Cheap Shopping: Paris Thrift Stores

(Kilo Shop)

There's nothing more satisfying than finding a treasure at a thrift shop. Sure, you may have to dig a bit, but when you find a gorgeous 1950s summer dress for 10€ or a Mad Men-era handbag for 5€, it feels like hitting the jackpot. Here are a few of my favorite Paris thrift stores:

Paris Cheapskate Tour: "Amélie" Film Locations

I adore the film Amélie, which catapulted Audrey Tautou to international fame and gave millions of people the urge to come swoon in Paris. If you're also a fan of the movie, why not take yourself on a charming little walking tour of Montmartre and check out all the locations where the movie was filmed? Here is a step-by-step guided tour you can follow.

Free Art: Musée Carnavalet's Permanent Collection

There are tons of ways to enjoy Paris art for free, from galleries to free museum Sundays, but many of Paris' loveliest museums boast permanent collections that are free to visit every single day. My personal favorite is the Musée Carnavalet, dedicated to the cultural history of Paris.

Cheap Thrills: Hôtel de Ville

(Photo via Wikipedia)

When my mom first came to Paris, we were in the Marais and as we walked past the Hôtel de Ville, I pointed it out to her and she said, "Wow, I wish we were staying in THAT hotel!"

Easy mistake, but it's not, of course, a hotel at all... the "hôtel de ville" of any French town is the city center or town hall. It's where you go to sort out administrative woes and pick up brochures for what's happening around town. But Paris takes the concept much further and its Hôtel de Ville goes way beyond its definition as a city center. This magnificent structure has been around since the 1357 and is so much more than "the city's local administration" (as Wikipedia has described it).

The Cheapest Books In Paris

(Jean Seberg via Awesome People Reading)

Yes, you should be practicing your French, but what if you just want to read a book in English? A little something to bring to Jardin du Luxembourg or Tuileries, or for while you sit along the Seine or in a café, or just to keep you occupied on the long journey away from Paris whether by train or plane.

Luckily there are plenty of reading resources for Anglophones in Paris. Besides Shakespeare and Company, the Abbey Bookshop and San Francisco Book Company, you can always get a membership to the American Library of Paris and check books out at your heart's desire. But what if you're a seriously stingy, Jenna-level cheapskate? No worries; there are regular events by two Paris organizations which sell books for between 1-3€ apiece!

Cheap Paris Opera Tickets

(Photo via La Terrasse)

I'd always wanted to go to the opera. In the past and in other beloved cities I'd gone to the ballet, the theater, and classical music concerts, but never the opera. It's all so fancy and high-class that I have trouble even saying the word without it sounding, well, snooty. Ahhh-prahh. The very idea of it is so Paris: get dressed up, go somewhere fabulous, have a night on the town. So you can imagine how thrilled I was recently to snag tickets to the Paris opera for a mere ten euros.

The Best Paris Flea Market: Marché Aux Puces de Vanves

I love me a good flea market, junk shop, garage sale, any place you can get cool old things for very cheap. Paris has its share of great brocantes and vide greniers, but the best Paris flea market I've been to is at Porte de Vanves.

Cheap Paris Art: Kaitlin Rebesco Photography

("Lovers at the Louvre," by Kaitlin Rebesco, $30)

Kaitlin Rebesco's photography has a distinctive kind of intimacy to it, a feeling of ephemerality and beauty that inspires a sense of lovely wistfulness. Rebesco's photos perfectly capture a feeling of fleeting happiness - whether that's youth, or love, or sunshine, or simply being in Paris while knowing you will have to leave it. The Chicago native says of her time in the City of Light, "Paris is such a picturesque city but one that at times, to me, feels almost melancholic. This sort of quiet and beautiful sadness is a feeling I tried to depict in my own work, using a lot of white space and minimalist compositions. But Paris, like everything else, is always changing, and that change is an inspiration."

Sponsored Post: 5 Signs It's Time To Get Away

I love this cute, well-designed graphic courtesy of Superbreak. Don't you think it's a great time to come to Paris... right now? (Click to see a larger version.)

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THATLou: Paris Treasure Hunts at the Louvre

(We didn't even get bonus points for this. We just liked the look of it.)

When Daisy de Plume was growing up in New York, her mother would take her to art museums like the Met. To keep her interested, engaged and well-behaved, Mum would create games for Daisy to play that focused on the art, often with monetary incentives. Years later, living in Paris and armed with an art history degree, Daisy's wanderings around the Louvre inspired the familiar feeling of associating art with reward. Wouldn't it be great to have those games to play in the most famous museum in the world? Thus THATLou, or Treasure Hunt at the Louvre, was born.