IT'S THREE A.M. WANT SOME ONION SOUP AND
OYSTERS? FEEL LIKE SHOOTING SOME POOL? HOW ABOUT GETTING A HAIRCUT?
NO PROBLEM. THE CITY OF LIGHT HUMS AT ALL HOURS. . PHOTOGRAPHS BY
SEAN McCORMICK.
YOU'RE IN PARIS AND YOU CAN'T SLEEP. MAYBE YOU'RE
EXCITED TO BE HERE, MAYBE YOU'RE A HOPELESS NIGHT OWL, OR MAYBE
YOUR BODY CLOCK SIMPLY HASN'T CAUGHT UP WITH PARIS TIME YET. YOU
MIGHT THINK THAT THE ONLY BUSINESSES OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY IN THIS
CITY ARE A FEW STRAY GAS STATIONS OR BARS. YOU WOULD BE
WRONG.
Look around and you'll find a surprising number of
places advertising "24h/24" or "ouvert jour et nuit" (open day and
night), and they come in a variety of flavors.
Here's a miniguide to a few of the places that are (almost) always
open and waiting for you when you can't - or won't -
sleep.
EAT, EAT, AND EAT SOME MORE
Hungry? With such a foodcentric culture, Paris naturally has a fair
number of eateries that simply never close their doors. Others
remain open through the night, shut down for an hour of
prebreakfast housecleaning, and then get right back to business.
You needn't go hungry at any hour.
One 24-hour restaurant that is bursting with tradition is La Tour
de Montlhéry, also known as Chez Denise, which looks as if it's
ready for a film crew to start shooting a bistro scene in a French
movie. Chez Denise once served denizens of Les Halles, the
wholesale-market area known as "the stomach of Paris." While the
market has been gone for nearly 40 years, the bistro has never
surrendered - nor even changed its menu much. You can have fish and
vegetables if you insist, but customers usually come for platters
of charcuterie; giant servings of steak frîtes, pot-au-feu, calf 's
liver, and whatever other meat dishes are on the blackboard; and a
side of the house homemade fries.
An old market haunt that's also still around is Au Pied de Cochon,
a jolly brasserie that impresses diners with its signature onion
soup, all manner of shellfish, and specialties made of parts of the
pig that even the pig didn't know it had. The late crowd - a mix of
theater types, club-goers, and tourists - orders from a night menu
that's priced a bit higher than the regular list.
The owners of Au Pied de Cochon, the Blanc brothers, have a total
of 15 brasseries in town, two more of which are centrally located
24-hour spots: Le Grand Café des Capucines, near the Opéra Garnier,
and L'Alsace, on the Champs-Élysées. Both offer a broad menu that
leads off with half a dozen kinds of oysters and a roster of other
shellfish. All three of these Blanc brothers establishments double
as all-night specialty-seafood markets, selling Normandy and
Brittany oysters to go at any hour. Crates of the crustaceans are
part of the house decor.
Around the corner from L'Alsace are La Maison de l'Aubrac, a beef
house with an unexpectedly ambitious wine cellar, and Café le
P'Elysées, a great place to head to for a light meal and a
beer.
LATE-NIGHT ADDRESS BOOK
|
ALIMENTATION HUIT À 8 (MOBIL),
151, rue de
la Convention, 15th
arrondissement, 011-
331-45-48-43-12
L'ALSACE, 39, avenue
des Champs-Élysées,
8th arrondissement, 011-
331-53-93-97-00, www
.restaurantalsace.com
AU PIED DE COCHON,
6, rue Coquillière, 1st arrondissement,
011-331-
40-13-77-00, www
www.aupieddecochon
.com
BEATI CORPUS,
011-331-48-74-33-16,
www.beati-corpus.com
CAFÉ LE P'ELYSÉES,
39, rue marbeuf, 8th
arrondissement, 011-
331-42-56-14-32,
www.pelysees.com |
CERCLE CLICHY
MONTMARTRE,
84, rue de Clichy,
9th arrondissement,
011-331-48-78-32-85,
www.
