Paris | Salem bakery | Gare du Nord | Grands Boulevards Métro station

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.