Here are tips for getting the most for your money when buying food and drink in Paris.

Cafés: Drinks (coffee, wine, beer, etc.) cost less if consumed at the bar rather than at a table. Sidewalk tables are usually the most expensive (but delightful) places to eat and drink.

Restaurants: Ordering à la carte (individual dishes from the price list) is more expensive than having the daily menu (3-course set-price meal), one of the daily Formules (starter + main course, or main course + dessert), or a plat (du jour, plat garni), a main-course with side items all on one plate. Un carafe d'eau, a flask of tap water, is yours at no charge, as is a refill of your bread basket.

Picnics: Buy bread in a bakery, cheese and wine, beer, soda or water in a charcuterie or grocery store, and head for a bench along the Seine, or for one of Paris's lovely parks and gardens. Fancier alternatives: buy anything you want à emporter (to take away) from a restaurant or café, or drop in at a boulangerie-patisserie (bakery-pastry shop) or traiteur (shop selling prepared dishes) and buy one or two items.

Street food: The cheapest way to eat in Paris. Lots of choice:

—All manner of large, filling sandwiches, including panini, even falafel

—Salty (main-course) or sweet (dessert) crêpes sold rolled up in paper and ready to take away

—Huge, thick slices of pizza with all sorts of toppings

—Quiches and other baked meals-all-in-one, hot or cold