Entertainment in Paris
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Angélina
Take a break from the long trek along the Tuileries gardens and line up for a table at Angélina, along with lunching ladies, their posturing poodles and half the students from Tokyo University. This beautiful, high-ceilinged tearoom has exquisite furnishings, mirrored walls and fabulous fluffy cakes. More importantly, it serves the best and most wonderfully sickening ‘African’ hot chocolate in the history of time (€6.90), served with a pot of whipped cream. It’s a positive meal replacement (though breakfast is €16.50 to €27.50).
reviewed
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Le Piano Vache
Down the hill from the Panthéon, this bar is covered in old posters above old couches and is drenched in 1970s and ‘80s rock ambience. Effortlessly underground and a real student fave, bands and DJs play mainly rock, plus some goth, reggae and pop.
reviewed
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Moulin Rouge
Ooh la la… Paris’ most celebrated cabaret was founded in 1889 and its dancers appeared in the flamboyant posters by Toulouse-Lautrec. It sits under its trademark red windmill (a 1925 replica of the 19th-century original) and attracts viewers/voyeurs by the coachload.
reviewed
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Les Deux Magots
St-Germain’s most famous where Sartre, Hemingway and Picasso hung out.
reviewed
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O’Neil
This micro brasserie brews its own: Taste all four with a palatte en dégustation (€5.90) or pick the colour to suit your – blonde (blond), blanche (white), brune (brown) or ambŕee (amber) – poured straight from the barrel. Weekday ‘Happy Hour’ (6pm to 8pm) spells good-value drinking, as does O’Neil’s mighty 1.8L pitchers of beer (€16/20 before/after 6pm). Beer cocktails (€4 to €9.60) and les chasse-bières (beer chasers; €7.50) are its unusual specialities.
reviewed
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Le Violon Dingue
A loud, lively bar adopted by revolving generations of students, the ‘Crazy Violin’ attracts lots of young English-speakers with big-screen sports shown upstairs and the flirty ‘Dingue Lounge’ downstairs. The name ‘Crazy Violin’ is a pun on the expression le violon d’Ingres, meaning ‘hobby’ in French, because the celebrated painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres used to play fiddle in his spare time.
reviewed
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Le Loir Dans la Théière
Its cutesy name (‘Dormouse in the Teapot’) notwithstanding, this is a wonderful old space filled with retro toys, comfy couches and scenes of Through the Looking Glass on the walls. It serves up to a dozen different types of tea, excellent savoury tarts and sandwiches (€8.50 to €12), desserts like apple crumble (€6.50), and brunch (€19.50) at the weekend.
reviewed
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Cannibale Café
In fact ‘Cannibal Café’ couldn’t be more welcoming, with its grand rococo-style bar topped with worn zinc, decrepit mirrors, peeling mouldings, wood panelling, Formica tables and red leatherette bench seats. It’s a laid-back, almost frayed alternative to the groovy pubs and bars of rue Oberkampf and the perfect place to linger over a coffee or grab a quick beer at the bar. There’s an extensive menu with popular breakfasts (€9 to €12), and brunch (served between noon and 4pm on the weekend) is €18. Oh, and the name of this place isn’t suggesting that you bring condiments if you miss the mealtimes; it comes from a Dada manifesto and a painting by Goya.
reviewed
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MK2 Bibliothèque
This branch of the ever-growing chain (nine outlets at the most recent count) next to the Bibliothèque Nationale is the most ambitious yet, with 14 screens, a trendy café, brasserie, restaurant, late-night bar and a trio of shops specialising in DVDs, books and comics and graphic novels respectively. MK2 Bibliothèque cinemas show a variety of blockbusters and studio films, so there’s always something for everyone. Don’t miss MK2 Quai de Seine ([tel] 08 92 69 84 84; 14 quai de Seine, 19e; [metro] Jaurès or Stalingrad) and MK2 Quai de Loire ([tel] 08 92 69 84 84; 7 quai de Loire, 19e; [metro] Jaurès or Stalingrad), which face one another across from the canal and ar…
reviewed
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Harry’s New York Bar
One of the most popular American-style bars in the pre-war years, Harry’s once welcomed such habitués as writers F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, who no doubt sampled the bar’s unique cocktail and creation: the Bloody Mary (€12.50). The Cuban mahogany interior dates from the mid-19th century and was brought over from a Manhattan bar in 1911. There’s a basement piano bar where Gershwin supposedly composed An American in Paris and, for the peckish, old-school hot dogs (€6) and generous club sandwiches. The advertisement for Harry’s that occasionally appears in the papers still reads ‘Tell the Taxi Driver Sank Roo Doe Noo’ and is copyrighted.