academie-billard.com
LES CHIMÈRES,
133, rue
saint-Antoine, 4th arrondissement,
011-331-
42-72-71-97
CINEBANK, several
dozen locations,
www.cinebank.fr
LE DÉPART
SAINT-MI-
CHEL, 1, place
saintmichel,
5th arrondissement,
011-331-43-54-
24-55
ELYFLEURS, 82, avenue de
Wagram, 17th arrondissement, 011- 31-47-66-87-19,
www.elyfleurs.com
ÉPICERIE SHELL, 10,
boulevard Raspail, 7th arrondissement,
011-331-45-48-43-12
|
L'ETINCELLE, 42 bis, rue de rivoli, 4th
arrondissement,
011-331-42-72-09-76
EXTÉRIEUR QUAI, 5,
rue d'Alsace, 10th arrondissement,
011-331-40-35-73-79
LE GRAND CAFÉ
DES
CAPUCINES, 4, boulevard
des apucines,
9th arrondissement,
011-331-43-12-19-00,
www.legrandcafe.com
JARDIN DU CARROUSEL,
place du Carrousel, 1st arrondissement
KIOSQUE PRESSE, 2,
boulevard montmartre,
9th arrondissement,
011-331-53-34-63-11
LA MAISON DE
L'AUBRAC, 37, rue marbeuf, 8th
arrondissement,
011-331-43-59-05-14, www.maisonaubrac.fr |
LA
MAISON BLANCHE, 21 rue de dunkerque, 10th
arrondissement, 011-331-48-78-15-92,
www.maison-blanche.fr
MILK INTERNET HALL,
various locations,
www.milklub.com
OLD NAVY, 150, boulevard
saint-Germain,
6th arrondissement,
011-331-43-26-88-09
ORDIGOOD,
011-336-22-42-84-77, www.ordigood.com
PHARMACIE DES
CHAMPS, 84, avenue des
Champs-Élysées,
8th arrondissement, 011-331-45-62-02-41
PHARMACIE EUROPÉENNE,
6, place de Clichy,
9th arrondissement,
011-331-48-74-65-18
|
POSTE CENTRALE
DU
LOUVRE, 52, rue du louvre,
1st arrondissement,
011-331-44-70-95-04
PUB SAINT-GERMAIN,
17, rue l'Ancienne Comédie,
6th arrondissement,
011-331-56-81-13-13
SALEM, 20, boulevard de
Clichy, 18th arrondissement,
011-331-46-06-60-03
LA TOUR DE
MONTLHÉRY
(CHEZ DENISE),
5, rue des Prouvaires,
1st arrondissement,
011-331-42-36-21-82
(weekdays only)
YATOOPARTOO,
various locations,
www.yatoopartoo.com |
Here are some other notables:
L'Etincelle, in the Marais, serves salads and sandwiches and sports
a wraparound terrace.
Le Départ Saint-Michel, in the Latin Quarter, features bar food,
including open-faced sandwiches on superb Poilâne sourdough bread,
and is a good place for people-watching.
Le Pub Saint-Germain, in Saint-Germain, is a clubby place with
somewhat refined pub food and eclectic furnishings, which have been
updated since this spot's heady heyday in the 1960s.
Old Navy, which is also in Saint-Germain, offers a simple menu, a
long list of beers, sports on the tele, and a tobacco counter.
In most cities, the area around the railroad station is crowded
with places where you can eat and drink. The strip along the south
side of the Gare du Nord is no exception - it's a typical
train-station neighborhood on steroids. The all-night draw on the
street is the brasserie La Maison Blanche. Over by the Gare de
l'Est, there's Extérieur Quai, a 24-hour bar with high-kitsch
murals and, for the pinball crowd, les flippers. "If you want to
play and eat some moules frîtes or côte de boeuf at three o'clock
in the morning," says the owner, Marcel Bénezet, "come here."
MISCELLANY, PART I
Perhaps you just
have the munchies? Salem bakery, just off place de Clichy, sells
pastries, sandwiches, quiches, and pizzas 24 hours a day. Due to
the area's Arab population, many of Salem's goodies are made with
almonds or pistachios - just the things to alleviate those
cravings.
