Author: Justin Luke

Paris, that most romantic of cities, is a real heartbreaker for travelers on a budget.

Like New York, London and other world capitals, you’ll pay dearly for hotels –– a moderately priced room runs upwards of $200 a night –– as well as meals, clothing and other expenses.

For Americans, the euro’s advantage over the dollar means an automatic 35 to 40 percent hike on every pain au chocolat, steak frites and museum entrance.

During a recent visit, I tried to make every one of my precious euros count.

My first order of business was to reduce the cost of sleeping: Could I find a cheap place without sacrificing location or style?

I lucked out with a tiny studio apartment for just $550 a week in the heart of the Marais, through the online booking site, Paris Autrement.

Although less than 150 square feet, the compact space included a living area, queen-size loft bed, fully-equipped kitchenette, marble-lined bath and all-important Wi-Fi service.

With my own cooking area and fridge, I prepared breakfast, lunches and even the occasional dinner. But I didn’t come to Paris to stay at home. I still took advantage of the City of Lights, by mixing in bargains with the boutique.

Here’s how I allocated my budget:

Cafe and conversation A coffee at a sidewalk table –– street view included –– cost just 2 euros or $2.75.

No need to pimp your ride The metro got me everywhere for 1.70 euro or about $2.35; buying 10 rides for 12 euro reduced the price to 1.20 euro or about $1.65.

Weather permitting, the Velib shared bike service cost as little as 1 euro or about $1.37 to get from place to place.

The wonders of the supermarket Cheese, wine and salted butter were all bargains at the local grocery store. Yes, it is possible to enjoy a 2-euro bottle of red. The key is to let it breathe, before quaffing.

The plat du jour –– friend or frenemy? Dinner for one at Le Taste Monde, an upscale restaurant near Place de la Madeleine known for its extensive wine list, cost 19 Euros or $26, for the two-course special menu. I chose a starter of a cheese tart, followed by filet of beef with sinfully rich Dauphinoise-style potatoes.

However, when I spent 15 Euros or $21 on a two-course special at a lesser restaurant, I regretted it. The extra $6 made the difference between a memorable meal and an ordinary one.

Go ethnic Mix up the rich French food with lighter Vietnamese and other Asian meals; your heart and wallet will thank you.

A Vietnamese banh mi sandwich in Belleville cost just 3 euro or $4 at Chez Yu, while a plate of 15 shrimp handmade “ravioli” –– or dumplings –– at Gui Xing ran 5 Euros or just under $7.

In the Marais, the famed L’As du Fallafel lived up to its reputation for offering the best –– and one of the heartiest –– Middle Eastern-style sandwiches for 7 Euros or $9.60; you can eat in or take out for the same price.

Worth a splurge The life-changing macarons at iconic patisserie Pierre Herme come in mouthwatering flavors, such as caramel-sea salt, or white truffle. They make for an affordable luxury at about 2 Euros each or $2.75.

Free is the best number Paris is rich in attractions that don’t cost a centime.

These include museums and art spaces, such as the Musee Carnavalet, which tells the history of the city of Paris; the Musee d’Arte Moderne, which offers a well-edited selection of key modernists; the 104 center, known for its cutting-edge video and other exhibitions; and the Petit Palais, a Beaux Arts masterpiece with photo and other special exhibitions.

The first Sunday of the month, the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, and Centre Pompidou, among other museums, offer free admission.

Meanwhile, the great outdoors proved another source for freebies, from the Luxembourg Gardens to the Tuileries to the Jardin des Plantes botanical garden.

Now I know I can always have Paris without breaking the bank.

I arrived in Dublin after driving through fog, sleet and snow on the motorway from Galway.

The 252-room gibson hotel, spelled with lower case “g”, is located on the north bank of the River Liffey, in the revitalized Docklands district, and the warm glow of lights within the hotel’s glass-cube façade was a welcome sight on a darkening winter afternoon.

Once a ship-loading center for livestock, the site of a smelly fertilizer plant, and a dumping ground for city sewage, Docklands is now a stunning urban renewal project that includes not only this hotel, but a Kevin Roche-designed convention center, a theater by Daniel Libeskind and one of Santiago Calatrava’s signature swooping bridges.

