A History of Parisian Nightlife, from '20s Speakeasies to Y2K Clubs

The legacy of French nightlife began with clandestine wartime speakeasies, emerged into the mainstream, went back underground, and finally blossomed into unabashed public revelries.

Cabaret show at the Lido in 1975, Photo by Michel Ginfray via Getty Images

1920s - 1940s

According to writer and Parisian nightlife aficionado Maurice Sachs, the first dance halls opened in Paris one hundred years ago, in 1921. During the First World War, social evenings and dances were not considered proper for young women to attend, but it wasn’t long before the nightclub made its appearance. Up until that point, popular balls were held in Montmartre or Montparnasse for the bourgeois and aristocrats, but the dance hall ushered in a new era in which women could safely venture out alone and with no judgment. Sachs writes in the decade of Illusion: Paris 1918-1928: “A real dance hall has red lacquered walls, orange, and blue lanterns; chiaroscuro and hurried hands; on the left, tango orchestra, on the right, a jazz band: piano, trombone, saxophone, drums, and shell cymbals.” By 1925, there were more than one hundred of these establishments spread across the capital. Le Perroquet, Chez Florence, Florida, Gaya, Bricktop, and Delli’s are but a few names that are now all but forgotten. Only Maxim’s and Le Boeuf sur le Toit remain, the latter of which has recently been restored to its former glory by designer Alexis Mabille. Thanks to its popularity among Paris’ avant-garde, namely the poet Jean Cocteau, Le Boef remains a symbol of the Roaring ‘20s. The years between the wars marked the period of the great surrealist balls of Etienne de Beaumont or Charles de Noailles in their hotel near the Place des États-Unis.

This dance-frenzied Paris was as debaucherous as the 18th-century post-revolutionary era when relatives of those who lost their lives to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror held bals de victimes (“victim’s balls”). This was an era of the most sumptuous brothels, where men—and also couples—came to finish the night with women and ever-flowing champagne. The names of such establishments have remained famous: Le Sphinx, Le Chabanais, and Le One-Two-Two, which is notorious for serving as a branch office for the Gestapo during the German occupation of World War II.

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FROM TOP— Dancing in Paris in 1931. Illustration from the book Paris published by Ernest Flammarion. Photo by The Print Collector; A vintage French postcard advertising the Bullier ballroom circa 1900. Photo by Paul Popper; Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and Spanish painter Salvador Dali arriving at Lido in 1973. Photo by Patrice Picot; Performance at Lido in 1931. Photo by Gamma- Keystone; Dancing at Zellie in 1929. Photo by Bettmann.

Postwar, Parisian nightlife went subterranean. Even after American soldiers stopped blowing their air raid sirens, the zazous of Le Tabou or Le Caveau des Lorientais were used to hiding in cellars, and the underground began to reverberate with the sound of American Bebop. There were no sound systems at the time. Even pick-ups—ancestors of the turntable—were rare. The violin was quickly replaced by a band—often featuring writer and musician Boris Vian or jazz clarinetist Claude Luter—on a small stage, and moving bodies, among them Marc Doelnitz, Anne Marie Casalis, Juliette Greco, and Michel de Ré.

This move underground began on April 11, 1947 at 33 rue Dauphine. The owners of Tabou invited the clientele of the Café de Flore after the famous cafe closed at midnight. The singer Juliette Greco, who had dropped her coat in the cellar, discovered the basement and arranged with the owners to rent it out as a rehearsal space. Thus the first Parisian nightclub was born.

1950s – 1970s

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Barney Wilen and Juliette Greco. Photo by Ullstein Bild via Getty Images

The 1950s came along with the reign of Jean Castel and Régine Zylberberg. It was at the Palais Royal that Régine opened her first club, Le Whisky à Gogo. She later moved to the Left Bank, opening Jimmy's in Saint Germain, then further to Montparnasse with New Jimmy's, which became emblematic of Parisian nightlife. With Jean Castel’s outpost on Rue Princesse, the pair lured an international clientele: American movie stars, English rockers, and glamorous models, as well as the Windsors (whom Régine taught to dance the twist), Jacqueline Onassis, and the Shah of Iran. But it was the regulars, perched on the large couch at the entrance of New Jimmy’s or the banquettes at Castel who were the soul of these spots— Sagan and her gang, Annabelle Buffet, David de Rothschild, Philippe Junot, actor Jean Pierre Cassel, models from Catherine Harlé, and call girls from Chez Claude. At Castel, Alain Delon flirted with Nathalie Barthélémy, who would later become his wife, while a few feet away the future Bianca Jagger danced with her partner of the moment, the record producer Eddie Barclay. Not far away, David Niven, Andy Warhol, and Eddie Sedgwick mingled. At New Jimmy’s, the evenings ended at dawn in Régine’s apartment above the club, where the crowd dined on her famous meatballs to soak up all the alcohol.

