In 2000 I took a week long trip to paris and took along a friend whom was a grad student and we did the whole trip for 2500, including flights/hotel/meals/spending. well some costs have gone up but for about 4000 one could probably book and take this trip. or there are a few options depending on OP friends ability to spend and pay off a creditcard.
as of right now it seems that aa has no saver sapce for a pre birthday departure jfk or bos, however they do have return frmo paris space for 30k each the following week. and LH has space via the continental website for flights to paris the week before said birthday.
total needed is 60k CO/UA and 60 AA miles plus 200 each ticket taxes.
if Op friend gets the sapphire prefered card and AA card right now and meats the 6k combined spend they will have 53k sapphire points and and 53k aa miles. then after transferign sapphire points to UA the OP could purchase 7k miles from both ua and aa for about 200 each and book ua flight there and aa flight home all in y for about $600. add 600 for cheap accomidations in paris and there is 1800 to spend on food and admissions. very DOable.
I have been to Paris 4 times now. I now fly in F or J and stay at much nicer places however i still have fond memories of that trip in 2000, heck its when i first signed up for a ff account and started collecting miles. it also got me excited about travel and i started going over seas instead of "just to vegas"
best of luck