Dublin is most often associated with such literary greats (Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw), the musical group U2, and the lively pubs along Temple Bar, the city’s friendly but raucous two-block pedestrian street where Guinness is most likely the name that gets the most attention.

During the past decade, however, the city’s star attraction has been the collection of structures and streetscapes that form the Docklands district, which began to take off during Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” period of the 1990s, and crested in 2010 with the opening of the convention center and the other buildings.

Then the bottom fell out of the Irish economy, and current construction projects on several buildings, including an almost-completed five-star hotel next to the Grand Canal Theatre, have stalled.

The Docklands project, organized and run by The Docklands Development Authority, has transformed the east end of Dublin from a lonely and forlorn industrial and shipping area into an interesting, post-modern downtown neighborhood where dazzling modern buildings compete with the city’s more traditional Georgian architecture.

On the south side of the River Liffey a spacious plaza, known as Grand Canal Square, designed by the American firm Martha Schwartz –Partners, has a cascading marble fountain and a series of tall, glowing light sticks that gives the site an amazing vibrancy.

Located on the square is the sharply angled, stainless steel Grand Canal Theatre, designed by the Libeskind.

During several days walking around Docklands, I felt that the entire project seems to be a wonderful example of a futuristic-looking, inner city environment that manages to meld Dublin’s cultural, business and residential interests into one cohesive neighborhood.

Its proximity to gritty neighborhoods in north Dublin, and to the docks just beyond its eastern boundary, help Docklands avoid being called “sterile,” and provide a desired sense of reality to the lovely looking but expensive residential apartments and glittering glass facades of the commercial spaces.

The Roche-designed Convention Centre Dublin appears on the river bank as a glass drum leaning against a concrete box, but the view from inside the building, of Calatrava’s Samuel Beckett bridge, and the city skyline beyond, puts everything into perspective. Roche, a Pritzker award-winning architect, was born in Dublin but moved to the United States in 1948, where his designs for the Oakland Museum in California and the Ford Foundation building in New York City, moved him into the top tier of world architects. The CCD is the first carbon neutral convention center in the world, and Roche’s first architectural commission in Ireland.

Staying at the gibson hotel, at the far end of North Wall Quay, an area known as The Point, I had ample opportunity to look at, and learn about, the O2 Arena, which was just outside my hotel room window. While most new buildings in Docklands draw attention to themselves because of their architecture, the O2, named after the British telecommunications firm, is an interesting conversion of a building with an oft- tumultuous history.

In 1988 Irish entrepreneur Harry Crosbie, along with the company that would become Live Nation, converted an 1878 train station, known as Point Depot, into the Point Theatre. The Irish band U2 was the first group to play there, and they in turn showed up to open the present O2 Arena on the same site in 2008, after Crosbie renovated the old theatre’s interior into a larger space. The exterior maintains the original 19th-century Edwardian rail depot façade, and a large, corrugated, translucent box on the roof lets the pulsating lights shine through during evening concerts.

Architecturally-motivated international visitors flying into Dublin Airport can begin their tour right away, just by exiting the airport’s new Terminal 2. The British firm, Pascall+Watson created a striking glass and steel terminal building that will help put thousands of jet-lagged arriving passengers in a better mood. The terminal, with its large, blue-glass elevators, spacious baggage and check-in areas, and numerous passport and customs check-points, opened at the end of 2010.

Melbourne has a habit of hiding its light under a bushel –– or rather, amid its warren of mysterious laneways. Down many a dark, graffiti-lined alley, you’ll find the city’s coolest hidden hangouts, from buzzing bars to white-hot eateries.

If there’s no name on the door, or you have to ring a bell to get in, you’re onto a good thing. Here are our favorite secret seven laneway spots:

Out of eyeshot when you glance up Tattersalls Lane from Chinatown’s Little Bourke Street, Section 8 is tucked away in a car park-like recess which you won’t discover until you’re right on it. Once spotted (at Nos. 27–29), you’ll be besotted: This grungy outdoor space teams a bar created from shipping containers with wooden pallet seats, lanterns and street art. Mean drinks and tunes up the fun factor.