Of course, you could buy the fixings and make your own snack. Paris
supermarkets don't do late hours, and even neighborhood corner
groceries don't stay open past midnight, but there are options.
Paris has several all-night service stations, two with the French
version of an all-night 7-Eleven attached. At the Mobil station on
rue de la Convention, there's Alimentation Huit à 8, an
around-the-clock convenience store. And next to the Shell station
on boulevard Raspail, there's Épicerie Shell, a roomy, clean,
well-lit store that offers everything from bread and cookies to
fresh fruits and vegetables, crème fraîche, and inexpensive wines.
You can even buy the latest copy of Michelin's red guide to Paris
there and get a head start on choosing tomorrow's restaurant.
Your stomach's calling, but you don't feel like traveling? Chances
are you're not too far from a YaTooPartoo, an automatic supermarket
that displays more than 200 everyday products on refrigerated
shelves behind glass. These carry chips, cold drinks, prepared
foods, sandwiches, and all other manner of grocery-store
miscellany.
When looking for magazines, newspapers, or a quick souvenir, you
need a newsstand. Most are shuttered by midnight, but in the
summer, at least, you can shop at any hour at the well-stocked
Kiosque Presse by the top of the escalator of the Grands Boulevards
Métro station on boulevard Montmartre. According to the man behind
the counter, the business stays open 'round the clock from Easter
to early September. "We don't close during tourist season," he
says, "because tourists are on the street day and night." To
satisfy your English-languagenews cravings, you can choose from
eight British newspapers. And if you insist, you can even grab a
Paris souvenir T-shirt or one of those little Eiffel Towers.
|
|
A NIGHT
OWL'S TRANSPORTATION
GUIDE
During the week,
the paris Métro (www.ratp.fr), the
generally smooth, efficient subway
system, shuts down from one to 5:30
a.m. But on saturday nights,
service is extended to 2:15 a.m. on
all 16 lines. the same schedule has
been promised for Friday nights and
is to be implemented sometime this
year. says Marie-Christine
Boully-demange of the city's
tourist office: "there's a demand
for later hours. the city has to
talk to the unions, but maybe in a
few years, we can have a little
more - we hope."
When subways and regular buses
take a rest, special night buses
pick up the slack in order to keep
public transportation rolling 24
hours a day. the Noctilien bus
network - which services two
circular routes and 40 spokes in
all directions - operates from
12:30 to 5:30 a.m., seven days a
week. the night buses connect with
the city's suburban and
long-distance train stations
(www.noctilien.fr).
Taxis can be hard to find at
night, especially around two a.m.,
when most bars close. there are
stations where drivers are supposed
to queue so would-be passengers can
find them, but at odd hours you're
better off phoning a taxi service.
in general, your smartest move for
gathering public-transportation
information is to ask advice from
someone who lives or works in the
area. All parisians know which bus
lines stop in their neighborhoods,
and every parisian has a favorite
cab company's phone number at
hand.
Finally, as part of a new go-green
traffic-cutting program that was
unveiled in July, thousands of
bicycles are now available for
low-cost rental at hundreds of
special sidewalk locations around
the city (www.velib.paris.fr).
Computerized stations will take
your credit card to cover the small
rental fee, give the bike a
high-tech look-over when you return
it, and add a steep charge if
you've mangled the thing.
|
|
SURF WORK MAIL PLAY
If any part of society in any land thrives around the clock, it's
the Internet subculture - thus the half a dozen 24-hour Internet
cafés in Paris, each of which is fronted with a bold
orange-andwhite exterior with a giant milk bottle. The sign outside
reads Milk Internet Hall (slogan: "Milk: Your World in a Bottle"),
and, in English, the offer (or command): "surf work mail play."
Inside, rows of zombies are seated on orange chairs before
flat-screen monitors, surfing, gaming, and tapping, tapping,
tapping; the scene could be the newsroom at the Robot Daily
Tribune. Says the guy at the desk: "Some of them sit down during
the evening and stay all night. We have free Skype service, so
tourists come at all hours to talk to their families at home on a
different clock."
