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The Dollar Store is your unlikely best friend when packing for Paris. Visit a dollar store before leaving the US to avoid overspending on travel supplies with. The Dollar Store is cheaper than the Travel aisle in your local pharmacy or discount store.

Their price point allows you to ditch items if you need room in your luggage on the return trip. The stock at the Dollar Store changes and they might not have all of these items all of the time, so buy them when you see them!

#1 – Travel Umbrella

Travel umbrellas tend to get lost or forgotten in restaurants, museums, etc. Unless you are a frequent traveler with a meticulous memory I would go with a Dollar Store umbrella.

#2 – Daily Pill container

If you’re d’un certain âge, you probably take a medication or two or three.

#3 – Over-the-Counter Medications

You will be walking more than you usual, trudging through endless corridors in the Louvre and distracted by the beauty of Paris streets. The Dollar Store is a good place to stock up on pills and unguents for the aches and pains inherent in travel.

#4 – First Aid Kit

You can’t beat a dollar for this.

#5 – Personal Care

You can pick up hygiene and beauty supplies and your TSA liquids container and bag here.

#6 – Sewing Kit

#7 – Drain Cover

Will you be sink-washing undies? I travel with a drain cover because hotel and apartment sink plugs often don’t work.

Picnic Items

Break up the hectic tourist pace with a leisurely meal in a park or on a quai by the Seine. Experience Paris like a Parisian and visit a grocery store, marché, or the food section of a Monoprix store. Pick up a bottle of wine, a baguette or prepared deli item and appreciate the panorama of daily life in Paris.

#8 – Reusable folding bag

When you shop at grocery stores or marchés you’ll notice that the French bring their own sacs and bag items themselves. Bring your own picnic bag.

#9 – Bottle opener

Wine is a good buy in Paris; be prepared to sample a bottle on your picnic!

#10 – Disposables

Bring a few plastic knives, forks, spoons, napkins, and baggies for picnic leftovers. Side note: ‘doggie bags’ are not available in French restaurants. They serve normal portions that can be finished in one sitting. Supersizing is an American phenomenon.

#11 – Sticky notes and arrows

For marking maps and guidebooks and noting observations you want to remember.

#12 – Clothespins

These come in handy when you least suspect and I always pack a couple from the dollar store.

#13 – Carabiners

I use these to clip my keys inside my bag for handy access and to hang laundry bags.

#14 – Portable Flashlight

The French have timers on hallway lights and they can turn themselves off while you are still fumbling for your keys. I also use the ever-handy carabiner to hang one inside my bag for easy access.

#15 – Earplugs

Are you traveling with someone who snores? Don’t lose sleep; throw a couple earplugs in your bag!

#16 – Batteries

And last but not least, don’t forget to put fresh batteries in your various devices!

Amongst the free eye candy visible to anyone strolling the streets of Paris are doors of astounding beauty and history. No need to stand in a long museum line or shell out a fistful of euros to view this spectacle. The only requirement: slow down and look around!

Doorways hold symbolic power as gateways or as portals to the unknown. The historic doors of Paris invite us to travel into the past and imagine musketeers and nobles, Belle Èpoque beauties and gents, writers, painters and flappers.

Doors may be the only remnant of an ancient building. Facades get remodeled over the centuries. Doorways can be a convenient method of dating a building.

Older doors are often porte-cochères, carriage entrances into the courtyards lying beyond. Look for doors dating to the 1600’s in the Marais and on Île-Saint-Louis. They are wooden with two leaves.

Usually one of the leaves will have a door knocker indicating the pedestrian entrance. Studded nails affix wooden plaques arranged in decorative grids. The earliest nails were round headed. Nails were not only decorative; they protected the wood from damage by carriages knocking against it.

As the century progresses, the designs evolve. Moldings and ornamental carvings appear.

The door is from the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan at 71 rue du Temple. It was built in 1640 and named for the Duc de Saint-Aignan after he purchased it in 1687. He was a favorite of King Louis XIV and became Minister of State.

Two carved Medusa heads by Renaudin on the door of 47 rue Vieille-du-Temple are oft photographed images in the Marais.

Notice how dramatically these porte-cochères have morphed during the 1600’s.

By the 1700 and 1800’s the style had become more ornate and rococo.

Wrought iron began being used in doors in the late 1700’s and flourished in the 1800’s as new and easier handling processes developed during the Industrial Revolution. Initially small wrought iron grids were inserted into the upper part of doors.

In the mid-1800’s, Renaissance elements became popular.

The sinuous lines of Art Nouveau made their appearance in doorways of the late 1800’s up to World War I.

The last great historical era for Paris doors is the post World War I Art Deco period. This lasted into the 1930’s when the depression and then World War Two took its toll.

Try taking an evening walk to look at doors. Entryway lighting highlights the details of glass and iron doorways.

The doors of Paris represent a beautiful and accessible part of the city’s artistic patrimony. Seize the opportunity to appreciate the free historical panorama visible from the sidewalks of Paris.

16 Dollar Store Travel Hacks – Paris Edition

Guide to the Doors of Paris