The location couldn’t be more unlikely, as you disappear down Payne’s Place to Croft Alley, a zigzagging laneway off Little Bourke Street. Keep the faith and you’ll emerge at one of Melbourne’s most surreal spots, cocktail bar The Croft Institute. Downstairs is decked out like a madcap laboratory; upstairs, it’s more old-school gym. Bubbling blue liquids in vitrine phials add to the science-geek charm.

Easy to miss, elegant venue Von Haus, at 1a Crossley Street, will soon make you feel at home. Essentially one room, with a communal wooden table surrounded by smaller perches, and a petite courtyard space, it has a distinctly European feel, with hearty soups and stews, sexy salads and wines by the glass. This painting-strewn pad has “date destination” written all over it.

Smith’s Melbourne office may be right next door, but even we struggle to find super-secret, sign-free Yu-U, a tiny Japanese eatery at 137 Flinders Lane, on the corner of Oliver Lane. Open Monday to Friday for set lunches and dinner, it’s a casual canteen with counter seats or tables for yakitori and sips of sake.

For a dreamy double-whammy, trot up the road to 21 Liverpool Street, where a bike mounted on the wall outside hints at the laneway gem within. Mao-chic bar Double Happiness awaits on the ground-floor for a relaxed kick-off cocktail. Afterwards head upstairs, where two stories of Asian-inspired charm unfold at its sister establishment.

New Gold Mountain’s moniker derives from the name Chinese immigrants gave each new mine in Victoria’s goldfields in the 1850s. The first floor is all jade-green glamour, with a romantic red retreat perched above. Laser-cut panels, a floaty fabric ceiling and peekaboo views ensure secret-assignation attitude. Both are licensed till late, but you may need to buzz to get in.

It’s the hot restaurant du jour, but finding Mexican eatery Mamasita –– hidden above a 7-11 on Collins Street –– is almost as hard as bagging a table. Once inside this simple wood and wrought-iron space, feast on delicious tostadas, tacos and quesadillas, and zesty ceviches, washed down with top-shelf tequila. Blown-up black-and-white photos and quirky lighting help keep your mind off the queues.

Finally, it wouldn’t be Melbourne without some radical rooftop action. Perched an elevator ride above a spaghetti joint at Level 3, 59–63 Bourke Street, kitschy Madame Brussels sports Astroturf, perky parasols, waitstaff decked out in Fred Perry shorts and tennis outfits, and jugs of Pimm’s as big as your head. People-watch in the sun at this good-times garden party.

For location-savvy laneway lodgings, try stylish self-catering Apartment 401 in Melbourne’s central business district, just off Flinders Lane. If DIY is just not your thing, there are quirky abodes aplenty in Smith’s Melbourne hotel collection –– The Cullen’s edgy street-art references will chime nicely with your laneways forays.

The Mile High City may be the gateway to one of the nation’s most glorious outdoor regions, but it’s also a place of sophisticated, urban delights and easy-to-access nature spots. Here are five attractions popular with locals like me.

20th Century Design Pop Located in an historic building that was once the studio of Colorado painter Vance Kirkland, the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art has some of the best Arts & Crafts, Bauhaus, Art Deco, Modern and Pop art in the country.

There are 3,300 pieces of representative art, including furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Charles and Ray Eames; hundreds of pieces of 20th century ceramics, tableware, glassware, and metalware; and even an iconic Electrolux vacuum cleaner.

Harmonic Convergence Less than five miles from downtown, the Denver Botanic Gardens is making a name for itself by mixing grand displays of large sculptural art with its renowned collection of diverse plants. First it was huge Chapunga stone sculptures from Zimbabwe; then it was massive pieces by Henry Moore; this summer it’s the work of Allan Houser, considered by many to be the major Native American artist of the 20th century. The juxtaposition of art and nature would be breathtaking even at a lower altitude.

Wild at Heart There’s no better way to celebrate a visit to Colorado than by seeing a herd of bison, the iconic symbol of the Wild West. This has been made easier than ever with the opening this spring of a new visitor center at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, just minutes off the interstate that joins Denver International Airport and downtown.

