounding up a euro or two is plenty.
The Daily Ledger
| Meal | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Boulangerie breakfast | €4–6 |
| Market picnic lunch | €6–8 per person |
| Falafel on Rue des Rosiers | €8 |
| Bistro formule (lunch) | €15–25 |
| Happy-hour oysters with wine | €12–18 |
| Crêpe from a street stand | €3–6 |
| Fromagerie selection | €4–6 |
Add it up and a glorious food day — bakery breakfast, picnic lunch, oysters at five, bistro dinner — lands at €35–45 per person. Be more frugal and €20–25 covers you. Either way, you eat like a Parisian, which is the whole point of going.
