zenon90 Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 Hello Guys, it's nice to join the forum. I am from Poland and infew days I will go to France to work. I will be staying in Bourges forabout 2 weeks. I will live in my own tent. Before it, I am also goingto visit a Paris for 2 days and have a little touring. There is myfirst question: how much money I need for those two weeks to spent onfood in Bourges/Paris and some touring in Paris? Not to messthe forum, let me ask another question. I am going to get to Bourgesfrom Paris by hitch-hiking. Could you recommend me any place in Pariswhere I can catch the car? THX in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 Zenon, welcome to the Forum.I can't begin to guess how much money you'd need but have a good time and good luck with the new job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMB Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 What sort of work will you do in France? Are you a builder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 Paris is a lovely place but not cheap.The French are still good at giving lifts to hitch hikers.The countryside is better and cheaper - farmers will let you stay in their fields or find some woods to camp in free.Shop at Lidl - wine less than 2 euros a bottle - adapt to a vegetarian diet and live on 10 euros a day or less very easily.The Fench are fairly lazy there is plenty of free food in the hedgerows and forests - also much fallen fruit at the moment.. Mushrooms and funghi are plentiful now. Freegan food is available in the bins at the rear of all big supermarkets in France.It would be possible to live well on 3 euros a day or less if you are prepared to look for your food.Have fun - live well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenon90 Posted September 11, 2009 Author Share Posted September 11, 2009 JMB, I will have a season job of gathering grapes. Dog, thx for advices. Actually I am on vegetarian diet for years :) I don't pracitice freeganism as here in Poland it's almost impossible but indeed, I heard it's easier in the west Europe. I am only afraid of legal issues, reportedly supermarkets do everything to prevent using their bins with food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 The supermarkets and shops in France are starting to make life more difficult for freegans but if you time your visits carefully there is still much product available.Good luck and have fun - if you are vegetarian and fit France will be good to you.If you are in 24 you are welcome to visit my humble abode.My neighbour who is 83 is Polish her parents left in 1919 she will give you help and advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 Often they will deliberately spoil what they throw away with bleach etc but it is normally obvious if it has been done because they will also rip open the food packaging to allow the bleach to contaminate the food.I am not ashamed to admit that I raid the bins, we are called glaneurs, be aware that most shops (in my region) keep stuff on the shelves well beyong the DLC (date limite de consommation) one even puts a sticker on that says DLC court but does not reduce the price!Your nose will be your best friend and you will also meet some interesting and surprising people if you choose to find your food in this way.You could also eat for free at Restos Du Couer of which there are several in Paris.Good luck to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Âme Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 [quote user="zenon90"]I am going to get to Bourgesfrom Paris by hitch-hiking. Could you recommend me any place in Pariswhere I can catch the car? THX in advance![/quote]Hi Zenon -To hitchhike (faire du stop) out of Paris in the direction of Orléans you would need to be near the top of the entrance ramps to the périphérique, (ring road) at the Porte d´Orléans or Porte d´Italie. Have a fantastic trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 If you like to travel, mix with others and don't mind helping your host out in reciprocation you could always try www.couchsurfing.org. You will have more luck finding a couch if your profile is completed, if you are verified and if you have been vouched for. Nevertheless, it's a good way to meet up with people when you are in Paris (even if you aren't surfing their couch) and it could get you vouched for another trip. There are 22 pages of events / meet ups in Paris and many couchsurfers will meet you for coffee etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plod Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 "Mushrooms and funghi are plentiful" eh? My French neighbour would love to know where - he is in despair as it looks like another year without ceps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 [quote user="Scooby"]If you like to travel, mix with others and don't mind helping your host out in reciprocation you could always try www.couchsurfing.org. [/quote]I remembered this when I saw the website mentioned: http://www.google.co.uk/search Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 Any experience like that is terrible Clair, but, putting things into perspective, one incident on a site with 1.5m participants and 3m positive experiences isn't bad going. At least with CS you have the benefit of checking the references of the person you surf with - something, I believe, the person in Q didn't do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenon90 Posted September 13, 2009 Author Share Posted September 13, 2009 Thank you all guys for valuable comments! When I go back, I will share my feelings with you :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenon90 Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 Hello guys. I am back home for a while but I completly forgot to post a reply in this topic. Well, I must say I enjoyed my first staying in France. Both in Paris and Bourges people were really nice and helpful (and there were a lot of times we were askin for some help). There is a popular myth here, that French people can't or hate speaking english - since I were in France, I know it's a lie. There was totally no problem with communicating in english, not only with sort of officials but ordinary passersby. We had a little affair with the police. We were hitch-hiking close to highway, and two police officers came to us and said it's forbidden in France :/ They took us to the police station and gave us fines of 4 Euro :) - and said we will be imprisoned if it will happen again :). So we decided to by to Bourges by train and in this way lost 20Euro. Except of this incident, I've noticed that police is rather tolerant here; you could walk the street with vine in the midnight and they completly didn't care. I think they had to deal with some riots, I even saw one...The job itself was rather hard. You had to work bent down all the time, in full sun. I hoped to learn some french, but there were people from Georgia, Chechen, Mongolia etc. so we'd rather communicate in russian :) We got about 600Euro for 2 weeks, which is quite a lot for us and as I found out later, it's also quite a lot for French people. In Paris, there was a picket of CGT union at Notre Dame cathedral and they told us, people working here earn 400-500Euros for the whole month which was a suprise for me. People from the West believe that living in countries like France is colorful, simply and amazing but it's not that easy.All in all, I am going to work there also in the next holidays. It's hard but worth it... at least for people from Poland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Well done Zenon90 and thanks for letting us know how you got on. It is always nice to get some feed-back [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Glad you had fun and earned some money - what will you spend it on? A CZ motorcycle or a trusty Lada?There is apple picking where I live not sure about the money but many people do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenon90 Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 as for now I am going to buy some books for studies - then I will see how much left :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 What are you studying?Don't you fancy a nice CZ Enduro? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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