At more than 12,000 acres, the refuge is one of the largest urban open spaces in the country and home to more than 330 species of birds and animals. It also offers one of the best bargains in town: free two-hour van rides to the further reaches of the preserve where a herd of nearly 500 bison enjoy their home on the range. Reservations are required.

Modern Talk Imagine attending a lecture on Tammy Wynette and Cross-Dressing Saints. Or The Sonnet and Beef Jerky. Perhaps you’d prefer Pop Music and Stoicism. On Friday nights The Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver hosts “Mixed Taste: Tag Team Lectures on Unrelated Topics.”

The rules are simple. Two speakers –– experts in different fields –– discourse for 20 minutes on his or her topic, during which they’re allowed to make no reference to the other person’s subject.

This is followed by a no-holds barred question-answer period, when connections –– and disconnections –– are not only allowed, but encouraged. Reserve early; the performances regularly sell out.

Seeing Red The easiest place to revel in Denver’s extraordinary setting is Red Rocks Park, 20 miles west of downtown. Exactly 100 years ago, Scottish opera star Mary Garden gave a formal concert amid the sandstone rocks. Later the City of Denver purchased the property, added bench seating and turned it into a more comfortable venue.

Some of the biggest names in pop and rock history, from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to The Grateful Dead, U2 and of course John Denver, have performed there. It’s a place where the acoustics are perfect, the scenery spectacular, and at night, the stars –– both onstage and in the sky –– are wondrous.

Although Mendoza, Argentina, is off the tourism map compared to Buenos Aires –– its much bigger and more visited urban counterpart –– this small city is definitely ready for its close up.

The capital of Argentina’s Mendoza province offers all the things I like about cities –– great cafes and restaurants, hip boutiques, picturesque squares and fun people-watching –– with a foodie bonus: There are hundreds of wineries located just outside the city limits.

I visited Mendoza recently for Masters of Food and Wine, a four-day culinary event sponsored by the Park Hyatt Mendoza that features local cuisine and wines.

The event pairs local chefs with professionals from around the world, and includes dinners at local wineries, cooking classes and even a polo exhibition. But really any time of the year is a good one for a food- and wine-focused visit.

Surrounding the city are rolling hills dotted with hundreds of vineyards and olive groves, with the Andes as a dramatic backdrop. Starting at the Mendoza limits, the elevation steadily rises towards the Andes, creating a series of microclimates.

Braised lamb dish at Zuccari Family Winery; by M. Alvarez

The varied weather allows winemakers to grow a wider range of complex and balanced varietals than one might find in other wine-growing regions of the country.

The result is a greater number of wines –– notably chardonnay, tempranillo and cabernet sauvignon –– beyond Argentina’s more typical Malbec. Mendoza’s thousands of acres of vines also depend not on rainfall, but on snow melting off the jagged range separating Argentina from Chile.

Among my favorite stops on my wine tour were the Zuccari Family Winery, a top exporter that’s still run by father, Jose Alberto, and his children, Sebastian, Miguel and Julia.

There, I enjoyed a fabulous lunch, as part of the Masters event, featuring braised lamb with endive, pumpkin marmalade and mushrooms, and a dessert of organic caviar with raspberry yolk and eucalyptus ice cream.

Other worthwhile stops included Rotini Wines, which dates to 1885 and is one of the county’s oldest and biggest wineries, and Terrazas de los Andes, which offers a six-room guest house for anyone who wants to have an authentic estancia experience.

Plaza Independencie; courtesy of Secretaria de Turismo de Mendoza

After sipping and tasting in the mountains all day, I returned to my hotel on the city’s main Plaza Independencia for a proper siesta, before heading out for an evening’s stroll.

The pedestrian-only Aristides Villanueva became a favorite destination for its lively all-night bars and upscale restaurants.

But even a foodie can’t live on great meals and wine alone: I also took advantage of the huge selection of handmade leather goods, and snapped up a purse that was priced to move at a trendy boutique.

Chicago can justifiably call itself the home of modern architecture, so it makes sense that next weekend (Oct. 15-16), it’s inaugurating a program that seemingly jumps on the bandwagon of open house tours held by cities like London and New York.

