Driveline UK 01707 660011 offers a price of pounds 75 including the annual subscription to its Travel Club travelling on

Driveline UK (01707 660011) offers a price of pounds 75, including the annual subscription to its Travel Club, travelling on a 60-hour return on P&O from Dover to Calais – less than half the price charged by P&O direct.
Eurostar plans to start accepting bicycles for travel on trains to Paris and Brussels by the end of March A charge of pounds 25 return is likely to be made. Researchers for the Independent set out to find the lowest fare from Dover or Folkestone to Boulogne or Calais for two adults and two children (aged over four years old) travelling with a Ford Escort, crossing mid- morning on Saturday 4 May and returning on the evening of Bank Holiday Monday 6 May. Competition across the Channel has forced fares down, but as with air tickets you can often save money by buying through a specialist agent rather than direct with the operator. here the cost was pounds 3 for a coffee, hot chocolate or cup of tea (or that ghastly weak, lukewarm equivalent) and a glass of water pounds 2. These exorbitant prices met us wherever we went, turning a bargain into a potential overdraft break

Elizabeth Murray. But at 30F (about pounds 4) each for coffee and the equivalent of pounds 10 for two glasses of wine we were taken aback Still, perhaps it was the smart location.

Surely a little stand-up coffee bar would be more reasonable… The problem, as Liz Murray discovered (opposite), is that you can easily spend as much again when you get there. So this guide to budget Paris shows you how to enjoy the city without risking bankruptcy.
Simon Calder. Our first stop was the famous Les Deux Maggots in St Germain – a lovely cafe which Sartre and Picasso used to frequent. Yet while prices in Paris are going through the toit, travelling to the French capital has never been better value. To boost bookings to the French capital, Air France Holidays has been offering inclusive weekends for the astonishing price of pounds 99 – all of which have been snapped up by bargain-hungry Brits. My bus trip from London to Paris and back cost pounds 29; if I had splashed out on a flight, I could have paid as little as pounds 62 return.

The pounds 3 cup of coffee (or, worse in every sense, tea) is no longer a cause for heated discussion on the ferry home – it is the norm. But if this is the case, the city risks pricing itself beyond our affections. Our ardour for the City of Light is being dampened by the depressed and depressing state of Sterling. A generation of travellers brought up to believe that there are, and always will be, 10 francs to pounds 1, is having to come to terms with the idea that nowadays you only get seven and a bit to a pound. “Paris isn’t a place, it’s a passion”, I was solemnly assured this week by an expatriate Brit in the French capital. An over-enthusiastic staircase ushers you upwards to a chintzy salon purveying Piaf and Pink Floyd Open 10am (Sundays: noon-midnight.).

The square outside is a terrific place to watch the weird touristic world go by.5Centre Georges Pompidou: Richard Rogers’ and Renzo Piano’s assault on Beaubourg still startles, even though half is under wraps and renovation. Open 8am-6pm.2Jardins de Luxembourg: a Left Bank oasis, populated by students from the Sorbonne, civil servants and serendipitous tourists.3Galeries Lafayette: head through the perfume counters, and Art Deco splendour, to the self-service restaurant atop this grand magasin -one of the best free views of the French capital.4Notre Dame: unless you insist on travelling to the top of this great Gothic confection, you can explore freely. The centre, and its suspended elevator, opens from noon (10am at weekends) to 10pm – but stays closed on Tuesdays and on 1 May.6Virgin Megastore: the logo is familiar, but any resemblance between the Virgin Megastore in Paris and a British record shop ends at the front door. Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde are relegated to supporting acts, but a two- hour guided tour (Tuesday and Saturday, 2.30pm, 35F) puts the place in its proper, theatrical and tragic perspective. The main attraction is the lead singer of the Doors; Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971, following a toxic cocktail of drugs. “Let’s just say I was testing the bounds of reality” reads one scrawled testimony. Some gates are closed for security reasons, so the Metro station nearest an entrance is Gambetta rather than Pere Lachaise itself.