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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.
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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.