Open House Chicago is, in fact, just one more offering from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which features dozens of tours of the city, most notably its beloved river cruise. How OHC differs is in the access it’s promising— a chance to get inside some of the city’s iconic interiors, as well as to tour out-of-the-way gems that building buffs might never otherwise encounter.

More than 100 sites are organized into five neighborhoods: downtown, Garfield Park to the west, La Villita and Brownsville on the South Side, and Rogers Park to the north. I toured a handful back in the Spring, and came away impressed not only with the more detailed looks at the Loop’s greatest hits, but with the gems hiding in plain sight all around the city.

I began downtown at CAF’s headquarters in the Santa Fe Building, one of 26 landmarked buildings on the tour. From the endlessly fascinating model of Chicago that has pride of place in the lobby (along with a great design bookshop) to the floors occupied by the quintessential corporate architects, SOM, this 1904 Daniel Burnham high-rise operates as a microcosm for all things Chicago style.

Up top, in the 17th floor office suite of another architectural firm, Geotech Partners, there’s even more. Visitors can peer down at the building’s light well and huddle this close to its distinctive porthole windows. Sweeping views of the Art Institute and Grant Park are a pleasurable bonus.

In Bronzeville, once dubbed the “Black Metropolis” — where diaspora jazz musicians created the Second City’s own thriving version of the Harlem Renaissance — I strode down the aisles of Meyers Ace Hardware store, one of the more bizarrely fascinating landmarks I’ve ever visited.

The bins of nails and shelves of paint reveal nary a clue that this was once the Sunset Club, where Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway jived from a stage that’s been turned into an office for David Meyers, the grandson of the hardware store’s founders.

So redolent was the place with the sounds of jazz, that Earl Hines once said, “if you throw a trumpet up in the air at 35th and Calumet, it will play by itself.” Today, says Meyers, pilgrims in search of a connection pick up plungers by the boatload, in homage to the mutes that Armstrong so famously inserted into his instrument.

This neighborhood rubs shoulders with the elite enclave of Hyde Park, home to the University of Chicago, the Obamas, and Rubie House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated residences. But stopping there wouldn’t hew to the notion of “hidden,” so I moved on to a Wright house I’d never heard of, the 1915 Prairie-style Emil Bach home in Rogers Park.

Unfortunately, this private home wasn’t up to journalistic persuasion, so I never did get in (it’ll be on the tour, though). Instead, I checked out the Cat’s Cradle Bed & Breakfast, owned by the same foundation that runs the Bach house. With its oak floors and leaded glass windows, this 1919 Arts and Craft building served adequately enough as Frank Lloyd Light.

Had I known about this option beforehand, I might have chosen to base myself here. The Rogers Park http://rogerspark.com/rp/about/neighborhood is about as far north as you can get in Chicago, and its leafy shopping streets, arts offerings, lakeside setting and diverse population seem ripe for exploring.

But in the end it was a crumbling bit of industrial heritage on the city’s southside that most excited me. I visited two of the five remaining structures from the 1906 Sears Roebuck & Co. complex, which once sprawled over 40 acres and employed 15,000 workers.

A city-within-a-city, this campus also included a a 3 million-square-foot catalog printing plant, showrooms and testing labs, and a publicity office, cafeteria, bank, and even an in-house fire department. All have been demolished.

Sears’ signature 14-story brick tower — used as the merchandiser’s retail headquarters and distribution center — still stands, though. The OpenHouse tour will allow visitors to ascend to the top for the first time in decades.

Across the street, the old Sears offices, a stately brick building that’s pegged for an apartment conversion, will also be open for the tour.

I didn’t make it inside either, but instead headed for the Henry Ford Academy, a charter school now located in the Power House. Sensitively restored by Chicago’s Farr Associates, this striking space retains the building’s dramatic catwalks, thick glazed subway-tile walls, arched windows and, for funky good measure, some non-working, but formally steam-generating and electricity-producing, relics.

Used for assemblies, a cafeteria, and the like, this sparkling adaptive reuse makes for an inspiring house of education in a neighborhood struggling to get back on its feet. In its perfect blend of old and new, green and dirty, industrial and hi-tech, it also makes for a terrific centerpiece of a tour that unveils the City of the Big Shoulders’ multitude of facets.