Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Need ideas for Paris after dark

sorry, Beatchick, I realized I had misinterpreted that sentence about the Palais and art thing, and what you meant.

It's too bad Pariswalks doesn't have any evening group tours like they do in London, but apparently not. I was going to name a couple other obvious things, of course, but they aren't unknown-- basically that the bus tour companies do have a Paris Illuminations night city tour that several folks have really liked. I have thought of doing that myself, as you don't get the same perspective walking around, and some of the places they go I haven't seen at night (see www.parisvision.com and www.cityrama.com for nighttime illumination tours).

As for staying out late -- the metro and many buses stop running at 12-1 am, that's one problem. When I was with friends at Caveau de la Huchette, we tried to get home to our dorm at Cite Universitaire around 2 am, probably, and waited forever for one of the night buses (and were bothered somewhat by some young French punks who can roam around the Latin Qtr streets late at night, sometimes drunk). These guys weren't that bothersome, mainly just jerks, but I wouldn't have wanted to be alone at the bus stop. The buses are limited in times and routes, so we ended up quite a bit from where we were staying, so that was another long walk. I myself generally book a hotel that I know will be a comfortable short walk in a decent area (and where people are likely to be around) to the closest metro stop -- that is very important. I've also been uncomfortable waiting for a bus late at night alone in an area with some bars, few people, and some unusual street people/vagrants. A lot of the buses have much less frequent schedules at night.

In the most central area, you are more likely to just be able to find a cab at a taxi stand if you want (like at St Michel corner, place of Eglise St-Germain, etc), but they aren't always there in some other places.