Paris hosts three major all-night festivals every year: Nuit Blanche, Nuit Européenne des Musées and Fête de la Musique.
Nuit Blanche – various artistic and cultural exhibitions pop up all over the city, with installations on roundabouts, in churches, in museums, outside the Town Hall… if there’s space to host it, there’s something there. Exhibitions can range from pretty light installations to strange avantgarde films projected on building walls, so be prepared for some unusual stuff. Just remember to take something warm to wear – Paris in autumn may be pretty, but it’s no fun waiting in the cold for a bus in the early hours of the morning.
Nuit Européenne des Musées: The one night of the year when all the museums are free and open all night to the public – and it takes place in shoulder season, so there are also less tourists. It takes place annually on the Saturday closest to International Museum Day (May 18), so be sure to make the best of it and visit the wide range of exhibits available – from the giant faces from the towers of Bayon at the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, to the tropical aquarium at Palais de la Porte Dorée, to the strange inventions at the Musée des Arts et Métiers.
Fête de la Musique: Every June 21 there’s free music around the city, so just follow your ears. There are choirs and orchestras performing in churches, Japanese drummers, street tango and electronic music on speakers playing in front of bars, all just a few streets away from each other, so it’s easy enough to wander through Paris and find something enjoyable for everyone.
4. Hide away in a speakeasy
One of the most unique bars in Paris, the prohibition-inspired Moonshiner is one of those places where, if you don’t already know it’s there, you won’t find. Venture through the walk-in fridge door at the back of the pizzeria Da Vito, past the hanging hams to another door and fall down the rabbit hole into a world of dim lighting, old-school cocktails and whiskeys and records playing on a gramophone. Decorated in Art Deco style and with its own fumoir (smoking room), you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time to the world of Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter and Josephine Baker.
Another favourite is Candaleria, hidden behind a door at the back of a taqueria (taco shop) with some of the best Mexican food in the city.
3. Watch a film in luxury
Watching a film in a cinema might not sound unusual to you, but that’s because you haven’t been to the Louxor Palais du Cinéma. Built in 1920, it’s one of the only pre-war cinemas left standing and possibly the oldest left in Paris and has had quite an interesting history. For a while, it showed Bollywood, North African and erotic films late at night. In the 1980s it was transformed into a nightclub until it was sold in the 1990s and ended up neglected for about 20 years, although it has now been renovated and has opened as a cinema again.
What makes it really unique, however, is its architecture: built in neo-Egyptian style inspired by the 1917 movie Cleopatra, the façade features mosaics in lapis lazuli blue, ochre and gold of lotus flowers, cobras and a sun disc.
The interiors offer exquisite, high-ceilinged stylistic theatres – quite a contrast to the area in northern Paris.
La Pagode is another distinctive cinema with a strange history. Built in 1895 as a present for the owner’s wife, the architect decided to build the theatre as a replica Japanese pagoda, complete with a beautiful courtyard and garden, intricately carved door and window frames, stained glass windows and elaborately painted walls.
Unfortunately, for the owner, his wife left him for his business partner the same year, but that didn’t stop her from using La Pagode for balls and receptions until, and a few years later it was turned into a cinema. The theatre now offers art-house movies, as well as a monthly Japanese film, and the courtyard has been turned into a beautiful tea salon, though the salon is only open from spring till autumn and, if it rains it stays closed, so plan accordingly.
2. Exercise in style
If you want to try something different, once a month Paradis Latin holds a workshop called Atelier French Cancan. Pre-warned to take your leggings and sneakers (or boots, if you’re daring!), they dress you in petticoats and give you a 90-minute class where you learning how to twirl, rustle, yell and cheekily show your legs like a real Belle Epoche Cancan dancer. And what better way to top it off, than with your complimentary Paradis Latin cocktail, le Fresh Cancan? Exercise and entertainment, all in one.
1. Rollerblade through the cobbled streets
Or maybe, you’d prefer to take it a bit slower and take in the sights during a mass rollerblading session organised by Rollers & Coquillage. Despite the odd name (Skates and shellfish… apparently there’s a beach under the cobblestones), it’s pretty straightforward. Every Sunday afternoon, skaters take a different route through Paris, accompanied by none other than an escort of policemen on roller-skates. The route is approved by the Police Prefecture, so roads are temporarily blocked by the police escort to allow skaters to pass. Quite an odd sight for tourists.