With over 29 million visitors a year, Paris is the most visited city in the world. With that number of visitors, truly it must be impossible to find your own little nook of the city where you can blend in and experience the city like a local. Right?

Cue The Frugal Traveler, circa summer ‘08, who, in the above video, decided the best way to see the city was to shack up in a rented apartment in the 10th Arrondissement he found on one of the rental sites, VivaStreet.fr and pap.fr (it’s not clear which one gave him the the most luck). (more…)

The New York Times’ “Frugal Traveler,” Matt Gross, was in attendance at last night’s talk, “Travel Gets Social: The New World of Travel Media,” when discussions turned to the prospect of the future of travel journalism.

In a surprisingly candid, yet refreshingly sober, analysis of his own employer, Matt admitted that should the Grey Lady cease to exist one day, or at least cut back even more dramatically than it already has, he has often wondered what the demand in the the marketplace would be for a stand-alone Frugal Traveler site, with reader-based instructions as to where to go and what to do.

Payment, he mused, could be collected via a PayPal donation box on the site, with tourism agencies and readers alike supporting his travels. Kind of like the guys you see playing mariachi music in the subway on the weekends.

What do you think? Is this the future for Matt? Is this even a viable idea? Haven’t people tried this before?

In my opinion, as good as Matt is, the sad reality is that it’s often the name way above the byline that draws the readers. There will always be excellent independent travel publications (whoo-hoo) and bloggers, but let’s face it, it takes something like the New York Times to really draw the eye-popping number of readers and advertisers.

It’s up to the Times to adapt to the times, and not up to its writers, if quality travel journalism is going to survive in the future. Otherwise, time to snap up the URL: www.thefrugaltraveler.com

This week the Frugal Traveler attempts the impossible: Paris for cheap. And he succeeds! Through a little hotel-slumming, twitter restaurant advice, and the reliance on the all-important French institution that is the picnic.

“The picnic is the great democratizing institution of summer, when Parisians spill onto riverbanks and bridges and into parks and gardens, chasing away the memories of winter and rain with baguettes and bottles, sandals and sundresses.”

Follow Matt (his definite articleless title) as he makes his way around the former Jewish quarter, the Marais, one of his favorite haunts for shopping and lazy weekend wandering. Next on the zero-euro list, he heads to the Museum of Hunting and Nature, one of the many museums that are free on the first Sunday of every month (as are the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay).

For a little shopping, the Parisian flea markets and the A.P.C. surplus store in Montmartre, where clothes that have been on the shelf for over 6 months are 50% off, are a must for any bargain hunter or budget travel writer.

And what’s Paris without squirming your way into the restaurant of the city’s hottest chef? In this case, Spring (check out the live kitchen cams at the site!), the tiny, hyped joint where Matt takes advantage of the no reservations policy on Saturdays. And it’s all done on the cheap. Save your Euros for the next trip.

The Frugal Traveler did Portland, Oregon, this week (not one of the other 19 Portlands around the U.S., but who knows, maybe Portland, Arkansas will be soon) and he found that this city known the world over as a mecca for foodies and coffee lovers is actually a surprisingly cheap destination, what with all the free beer being passed out at clothing boutiques, $0 Monday morning coffees, and random dudes offering up their forest cabins and all.

One of his highlights while there (despite being constantly reminded of the high quality of life and laid-back lifestyle) was his run-in with the 400-strong food-cart scene (you can watch the video here) where one, despite the advice of their cardiologist, can intake everything from schnitzelwich at “Czech Out Czech Food” to $5 double burgers from “YouCanHasCheeseburger.”

He finishes the week with $2.50 beers and pinball at an arcade called Ground Control and $5.50 eight-ounce steaks at what is described by many Portlanders as a rite-of-passage, the Acropolis Steakhouse Plus. Which begs the question: how many New York Times reporters go to strip clubs while on assignment, and how many of those find a way to work it into their story? I think this one might be one of the rare few.