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Mick Jagger and Bianca Jaggerat at Chez Castel in 1977. Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff via Getty Images

In the 1970s, the jet-set took over from the high society crowd, which was no surprise since this was also the beginning of the sexual liberation movement. The city’s gay clubs, which were formerly confined to the Palais Royal neighborhood or the rougher parts of Pigalle, settled in Rue Sainte Annenear the Avenue de l'Opéra. The most famous was Le Sept, run by Fabrice Emaer, a former hairdresser. Le Sept hosted everyone from Yves Saint Laurent to Karl Lagerfeld and their respective entourages. In 1978, Emaer opened the greatest Parisian folie, Le Palace, which would become the French version of New York’s Studio 54.

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Marisa Berenson in 1978. Photo by Jean-Claude Francolon via Getty Images

Inaugurated with an over-the-top concert by Grace Jones, which included a performance of “La Vie en Rose” sung from atop a pink Harley Davidson, the Palace attracted a fashionable and eclectic crowd including the queen of punk Edwige Belmore, Louis Aragon, Madame Grès, and the likes of Loulou de la Falaise and Thadée Klossowski. The Palace ushered in a whole new level of glamour to the nightlife scene and would go on to see performances by Talking Heads, The B-52’s, and Prince.

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Princess Caroline and Phillipe Junot circa 1977. Photo by Sonia Moskowitz via Getty Images

1980s – 2020s

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At Le Palace, the last important Parisian balls were held before Haute Couture, and Christian Dior relaunched them for fashion week. At the same time, Fabrice Coat took over an old public bath located near Les Halles and created the first Bains Douches, which drew comparisons to New York’s Mudd Club. Les Bains Douches became known for its show business clientele and their appetite for cocaine by the early ’80s.

The rockers and punks shuttled between the Gibus club in Paris République area and La Main Bleue, a basement den at the town hall of Montreuil where patrons in black leather mingled, and people danced to the music of Serge Kruger.

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Karl Lagerfeld, Anjelica Huston and Catherine Deneuve via Getty Images

In the ’80s, Le Palace upgraded and became Le Privilège,and Les Bains Douches became Les Bains. The city’s trendy set found themselves at Tango, Rose Bonbon, Opéra Night, and The Royal, a place not far from The Olympia. La Main Jaune was the place for fans of roller skates and Mezcal. This was the moment of reggae-salsa music which would soon be followed by rap at the Globo and rave parties in abandoned spots across the city.

DJs were soon becoming superstars with residencies at specific clubs. David Guetta spun the wheels of steel at Chance, which would later become Moloko. Meanwhile, Marthe Lagacheand Franck Chevalier (husband of Nina Hagen) opened the most amusing and eclectic club of the late ’80s: the Zoopsie in Bobino. On the Champs-Élysées, several swanky spots for the rich and famous opened, where actor Anthony Delon paraded around with his girlfriends, including Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.

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The ’90s were ruled by the Queen club, which was charming if not a little vulgar. There was also the unforgettable LaScala. Meanwhile, Cathy Guetta recovered the indestructible Le Bains Douches, while Régine found herself at the deserted Le Palace.

The new millennium opened with a welcome surprise: LeBaron, a former brothel on Avenue Marceau, was reinvented by the graphic designer turned nightlife impresario André Saraiva. Saraiva, Olivier Zahm of Purple Magazine, and businessman Jean Yves Le Fur, would go on to open Montana on Rue Saint Benoit, energizing the Saint Germain neighborhood.

As for the 2020s, the decade started well with Cicciolina and Serpent à Plume, chez Maitre Binoche, and Place des Vosges. These places will reinvent themselves after the pandemic-era curfew that allowed Paris to dip back into its prohibition-era behavior, with the opening of exclusive speakeasy bars and hotels bathed in champagne. Velvet nights are once again underground.