reviewed
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Café Oz
A militantly Aussie pub at the bottom of sleazy rue St-Denis, Oz tries to be authentic – from its green-and-ochre décor to its strong commitment to maximising your drink intake of Aussie and Kiwi beers. Convivial bordering on raucous, it’s popular with Anglos but the French love it too. The place is packed on Friday and Saturday nights, when it heats up with DJs and dancing. Happy hour is 5pm to 8pm. There are a couple more branches, including Pigalle’s Café Oz Blanche ([tel] 01 40 16 11 16; 1 rue de Bruxelles, 9e; [hrs] 5pm-2am Mon-Wed, 5pm-4am Thurs, 5pm-10am Fri, 2pm-10am Sat, 2pm-2am Sun; [metro] Blanche).
reviewed
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Alcazar
Also known as ‘La Mezzanine’, this hip bar inside Alcazar has got Conran’s name all over it. Narcissistic but alluring, it’s a modern white-and-glass mezzanine overlooking the restaurant (brunch €34, lunch/dinner menu €20 to €34/40) with fancy cocktails, nouvelle cuisine dinners and a fashionable supper-club clientele. Wednesday to Saturday, DJs ‘pass records’ in the corner – this place is famous for its excellent trip-hop/house/lounge music compilations. Next door is Conran’s club Le Wagg. Flyers for all three are posted at www.blogalcazar.fr.
reviewed
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Le Zéro de Conduite
Originality, if nothing else, ensures that this bijou drinking hole, in the house where Richard Wagner lived briefly in the 1840s, gets a mention. Serving cocktails in biberons (baby bottles) and throwing concours de grimaces (face-pulling competitions), it goes all out to rekindle your infancy. Bizarre, yes, but obviously some enjoy sucking vodka and banana liqueur shaken with grenadine and orange juice through a teat. Board games, dice, cards and Trivial Pursuit complete the playful scene. Advance table reservations are strongly recommended.
reviewed
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The Frog & British Library
A hybrid English pub–French brasserie, this spacious drinking venue around the corner from the Bibliothèque Nationale is propped up by French students who flock here between library visits for food (mains €13.50, lunch menus €15) such as apple pie and custard, weekend brunches, potato wedges and cheese nachos washed down with a pint. The pick of the drinks list is the six beers brewed on the premises. The enormous Frog at Bercy Village ([tel] 01 43 40 70 71; 25 cour St-Émilion, 12e; [hrs] noon-2am; [metro] Cour St-Émilion) is just across the river.
reviewed
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Stade Roland Garros
By far the glitziest annual sporting event in Paris is the French Open, the second of four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, held on clay at the 16,500-seat Stade Roland Garros in the Bois de Boulogne from late May to mid-June. Tickets are expensive and like gold dust; they go on sale mid-December and bookings must be made by March. They are only available online or via mail. One week prior to the competition (on the first day of the qualifiers), remaining tickets are sold from the box office at the entrance to the stadium.
reviewed
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Peniche el Alamein
The third in the trendy trio afloat opposite the library, this deep-purple boat is strung with terracotta pots of flowers from head to toe, making it a lovely spot on the Seine to sip away summer evenings – the deck is open from 4.30pm when the sun shines. Sit amid flowering tulips and enjoy live bands playing from 9pm; flyers are stuck on the lamppost in front. Its sound – less hectic than its next-door neighbours, hence the older crowd – embraces jazz, world and Piaf-style chansons françaises (French songs) of 1930s Paris.
