Two in the morning. The fatal hour. The bar where you were happily settled doesn’t have a late-night licence and has to close. The question hangs in the air, everyone dreads it, but someone always ends up saying it: ‘So… what now?’
Paris may be packed with excellent clubs, but when it comes to finding a bar that stays open after 2am, your options immediately shrink. Not ideal when you can’t be bothered to dance (or to surrender an arm for every shot). So where do you go when all you want is to put the world to rights over a beer, a cocktail or a glass of wine and wait for the morning to roll in? Here’s a selection of the best bars that truly come alive when night falls. Enjoy.
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Antoine Besse is the Food and Drink Editor at Time Out Paris. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.
What’s the vibe? Arnaud Scotty has three passions: insomnia, 2000s rap and cocktails. He’s managed to roll them all into this quirky late-night bar, Harmony, a former underground restaurant that now has club-style hours. Beneath a pink neon light, you sip excellent cocktails, dance to Rohff without overthinking it, and rub shoulders with local bartenders dropping in after their shifts. Scrappy, playful and a lot of fun.
When? Wednesday to Sunday, midnight-6am
Isadora has been going since 2017 with art deco vibes and a mixed, open crowd. Here, Charly Clain (formerly of Rehab) and his team serve up a strong, well-thought-out cocktail list. The bar really comes alive just as most other places are closing: the soundtrack shifts to 80s–90s hip-hop and house, and the room fills with off-duty bartenders and night owls looking for one last sin before heading home.
Where? 60 Rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, 75001 Paris
What’s the vibe? Wedged between the queue of clubbers waiting for the Gibus and the kebab joints keeping them fed, Cavalier has found an unexpected stretch of street to let its ambitions run free. Expect a long, narrow wine bar–cocktail bar–restaurant, extended both in space and in time, with service until 5am for night owls with discerning tastes.
When? Until 5.30am, Thursday to Sunday
What’s the vibe? A handsome bar of scrubbed stone and Scandinavian furniture where turntables and vinyl matter just as much as bottles and shakers. Fréquence remains a benchmark for seriously good sound and razor-sharp cocktails… and at weekends, when a DJ locks into the decks built right into the counter, it’s absolute fire.
When? Until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays.
What’s the vibe? The rough-hewn plank entrance feels wildly out of place in the very chic 6th arrondissement, just a stone’s throw from Saint-Germain-des-Prés. But step inside the Castor Club and it’s all high-level creations in a 1950s–60s rock-and-country atmosphere. And some of the best cocktails in the capital.
When? Monday to Saturday, 7pm-2am (until 4am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday)
What’s the vibe? Prescription is the third cocktail bar opened by the Experimental Cocktail Club team in ultra-chic Saint-Germain-des-Prés dives into a 1930s freak-show aesthetic, with fun vibes and impeccably precise drinks.
When? Fridays and Saturdays until 4am
What’s the vibe? In this vermilion-red lounge, where whisky bottles double as candleholders, there’s no fringed jackets or cowboy dancing. Instead, Pigalle Country Club is all overdriven guitars, pounding rhythms and gloriously dumb lyrics, delivered by sharp selectors right through to 5am – and yes, it’s about as fun as it sounds.
When? Monday to Wednesday, 6pm-3am. Thursday to Saturday, 6pm-5am.
What’s the vibe? Do the students knocking back pints beneath the shark hanging from the ceiling even remember that the name of this unshakeable late-night bar on Rue Mouffetard comes from a former Réunionese restaurant? Probably not – but hey, that’s all the more reason to visit the iconic Le Requin Chagrin.
When? Fridays and Saturdays until 5am
What’s the vibe? Le Zorba, with its indestructible pink neon, is a mythical Belleville spot and the after-hours spot in Paris. When other late-night bars are closing, this one is just opening. As in, this guy opens at 5am most days. Good luck!
When? Every day, 5am-2am
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