Jazz Tour of Paris
Mar 4th, 2001, 09:32 PM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Jazz Tour of Paris
I am 29 (to be 30) year old bachelor travelling to Paris for my birthday. I have two goals: listen to great jazz in the clubs where Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon used to play and meet people in a hotel that caters to the single traveler. <BR> <BR>I like the funk of the Latin Q. and proximity to the central sites.
Mar 5th, 2001, 01:32 PM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Bonne anniversaire! There are lots of good jazz clubs in Paris, I think the best ones now center on the Right Bank rather than left, though, and a lot of the old ones do not exist anymore. Some of the best are Duc des Lombards and Petit Opportun in the 1st near Chatelet metro, New Morning in the 10th, Franc Pinot on the Ile St-Louis, and Le Bilboquet in St-Germain. The latter is more expensive and the only one that I think is older and maybe those guys could have played there. New Morning gets big names. I don't really know where Parker and Gordon played, but they might not exist; also, they were pretty well known and sometimes played in really big traditional concert halls like Salle Playel (Parker did). Well, you're the jazz buff, you should know. One funky place for jazz and dancing is Caveau de la Huchette in the Latin Qtr near the Seine; it's real well-known, but often what they play there isn't the kind of jazz you mean, I'll bet--it's sort of Dixieland or swing. But, it will be fun, that's for sure, and you'll find single people and plenty of girls to dance with (I will not attempt to describe the dancing style, it is unique to French people). Here are a couple good French jazz URLs where you can read about clubs etc: www.jazzvalley.com (my favorite), and www.jazzfrance.com/fr/en <BR>Now for the single hotel thing, I can only think of a couple--Hotel St Andre des Arts in St-Germain and Hotel Marignan in the Latin Qtr are two that come to mind, also the Castex in the 4th (Marais). You'd be more likely to meet people like that in a hostel, but that may be too low-ambience for what you want at your age (it would be me), and you often can't get a single room in them. Marignan is close to that level. If you get the guidebook Let's Go Paris, you can bet the hotels listed in it are popular with singles as it's really read by college kids; maybe Rough Guides or Lonely Planet would be useful, also. For both accommodations and jazz clubs, I'd suggest looking at www.timeout.com/Paris. They have good descriptions and a good feel for what's going on in Paris, especially for the younger set. Hotel de Nesle in St-Germain also probably caters to singles, but they don't take reservations.
Mar 5th, 2001, 01:46 PM
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Oh, I didn't think before, but if you really like Latin Qtr, here are some cheap hotels that I guess might be likely to have people like you: Cujas Pantheon, College de France, Cluny Sorbonne, Suez. I would have recommended Hotel Jardin des Plantes near Jussieu metro as it used to be kind of homey, cheap and had a communal terrace or something, but it's been taken over by Timhotel and the rates have been jacked up a lot, so don't think it's as good value as these others now.
Mar 5th, 2001, 04:18 PM
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Le Petit Journal Montparnasse, 13 rue du Commandant-Rene-Mouchotte (14th); Le Petit Journal St-Michel, 71 blvd St. Michel at the RER Luxembourg stop (5th); Slow Club, 101 rue de Rivoli (1st) supposedly Miles Davis' favorite club in Paris. There is also a club with a great jazz record collection (no live music) La Paillote, on Monsieur-le-Prince between Racine and Vaugirard--you might meet people there. (6th)
