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You haven't seen the City of Lights until you've seen the city at night. Throngs pour into popular streets, filling the air with the melody of engaged conversation and clinking glasses. This is when locals let down their hair and reveal their true bonhomie, laughing and dancing, flirting and talking. Parisians love to savor life together: they dine out, drink endless espressos, offer innumerable toasts, and are often so reluctant to separate that they party all night.
Parisians go out weekends and weeknights, late and early. They tend to frequent the same places once they've found spots they like: it could be a wine bar, a corner café, a hip music club, or, more and more, a chic cocktail bar in an out-of-the-way neighborhood. A wise way to spend an evening is to pick an area in a neighborhood that interests you, then give yourself time to browse. Parisians also love to bar-hop, and the energy shifts throughout the evening, so be prepared to follow the crowds.
This most opulent of bars offers 15 scintillating cocktails crafted with herbal elixirs, fresh fruits, flower essences, and exotic nectars in honor of Prince Roland Bonaparte, a passionate botanist and the first owner of the mansion that became the Shangri-La Hotel. The cocktail menu changes every two months—all the better to keep ingredients fresh and seasonal.
Literature lovers, cocktail connoisseurs, and other drink-swilling devotees flock to these two iconic bars within the Ritz Hotel. A $400 million renovation happily didn't alter the chill vibe or the wood-paneled, club-chair decor of tiny Bar Hemingway, where mixologist mainstay and twice-named "Best Head Barman in the World" Colin Field will fix you a bespoke cocktail. Try the Serendipity, the bar's most popular drink, combining Champagne with Calvados and mint. Across the elegant corridor, the more spacious Ritz Bar's 2021 renovation paved the way for an astrologically themed experience. In a style evoking Belle Époque Paris, the space's circular bar is topped by a monumental lantern whose projection of stars and constellations begins each evening at 5:30 exactly. Signature cocktails continue the zodiac theme, with creations for each astrological sign, as well as a menu of spirits, wines, and shared small plates. Electro music from French DJs Polo and Pan was specifically created for the space.
This cocktail bar does a highly successful three in three—drinks, food, and ambience—a feat not to be taken lightly. What's more, the high-quality drinks include sourced coffees, tasty craft cocktails, and small-producer wines; basically anything your finicky heart desires. A menu of Mediterranean-inspired dishes is great for lunch, dinner, or sharing over cocktails or a glass of wine, and the café's late-morning and late-evening hours are a big plus in this neighborhood.
Fashioned as a speakeasy on a tiny brick-paved street, this was one of the first bars to bring the cocktail revolution to Paris. Colorful, innovative, and ever-changing drinks are mixed with aplomb by friendly (and attractive) bartenders. By 11 pm, the bar is always packed with a mix of locals, professionals, and fashionistas.
Tucked away beyond a cobbled courtyard and up a winding back stairway, this cozy (only 24 seats) bar achieves an intimate, parloresque ambience thanks to floral chintz wallpaper, plush armchairs and poufs, and Asian rugs. For a hotel bar it has well-priced Moroccan-inspired cocktails and small plates, making settling in for the evening a tempting option. Considering the Hoxton Hotel's other bustling spaces, this is a nice little getaway. It gets crowded, so arrive early.
The Shangri-La Hotel's opulent bar, inspired by eccentric botanist Prince Roland Bonaparte (nephew to Napoléon), serves up a dazzling menu of imaginative cocktails spiked with plant and flower essences and fruit nectars.
Apparently not satisfied with its usual rich and powerful clientele, this tony spot is now vying for the impossibly hip, too. Along with enticing cocktails and rarified spirits, Le Bar promises exceptional wines and tapas. Weekdays from 7 pm to 9:30 pm, it also showcases curated art videos on its behind-the-bar mirror screen. Chic Paris DJs heat up the scene between 9:30 pm and 2 am on Friday and Saturday.
Half-price oysters at happy hour (6–7 pm) aren't the only reason this refreshingly unpretentious cocktail bar is wildly popular. One of a trilogy of super-hip watering holes (including Candelaria and Glass) opened by a trio of expat restaurateurs, its craft cocktails, microbrews, natural wines, and standout tapas menu deliver the goods and then some. If you're planning to dine, reserve ahead online.
An unusual mix of café by day and craft cocktail bar by night, Lockwood is also a wildly popular brunch spot. Complete with a stylish interior, right down to the lively cellar bar, it has a hip, unfailingly friendly atmosphere, excellent food, and top-quality ingredients.
Like a common room out of Harry Potter, the bar at the Saint James Club Paris—complete with 5,000 leather-bound volumes and a cozy fireplace—is studiously inviting. It's very French, and open to nonmembers only after 7 pm or during Sunday brunch. The owners are a venerable old Bordeaux family; accordingly, you'll find a respectable selection of Champagnes and wines.