reviewed
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Olympic Café
This community bar in the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood is full of surprises. From plays and film screenings to concerts of Guinean griot, Balkan folk, Cameroon hip-hop and so on in the basement (tickets €1 to €5), this is a breeding ground for creative young people bursting with original ideas. The monthly program available at the bar also includes events (tickets adult/concession €15/10) at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien ([tel] 01 42 52 09 14; 35 rue Léon, 18e), another springboard for young talent down the road.
reviewed
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La Pagode
A classified historical monument, this Chinese-style pagoda was shipped to France, piece by piece, in 1895 by Monsieur Morin (the then proprietor of Le Bon Marché), who had it rebuilt in his garden on rue de Babylone as a love present for his wife. The wife clearly wasn’t too impressed – she left him a year later. But Parisian cinéphiles who flock here to revel in its eclectic programme are. La Pagode has been a fantastic, atmospheric cinema since 1931 – don’t miss a moment or two in its bamboo-enshrined garden.
reviewed
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On Cherche Encore
This relaxed, modern, loft-style bar-café with the less-than-inspired name of ‘We’re Still Looking’, is trying to do it all and succeeding. It’s committed to serving quality food and wines at reasonable prices; the Saturday brunch from noon to 4pm is one of the best around. It is also intent on providing quality tunes (electro, house and funk) from Thursday to Saturday, which leads to some quality mingling. The corner terrace is positioned for all-afternoon sun and is worth pouncing on.
reviewed
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Le Baron
When it reopened in 2004, the Baron shot to fame as the place where everyone wanted to be but no one could get into. Intimately located in a former brothel with smouldering, luxury-cabaret ambience, it's graced by a continuous trail of St-Germain artists, hip writers and A-list celebrity drop-ins (Bjork, Sophia Coppola).
It does what it does very well; this is what Parisians mean when they say a place is hype. You usually need to know a member or be a famous actor (or a brilliant liar) to get in.
reviewed
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Le Troisième Lieu
Billing itself as la cantine des ginettes armées (canteen of armed gals), this kooky place for chic young lesbians – and, at times, for everyone else – is part bar, part club, part restaurant. There’s a large, colourful bar and big wooden tables at street level, with good-value meals available. The vaulted cellar below leaves space for dancing to DJs (house, electro) and rock/alternative music concerts. On the last Saturday of the month it opens at 2pm. Happy hour is from 6pm to 8pm.
reviewed
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Studio Théâtre
Founded in 1680 under Louis XIV, the ‘French Comedy’ theatre bases its repertoire around the works of classic French playwrights such as Molière, Racine, Corneille, Beaumarchais, Marivaux and Musset, though in recent years contemporary and even – shock, horror! – non-French works have been staged. This is one of three venues including the main Salle Richelieu on place Colette and the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier.
reviewed
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Le Redlight
It seems that this underground (literally) venue beneath Tour Montparnasse, fittingly called l’enfer (hell) in a previous life, will never perish. Up there among Paris’ busiest house, techno and electro clubs, its podiums get packed out with a young, dance-mad crowd well past dawn. French Kiss ‘after’ parties often kick off at 6am. Huge and laser-lit, its hours vary depending on the soirée – see its website for flyers – and admission is often half-price before 1am.
reviewed
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Kong Bar
This Philippe Starck–designed bar is carefully perched upon the Kenzo building. The concept is kind of postmodern Japanese, a cradle for new-generation wannabes who trail their Vuitton handbags along the bar and snap their fingers for more bottles of champagne. The cocktails are around €13, not bad for a place this pretentious, and DJs playing hip-hop Thursday to Saturday somehow get everyone dancing on the tables. Happy hour is 6pm to 8pm. Dress up: no running shoes.
reviewed
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Au Lapin Agile
This rustic cabaret venue was favoured by artists and intellectuals in the early 20th century and chansons are still performed here. The four-hour show starts at 9.30pm and includes singing and poetry. Some love it, others feel it’s a bit of a trap. Admission includes one drink (€6 or €7 subsequently). It’s named after Le Lapin à Gill, a mural of a rabbit jumping out of a cooking pot by caricaturist André Gill, which can still be seen on the western exterior wall.
reviewed
