Time Capsule #11: Europe on $5 a Day

On my way to Salamanca for DFS fall term 1968, I stayed a week in Paris at the Hotel Parisiana by the Panthéon and the Sorbonne with Adele. Our (separate!) single rooms were 12 francs a night. At 5 francs to the dollar then, I paid less than $2.50 for a room with no bath.

It's hard to compare historic prices, but we probably agree that the Hotel Parisiana was a bargain at 12 fr./night. We could get steak frites with a glass of wine for 6 francs or galettes bretonnes with a bowl of cider for half that. A café au lait was a franc. And so on...

The job I had changing tires at my dad's garage paid me $1.60 an hour. So, I loafed less than 2 hours a day that summer for a night's lodging in Paris.

Prices were even lower in Spain. Even with cantina crawling in Nuevo Laredo, I'd saved $300 for the trip. When I came home for Christmas, I still had $40. The inflation calculator online says that the book title's $5 = $44 in today's dollars. I'd love to go to Europe for $44 a day!

The old Parisiana love nest on Rue Tournefort closed in the 70s. The new hotel that appropriated the name is in the Dixième. It's no 5-Star palace, and a double starts at €125.

Prices in Europe have gone up a lot in the past 55 years, haven't they?

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