Luxembourg Gardens is one of Paris' most popular public parks. If you travel to the city during the low-season, you'll enjoy fewer crowds.

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'Tis the season for U.S.-based Francophiles to gaze across the pond with glee.

Though the Euro is drubbing the dollar, opportunities abound for savvy travelers to score great off-peak bargains. Specifically, Paris, the birthplace of couture, becomes far more affordable come winter.

For starters, it's cheaper to get to Europe off-season. Recent round-trip sale airfares from the East Coast to Paris have ranged around $500, with return trips from the West Coast hovering around $650. Travel bargain sites like Travelzoo.com and Airfarewatch dog.com have weekly e-mail lists highlighting discounted and last-minute fares; if you're looking to go to France, sign up.

When you're on the ground in Paris, you'll find another low-season benefit: far fewer crowds than during summer's crush.

By traveling against the grain, you'll enjoy greater tranquility in Notre Dame, more elbow room at the Louvre. You'll be sharing the city with the locals: better to queue up at the Centre Pompidou or Musee d'Orsay with field-tripping Parisian schoolchildren than packaged tour groups cranky with jet lag.

To live further like a temporary Parisian, skip the hotels. Rent an apartment instead. Besides the homey touches, like kitchens stocked with seasonings and traveler's logs packed with tips, vacation rentals save you Euros while letting you blend into a neighborhood.

Stocking up at local markets like Rue Mouffetard or Marche Bastille for fresh yogurt, fruit and cheeses, and sizzling morning bacon while in your pajamas beats dropping $15 for a skimpy petit dejeuner any day.

Again, the Web is a great resource: rental-by-owner sites like VRBO.com and Home away.com are easy to use and filled with options varying by budget, size and style. Check the photos and reader feedback before committing to a certain place.

No Paris trip is complete without some shopping. The exchange rate will hit hard if you spend carelessly — instead, target "Soldes," or January sales-season, at grand dame department stores like Galeries Lafayette and Le Printemps, which mark down prices 25 percent to 75 percent throughout the month.

Better, canvas some of Paris' most beguiling outposts — its resale designer and consignment shops, known as "depot ventes."

These are a joy to explore, each a peek into a bit of Parisian daily life. The quality of offerings can be downright stunning, and shopkeepers are open to deals, even trades. It's not unheard of to enter a shop with two Furla bags and exit with Christian Lacroix jeans.

Consignment shops are easy to spot throughout the city. A good number exist north of the Seine River, in the Right Bank. Anna Lowe draws raves for good service, emerging designers (Aldo Martin, Coco Henko) and a steady supply of black Chanel dresses. Hard-to-find Haut-de-Gamme Stock discounts Versace, Armani and more. You might find Balenciaga bags so cheap here you'll grab extras, just to trade.

To the west, the Marais and Bastille districts provide shoppers great strolling, with hip young designers clustered along rue Charlot. Alternatives marks down Japanese designer wear and global labels like Prada and Miu Miu.

Funky Come On Eileen, a delightfully ramshackle two-story catchall of vintage denim, vests, bonnets and boots is where you can pluck 1960s-era Hermes scarves off window manikins while bopping to 1980s new wave.

The city's biggest resale depot, Reciproque, comprises shops in the upscale 16th Arrondissement, stocking Prada and Dior, all gently worn, sometimes on photo shoots. It's not the cheapest place but, like many fashion outposts, often matches January's markdowns.

For a shopping trip off the beaten path, hop an RER train at Val d'Europe station for La Vallee Village, a boutique outlet mall half an hour from center city. Clacking back through the countryside to your Paris apartment, new hot-pink Burberry scarf and Diesel jeans in tow, you can sit back and savor how well you've shopped Paris like a local.