Night life in Paris has become so dismal

[ALS]

the city has put up a web site to promote the hot clubs.

Paris Night Life

November 18, 2009
Paris, the city that always sleeps

Paris receives more visitors than any other town in the world, but nightlife in the City of Light is not much to write home about. That has been the story for decades. For all the glories of Paris, its rivals New York, London, Berlin and Barcelona offer more excitement for night-clubbers and other fans of the small hours.

Things have got so bad recently, with clampdowns on noise and police closures of celebrated spots, that club, discothèque and bar owners are petitioning the Culture Ministry to save the Paris night scene from disaster. And today, Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and 330 venue owners have launched a bilingual internet site called Paris Night Life to promote the hottest spots.

The petition, which has gathered more than 12,000 signatures in less than three weeks, says Paris is on the verge of becoming the "European capital of sleep" because of bureaucracy and the intolerance of the increasingly bourgeois population of the capital. Nightlife is becoming so tepid that Paris area residents are heading elsewhere for their fun, says the petition, organised by a group from the techno and electronic music scene.

"It is now well established that Paris has abandoned all kind of European leadership to the benefit of towns such as London, Barcelona, Prague and Berlin, to which more and more French professional artistes are departing for exile."

The group complain of police harassment and new enforcement of antique regulations, such as a ban on dancing in premises licensed as bars or concert halls. Several well-known establishments have had their licenses suspended for infringing the rules. They include the Batofar, a former lightship moored on the Seine, and la Flèche d'Or, an indie music club. This week saw the closure in bankruptcy of La Locomotive, a celebrated boîte de nuit in Pigalle. The neighbouring Moulin-Rouge, a tourist factory, is taking it over to convert it into a shop-restaurant

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[Toc De Mac]

Charles Bremner ! I had the opportunity to hear him speak last summer...

Shame I know nothing about Paris's scene.