On a quiet street close to the Bastille, Sherry Butt's relaxed loftlike atmosphere, imaginative drinks, whiskey flights, and tasty bar menu draw a lively crowd that appreciates meticulously crafted cocktails. A DJ spins on weekends.
Parisian cocktail lovers squeeze into this beautiful intimate space—the beating heart of the Hôtel des Grands Boulevards—to imbibe some of the city's most ingenious and delicious cocktails concocted by a trailblazing mixologist. But the innovation doesn't end there. The Shell specializes in "mocktails" and lets drinkers watching their intake choose their dosage of alcohol, with commensurate prices, starting at €8. Anyone can get behind The Shell's motto: "No more hangovers."
Sir Terence Conran's makeover of a 17th-century Parisian jeu de paume court features a stylish mezzanine-level bar under a greenhouse-glass roof. DJs and "sound designers" spin mixes into the wee hours Wednesday through Saturday. Saturday night themes such as "Love Night" include a late-night, three-course meal with cocktails, followed by partying with burlesque dancers.
Mere steps from the Champs-Élysées, Apicius offers sublime elegance. Wander through the luxe front garden and château restaurant to the sleekly modern black bar where couture cocktails are concocted to suit any cultured taste.
The monolithic marble bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel offers an extensive Champagne list and a menu of international street food-inspired bar snacks. The outdoor terrace is especially busy during Fashion Weeks.
The look here is something between a chic contemporary Paris apartment and a low-key lounge. Enjoy a cocktail over a good book from the bar library, or relax with a smooth drink in front of the outdoor fireplace.
Waiters wearing red overalls and revolutionary gavroche hats serve drinks every day of the week at this local institution (they demonstrate particular zeal around happy hour). With bottles of wine at about €25, it draws a quintessential Rive Gauche mix of expats, fashion-house interns, and even some professional rugby players. Sit outside on the terrace and enjoy the prime corner location.
This romantic spot in the ultrachic Maison Champs Élysées offers a wood fire in winter and a quiet terrace in warmer months. Its impressive range of Champagnes and impeccable cocktails is well worth the stellar prices. The separate all-black cigar bar is one of the few remaining in Paris.
Its swank Mad Men--meets--tiki bar atmosphere and dynamic gin-centric cocktails have earned this dusky cocktail den an avid following.
While it may be past its prime with Parisians, visitors can't get enough of the high-camp towering gold Buddha that presides over this bar's giant palm fronds, red satin walls, and colorful chinoiserie. A themed dining room serves pan-Asian fare. There's also an upscale speakeasy, Le Secret 8, which you access by answering a daily riddle on the bar's Facebook page and getting a password (only 25 are given out per day).
“Le Cox" is a prime gay pickup joint that's known for its live DJ sets. Its extended Sunday happy hour—from 6 pm to 2 am—is a rollicking good time.
One of Pigalle's trendiest addresses, Café la Fourmi has a funky, spacious bar-café where cool locals party. It's open until 2 am every night but Friday and Saturday, when it's open until 4 am.
Chez Georges has been serving red wine, pastis, and beer for the past 70 years in pretty much the same caveau that still packs in devotees today. Older students and locals fill sofas and crowd around tiny, candle-topped tables in the cellar bar before grinding to pulsing world music every night until 2 am.
An almost-too-cool crew can be found in Clandestino's red-emberlike interior, drinking cocktails and eating the sultry bite-size pintxos of Basque country. There's a distinct party atmosphere here, which can spill into the street, especially in summer.
A favorite not only for its prestigious location between Opéra and Place Vendôme, but also for its worn-leather chairs and English-private-club feel, the Westminster Hotel's bar offers drinks like the "James Bond" and "Duke's Martini." At times, you get the feeling that Monsieur Hercule Poirot is lurking just behind that wing chair.
A chic cocktail bar steps from the Champs de Mars is a rare find indeed, but this one is steeped in a cosmopolitan speakeasy mystique, with wood paneling and 1920s touches (leather chairs, gramophone, old Underwood typewriter) evoking the New York of its namesake. A covered sidewalk terrace and a dance floor in the cellar add to the clubby fun, along with a small menu of tasty morsels and some very good cocktails.
Equal parts cocktail bar and gourmet pizzeria, this stylish offspring of the übercool concept store Merci promises top-quality libations and stone-oven-baked pizza. The decor is industrial-rustic, with pressed-tin ceilings and a corrugated-iron bar, all enhanced by mood lighting. It's jam-packed with neighborhood hipsters, so reservations are a must.
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