Crazy question, but anticipating some serious jet lag wake up at around 4am in December and though it will be freezing and perhaps raining are there any areas recommended worth wandering around as opposed to staring at the ceiling of our hotel room? Any bakery's open around this time?? Thanks.

If you have freezing and rainy weather, stay inside. Bakeries won't be open that early because the bakers will still be baking, although someone might know of a few all-night places to get at least coffee.

Well, it's not a bakery, but you could head over to Au Pied du Cochon. I've had dinner there as late as 3 am.

The 3 most famous 24-hour establishments are Au Pied de Cochon at Les Halles, l'Alsace on the Champs Elysées and Le Grand Café at Opéra. I think that 4 a.m. is a great time to go for a walk if you are really motivated, because that is when you can see Paris just beginning to wake up. However, it is true that it is too early to find any bakeries open, even though you can get some fantastic aromas usually coming up from their basement windows.

Hi hk,

What time are you arriving in Paris?

If she's on CX, the flight usually arrives around 5:30 a.m. although the official time is 6:35 a.m. I've been on the flight from Hong Kong more times than I can count. The AF flight would arrive at about the same time since they leave within about 10 minutes of each other.

Hi, we arrive on a BA flight via London and will get to the Hotel around 11am - I'm not worried about this day except that no doubt we won't last until regular bed time and will likely crash early, hence the probable early wake up. Will check out the 3 suggestions made!

Can't you try to stay in bed till a decent time (6 AM or later),,,and then you 'll be on the right time from then on. Getting up at 3 or 4 might end up with you doing that each morning. "
Just a guess??? Everyone is different. It doesn't get light till 9 AM or so in DEc. does it?

We've had a great pre-dawn walk in in the St. Germain/rue Bucci area in September...you can watch the bakers at Paul's through the window...even if it is too early to partake of the actual heavenly baked selection...descend the rue St. Andre des Arts to Place St. Michel and stroll along the Seine towards Place de la Concorde. It's marvelous, no matter the time of year!

Stay in bed until a normal local waking time, or you risk being jet-lagged for the entire trip. There isn't much to see at 4 AM and you'll run out of things to do very quickly at that hour, unless you head over to the bars and nightclubs that are open all night (I'm told that the area east of the Bastille is lively all night long, and there are scattered areas and clubs around the city that are active all night long).

Thanks everyone - it does make sense to try and get on local time fast but we are only in Europe for 4 days and then back to HK...crazy I know but it's a friends wedding. I appreciate all of the suggestions and it's pretty much exactly what I was after. Thanks.

Hi HK,

>I'm not worried about this day except that no doubt we won't last until regular bed time and will likely crash early,...<

Don't crash early. Don't take a nap.

Keep walking. Stay up. until regular dinner time. Go to bed at 21:00 or later.

You will be on Paris time in the morning.


PS: don't do anything that requires thinking.

I get what you're saying about only being there for 4 days - what's the point of getting acclimated? Here is the website for the Noctilien bus, which runs at night:
http://www.noctilien.fr/Noctilien/pages/en/index.html