Carrying your own laptop? If it freezes or goes dark and no amount
of rebooting or battery jiggling revives it, you're just a phone
call away from a techie at Ordigood. After midnight, the usual fees
for an on-site job are doubled: The minimum service call becomes
100 euros, and virus disinfection will set you back 150 euros.
You'll clench your teeth but be relieved to be back online.
Twenty-first century or not, sometimes you just have to mail
something. And sometimes, perhaps, the call strikes at an odd hour.
Need stamps for that card or package? The city's Poste Centrale,
the centrally located main post office, is open throughout the
night.
MISCELLANY, PART II
They say that Paris itself is a museum, what with its graceful
architecture, fountains, and outdoor sculptures at every turn.
Counted among this museumlike city's rich displays are Aristide
Maillol's 18 zaftig women in bronze, which are spaced among the
topiary hedges at Jardin du Carrousel, the garden between the west
wings of the Louvre. (There's no merry-go-round; the place is named
for a horse exhibition that was held there in 1662 by Louis XIV and
which featured a parade of 655 horsemen and their assorted
entourages and trumpeters.) The sculpture collection and the entire
garden are ungated and always open.
If art isn't your pleasure and somehow you can't manage to find
anything else to do in Paris, perhaps you have a VCR or DVD player
in your hotel room and will settle for watching a movie. You and
your credit card can put together a night's worth of entertainment
at the nearest outlet of Cinebank, a national video automat that
has dozens of locations in town.
If you prefer to make your own entertainment, try Les Chimères, a
burgersand- tapas restaurant and an all-night bar in the Marais.
The two-level venue attracts an eclectic young crowd by offering a
happy hour, major sporting events on TV, and - for incurable
extroverts and those who enjoy watching them - karaoke from 10 p.m.
to five a.m. When the karaoke machine goes silent, the place closes
for an hour and then reopens at six a.m. for the early breakfast
crowd.
Another place for late-night activity (although not 24 hours - it's
closed from 5:45 to 11 a.m.) is the century-old billiard academy
Cercle Clichy Montmartre, which has 16 tables. The air-conditioned
academy - don't call it a pool hall - hosts regular tournaments,
requires an ID for entry, and allows no minors. "Retirees come in
the afternoon," the doorman explains. "At night, you see lawyers
and people coming from the office in white shirts. Older people
play bil- liards; the young ones play American pool. We have a
snooker table for the English."
Do you need a couple of aspirin? In a back corner of the Galerie
des Champs, a two-level mini-mall on the Champs-Élysées, you'll
find the Pharmacie des Champs, which dispenses aspirin and a lot
more. There are bottles and tins of whatever you need to stop your
pain, to stop smoking, to lose or gain weight, and to fix up your
insides and your outside. McDonald's and the other shops in the
Galerie may close during the late hours, but the Pharmacie des
Champs does not. And if you're up near Montmartre and need to fix a
headache or a stomachache, look for the big green-lit cross
flashing across the place de Clichy - it shows the way to the
Pharmacie Européenne, which never closes and is a larger
drugstore.
BODY (AND SOUL) MAINTENANCE
After a late night, does it take a bit of, well, work to get you
looking your best for that morning meeting? No matter what the
hour, Beati Corpus will answer your phone call and send a team
member to your home, office, or hotel in less than 30 minutes to
give you a haircut, shampoo, manicure, pedicure, facial, or
massage. The outfit, which has been in business for 15 years, lists
17 top hotels as references and brags about having worked on such
celebrities as Madonna, Elton John, Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone,
Nicole Kidman, Andre Agassi, Mme Kennedy, and the sultan of Brunei.
There's no word about whether those folks called during the day or
at night.
Been out all night painting the town rouge? Feeling guilty about
it? Sorry, Paris has no all-night church at which you can absolve
yourself, but if you'll have some explaining to do as dawn breaks,
head over to avenue de Wagram, above the Arc de Triomphe, and pay a
visit to Elyfleurs. A big flower shop that's been open around the
clock for years, it's a favorite of concierges and dinner guests
all over town. Choose a bouquet - better make it a big one - of
something pretty. If you're feeling very guilty, add a bottle of
Champagne from the shop's cooler. Now go back and face the music.
Good luck.