A scheme introduced by Paris’s tourist office now enables visitors to book a chambre d’hôte or B&B that meets basic standards of comfort, and whose owners have at least a smattering of English to ease the entente cordiale. Those belonging to the Hôtes Qualité Paris also undertake to share breakfast at the family table, provide a front-door key and generally help their visitors discover the neighbourhood. As well as enjoying the least expensive accommodation in town, guests staying in private homes enjoy a far more authentically French experience than they would in a cheap hotel.

First port of call is the website www.parisinfo.com. Click on the accommodation section, then the Hôtes Qualité Paris icon. The resulting page features chambres d’hôtes agencies with properties belonging to the scheme, each of which has a key symbol besides its name. The entries, as well as describing the individual homes and their locations, include a few words about the various hosts. There’s Catherine, for example, who is “an avid buff of the many grand expositions”; Michel, “a French senior official with the retirement”; and Hélène, who “loves to chat and invites visitors for an aperitif and, if they have enough time, for long conversations in her lovely salon”.

I stayed chez Les Haurognes, a welcoming monsieur, madame and small white chien called Whisky. Their tiny sixth-floor apartment on Boulevard du Port Royal is on the fringes of Montparnasse, just a 10-minute stroll from the nearest Métro and RER trains to either Charles de Gaulle airport or Gare du Nord, for Eurostar. It had just the one twin-bedded guest room, although visitors are invited to squat in the living room.

The obvious downside to staying in a chambre d’hôte is the unavoidable sense of intrusion into another life, especially when you share a bathroom with the owners’ lotions and potions, but the value for money is hard to beat. My twin room cost £40, B&B; it can be booked through the France Lodge agency on the parisinfo site.

Visitors on a tight budget can take advantage of other money-saving schemes.

If culture is high on your agenda, buy a Carte Musées + Monuments pass, which not only covers free entry to more than 70 permanent collections, including the Louvre, Orsay and Picasso museums, but lets you jump the queues. You can buy it from participating attractions (for a complete list, visit www.parisinfo.com, then Practical Paris/Money), main Métro stations and tourist information offices, including those at Gare du Nord and Charles de Gaulle airport. It can also be bought online in the UK from Allo France (0870 240 5903, www.allofrance.co.uk). A day pass costs £13, three days £26. There are no passes for children, but most museums allow free entry up to 18.

For more general pleasures at a discount, it makes sense to buy a Paris City Passport (about £3.50), which features money-off coupons — between 10% and 50% — valid at 47 attractions, shops, museums and restaurants.