Free or low cost nightime music events, concerts in Paris?
 

I will be traveling to Paris in March with my husband and 4 month old daughter. Looking for free or low cost music venues, church concerts, etc for my husband to do on his own at night while I'm back at the apartment with the baby. He loves jazz but it seems like there's a hefty cover at most of the decent jazz clubs. He also likes chamber music, so any recommended church concerts or are those mostly during the day? Just don't want him to have to be stuck at home with me when the baby is sleeping. Any advice appreciated, thanks!

Get the weekly cultural guide once in Paris. I believe that it is free at any news stand.

I bought ( I think) a small paper magazine of all events in paris and there were plenty of evening recitals at churches and other places .. maybe around 7 pm. They were free, small donation or very reasonable.

We saw a lovely classical music concert at Saint Chapelle for about 25 euros per ticket. It was a beautiful evening and worth every cent. We were surrounded by beautiful music and the amazing stained glass windows. It was supposed to be Vivaldi, but that was changed at the last minute and because I don't speak much French I have no idea what I listened to! Tickets can be bought at the ticket office at Saint Chapelle if you go and visit it during the day.

at lastminute.fr under entertainment you can get the st chapelle tickets at a big discount sometimes, along with other events.

www.parisvoice.com

for current venue info...

Just buy a weeky entertainment guide at a newstatnd (Pariscope or l'Officiel des Spectacles). They are certainly not free, they are a publication. They are cheap, though, less than one euro. A lot of news stands hide them, though, as people steal them too much. So you need to ask, they are not often on display. They list everything going on in the city, with prices, so you can choose the ones you like. They are in French, but you should be able to figure them out as they are just listings (know the French words for days of the week) with prices, location and names of group/music being played. This lists all kinds of other useful info, also, like listings for all the museums and films.

Thanks for the corrections and amplification.

I agree w/ Christina buy a weekly entertainment guide upon arrival. More importantly, it's way too early (months!) for most free or inexpensive concert events to be listed anywhere.

Relax for now with the knowledge that there WILL be plenty of events to choose from once you arrive.

Thank you for the advice on buying the weekly cultural guide, seems like everything we need will be listed in there.

Does anyone have any favorite jazz clubs to recommend??

If you do a search here for 'Paris Jazz' you will get a ton of info.

When are you going? There are the citywide street concerts on June 21st.

The church concerts, that I have been too, are at night and are not free.

If you are going in the summer, there are the salsa dancers at the museum of outdoor architecture, Left Bank, at night. I have a link somewhere.

Thank you Michel_Paris, we will be there mid March. He's ok with paying for concerts, we just sometimes find that the free ones about town are often more interesting. Thanks for the tips!

The American Church (in the 7th) has free Sunday evening concerts. I don't see a March schedule yet, but the February schedule sounds lovely. Here's a link:

http://www.acparis.org/concerts.html

I seem to remember free organ concerts at Notre Dame..info below

http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English-

The church concerts are rarely sold out so you usually can just buy a ticket at the door. For concerts at Ste Chapelle it is worth it (to me) to buy ahead from FNAC online as people with pre-purchased tickets can by pass a usually long queue. FNAC has a fairly comprehensive listing of what's on in Paris.

Great, thank you! FNAC saved my bacon the last time we were in Paris, my camera got crushed in my seat on the plane before we even landed, scooped up a new one at the FNAC the first night we were there. Good memories :)

FNAC only lists things where they are the agreed agent to sell tickets. No free church concert will have tickets sold by FNAC, nor most of the smaller, cheaper ones. Ste Chappelle are expensive tourist concerts, so they do sell tickets to those.

FNAC does handle classical concerts at smaller venues, right now they list St. Julien le Pauvre, St. Germain des Pres and Eglise St. Ephrem among their concert venues as well as the larger St. Severin and much larger Madeline. Obviously no free listings but a good source to check and/or book before arriving in Paris.

On Friday nights, there is a band that plays at la Pergola on Boulevard Bessieres just past Porte de Saint-Ouen Metro and to the left on Bessieres. Entrance is free, but libation purchase is expected.