Our Paris nightlife list has one proper club and some other rooms that do the same job: a canal-side space that turns into a party, and a rooftop where DJs take over at weekends. Start with La Machine du Moulin Rouge in Pigalle for electronic music and hip-hop. From there, spread out to Le Comptoir Général, Ménilmontant and the jazz rooms, with two cocktail bars for the hours in between.
The short list
9 places, in the order they appear below.
- 1La Machine du Moulin RougeElectronic, hip-hop and live acts across several roomsPigalle
- 2Le Comptoir GénéralBar, screenings and a dance floor under one roofCanal Saint-Martin
- 3Le Perchoir MénilmontantRooftop with weekend DJsMénilmontant
- 4Le Caveau de la HuchetteSwing, bebop and lindy hop5th arrondissement
- 5Sunset SunsideDinner, then jazzChâtelet
- 6Le Duc des LombardsInternational jazz namesNear the Centre Pompidou
- 7New MorningStanding gigs, from jazz to world musicFaubourg Poissonnière
- 8Prescription Cocktail ClubMade-to-order cocktails and ginSaint-Germain
- 9KináguaLate cocktails with small platesSentier
Which club in Paris is worth a real night out?
La Machine du Moulin Rouge is the club we send friends to. It sits underneath the Moulin Rouge in Pigalle, with electronic music, hip-hop and live acts spread over several rooms and a terrace that opens onto the street. Its programming has held up well since the early 2010s.
The terrace fills fast in summer. For the most reliable line-ups, stay in the main room. Newer names get booked in the smaller room on the second level.
La Machine du Moulin Rouge
Hours: Mon–Thu closed · Fri–Sat 00:00–06:00 · Sun closed
Address: 90 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France
Where do Parisians dance outside the big clubs?
Le Comptoir Général and Le Perchoir Ménilmontant work as clubs without calling themselves one. The first, on the Canal Saint-Martin, mixes a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, documentary screenings and a dance floor in rooms filled with Afro-diasporic objects, films and music. The Perchoir is a rooftop where DJs take over at weekends once the aperitif hour ends. The crowd is younger and more local than at the Oberkampf original.
The canal-side entrance at Le Comptoir Général is low-key, and the rooms open up one after another, so arrive before the evening crowd and learn the layout. The bar at the back of the main room is the most atmospheric place to drink. The Sunday brunch spreads through the whole space.
Le Comptoir Général
Hours: Mon closed · Tue–Wed 18:00–01:00 · Thu–Fri 18:00–02:00 · Sat 15:00–02:00 · Sun 11:00–18:00
Address: 84 Quai de Jemmapes, 75010 Paris, France
On a clear evening the Perchoir terrace looks out to the Sacré-Cœur in the northwest and the Eiffel Tower in the southwest, with Belleville and the 20th arrondissement below. Head for the northwest corner of the terrace for the view. Then stay for the DJ sets: the place feels like somewhere else once they start.
Le Perchoir Ménilmontant
Hours: Mon–Tue closed · Wed–Sat 18:00–02:00 · Sun closed
Address: 14 Rue Camille Crespin du Gast, 75011 Paris, France
Where to hear live jazz in Paris?
Le Caveau de la Huchette has a dance floor where people have danced lindy hop for seventy years. Sunset Sunside and Le Duc des Lombards share a street near Châtelet. New Morning, in the Faubourg Poissonnière, holds 400 standing for jazz, blues, soul and world music.
Live jazz has played in Le Caveau’s medieval cellar every night since 1946: swing, bebop and soul jazz on the original low stage. It’s on the tourist circuit, but on Monday and Tuesday the serious jazz crowd turns up and visitors thin out. Arrive at opening if you want a table near the stage. Order a Cognac, the room’s drink since the bebop era.
Le Caveau de la Huchette
Hours: Mon–Thu 21:00–02:00 · Fri–Sat 21:00–04:00 · Sun 21:00–02:00
Address: 5 Rue de la Huchette, 75005 Paris, France
Sunset Sunside is two rooms at one address. Sunset, on the ground floor, does contemporary jazz. Sunside, downstairs, keeps to traditional formats in a smaller space. The early session works if you want dinner first, with a break before the late set.
Sunset Sunside
Hours: Mon–Sun 17:00–02:00
Address: 60 Rue des Lombards, 75001 Paris, France
Le Duc des Lombards puts international performers in a room of around 120 people, so the names you know sell out weeks ahead. On Mondays, French jazz nights bring in newer players, and tickets are easier to get.
Le Duc des Lombards
Hours: Mon–Thu 19:00–00:00 · Fri–Sat 19:00–04:00 · Sun closed
Address: 42 Rue des Lombards, 75001 Paris, France
New Morning has booked jazz and everything around it since 1981, often with acts playing nowhere else in France on that tour. The standing room feels different from night to night. Go to the early-week shows to catch new names before they outgrow it. For the less certain sessions, you can buy tickets on the day.
New Morning
Address: 7/9 R. des Petites Écuries, 75010 Paris, France
Where to drink late before or after a night out in Paris?
Prescription Cocktail Club and Kinágua stay open late, for the hours either side of the dance floor. Prescription, in Saint-Germain, is a 1920s-styled room with a gin selection deeper than most in the city. Kinágua, in the Sentier, has three rooms themed around Portuguese ships sailing east, small plates from the kitchen and seated service.
At Prescription, ignore the menu. Tell the bartender what you feel like and they’ll build the drink around your answer. The gin selection is worth a trip by itself.
Prescription Cocktail Club
Hours: Mon–Thu 19:00–02:00 · Fri–Sat 19:00–04:00 · Sun 20:00–02:00
Address: 23 Rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France
Kinágua opened in autumn 2025. You come in through a mirrored corridor to a counter carved like a wooden wave, under an arch of bottles. The house cocktail is Japanese rum with Portuguese bitter almond liqueur, passion fruit and cranberry syrup. The tapas really are small, so order three or four each. Sit in the lounge at the back or the downstairs salon rather than at a table by the door.
Kinágua
Hours: Mon closed · Tue–Sat 16:00–02:00 · Sun closed
Address: 52 Rue Greneta, 75002 Paris, France
Pick two or three for one night instead of trying to cover the list: a cocktail in the Sentier or Saint-Germain, a set in one of the jazz rooms, then Pigalle or the canal. Book ahead for international names at Le Duc des Lombards, and check what’s on before you go out. Sort out how you’ll get home before the night starts, too. La Machine du Moulin Rouge and the jazz cellars run well past midnight.
