Paris for The Night Owls: a Friday-to-Monday weekend
Zinc roofs, limestone, and the long grey light.
The city after dark. Days start at noon, the real plan starts at nine: a concert, a cocktail bar with a door policy, a club worth the queue, and breakfast on the way home.
Friday: A rooftop, oysters, and a secret
- Le Perchoir Ménilmontant
A rooftop bar on a warehouse in the twentieth, the sun going down behind the Sacré-Cœur; arrive before seven or queue in the stairwell.
- Le Mary Celeste
Oysters and small plates at a bar in the upper Marais, the kitchen open late and the cocktail list longer than the menu.
- Le Syndicat
No sign, a door covered in torn posters, and French spirits only: Armagnac and Chartreuse cocktails in a room that gets loud.
Saturday: Brunch, the band, the Rex
- Café Charlot
Eggs and a croque at a corner café in the Marais that opens at eight and does not judge a one o'clock breakfast.
- New Morning
The jazz and world-music hall since 1981, Prince played here unannounced; a standing crowd and a bar at the back.
- Rex Club
Under the Grand Rex cinema since 1988, the techno club with the best sound in town and a queue that respects the door.
Sunday: Soup at dawn, the canal, swing
- Au Pied de Cochon
Onion soup and a glass of white at dawn in the brasserie that has never closed, among the last clubbers and the first market porters.
- Canal Saint-Martin
The iron footbridges and the locks, a slow walk from République to the Rotonde with a coffee from Ten Belles on the way.
- Le Caveau de la Huchette
A medieval cellar where swing has been danced since 1946, the house band on until two; the floor is full and takes beginners.
Monday: Flore, the garden, the bookshop
- Café de Flore
Omelette and a café crème on the terrace Sartre kept warm, waiters in white aprons and a clientele still dressed for last night.
- Jardin des Tuileries
Green iron chairs around the octagonal pond, the Louvre at one end and the obelisk at the other; tilt the chair back and close your eyes.
- Shakespeare and Company
The English bookshop opposite Notre-Dame, the piano upstairs and the beds the Tumbleweeds sleep in; a paperback for the flight home.