Monday, April 11, 2011

Nightlife in Paris

I found there to be very many differences in nightlife in Paris and Europe in general. First, the French do not go to clubs till after midnight. Dinner is eaten later than American, but not as late as Spain, but, dinner is a big deal and takes hours, so nightlife obviously starts later. There are many different options for going out, from rowdy bar hopping in the Latin Quartier to high class clubs on the Champs.
Depending on what you want to do, you need to plan according for drinking and for dressing. For girls- When your going to a club, dress to impress. When in doubt, wear black and heels. Once you start going out, you'll figure out what people are wearing and can blend in from there. Cover charges can get very pricey, most clubs have times every night or days that ladies get in free. If not, the only bonus to cover charges is that usually include a drink ticket. Speaking of drinks at bars, it is incredibly expensive. Buying a drink or two is all that is needed and will cost you 20 Euro in Paris, especially at clubs. I went to many techno concerts too, tickets at these venues were pretty cheap- usually 15 Euro- and you got a show to go with your night at a club!
We went clubbing a lot during the beginning but with the high prices, the desire died down and we started to prefer hanging out at bars and clubbed less. Bars in France are a place for people to just hang out, have good conversation, and a couple drinks. These are the places that we would meet many French students. In neighborhood like the Latin Quartier where all the college students were, there were an array of bars from very chill places with live acoustic music, to rowdier places blasting American 80's and 90's music.
If you want to go out when traveling - if you plan to travel. I would recommend pub/ bar crawls. They are cheap, all your drinks and cover fees are paid for, you meet many international travelers, your whole night is planned out to the best bars/clubs in the city and there are "chaperons" that watch you and take you place to place, and you most likely will get a t-shirt! I did one in Prague and two in Rome and they were a blast! I felt a lot safer doing these too cause we were in such a large group and we wouldn't make the mistake of choosing a bar to go to that sounded fun, but ended up being shady.
Have fun, and be safe!

Kelsey

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