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Gay clubbing

Cheesy fun? Hardcore leather? Step this way

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With most gay bars closing around 2am, even Paris's gay-friendly Marais can seem to lack a little je ne sais quoi. But fear not, late night options abound from the Bastille to the Champs-Elysées, so if you're looking for friendly dancing or more intimate encounters, there's a club or soirée for everyone. Searching a mix of Paris's many ethnicities in the old Red Light District? Got that. A thumping club full of pretty people? Got that, too. A nudist party without much light to care if they're pretty? Obviously. In general, prepare to shell out a cover charge and queue up to enter, but once inside, these parties are guaranteed all-nighters.

Clubbing

Le Club 18
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Bars and pubs
  • Members' clubs
  • Louvre
  • price 2 of 4

One of the oldest clubs in Paris, Club 18 behind the gardens of the Palais Royal is a weekend hotspot for all things gay. Economizing on space, it’s more of a dancing lounge than a proper club, with low ceilings and a limited dance floor, but themed soirées and seizure-inducing lights give it a distinctly clubby feel. What it lacks in space it makes up for in atmosphere – it's an extremely friendly venue, from the coat-check to the other patrons. The clientele is mostly...

Le Tango (La Boîte à Frissons)
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Clubs
  • Arts et Métiers
  • price 1 of 4

Come too early in the evening and you’ll be more than welcome to join the couple’s tango class at this old dance hall. If that’s not your thing, wait until around 1am when the theme switches over to an all-out dance party in this gay hot spot tucked away on the northern edge of the Marais. The décor is still red and fiery with a touch of kitsch, but the wooden dance floor gives way to dancers jiving to Katy Perry and Rihanna instead of Juan d’Arienzo...

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Scream
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Clubs
  • Folie-Méricourt
  • price 3 of 4

If you’re attractive, well-built, and not at all afraid of getting lost, the cavernous Scream club is your venue every Saturday night. Between the covered terrace and the two dance floors underground, there’s something for everyone as long as you think Dolce and Gabbana would give you the time of day. Right by Place de la République between the Marais and the Canal-St-Martin neighbourhoods, this is definitely the place to be for real gay clubbing...

Queen
  • Clubs
  • Triangle d'Or
  • price 3 of 4

Looking for glitz, glam, and sparkles? Queen is as close as you’re going to get in old gay Paris. This institution was home to artistic director David Guetta in the early '90s when it was the place for the gay club scene. These days, it hosts parties every night catering to all tastes and sexualities, leaving Sunday night the dedicated evening for gay parties.  Though some of the shine has worn off, it’s still loads of fun for guys to bring their girlfriends...

Cruising

Impact
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Réaumur
  • price 3 of 4

At first glance, soirée naturaliste seems like a tree-hugging sort of gay party, until you translate it. Welcome to Impact, Paris’s premier gay nudist bar. Two floors of antics await you here. Upstairs, drinking and flat screen porn. Downstairs, well, any variety of impacting, depending on who’s there. Check your pants at the door, literally, except on Thursday nights when they dare you to keep them on or Saturday and Friday nights when pants are permitted...

Dépot
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Réaumur
  • price 2 of 4

Hailed as the largest backroom in Europe, Le Dépot is more than just a place to meet local men. The dark and dingy interior is full of cavernous hallways with alcoves and rooms for all sorts of naughty behaviour that would make even the most adventurous man blush. If you’re wondering why there are safe sex paraphernalia at your disposition, just accept one of the advances from any of the dozens of men who will inevitably approach you. Ladies, abstain...

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Secteur X
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Le Marais
  • price 1 of 4

Once a quaint little gay dive bar, Secteur X has transformed into one of Paris’s most hard-core gay cruise clubs – a one-stop shop for all things kinky and naughty. At Friday 'Hard Night' parties, participants are invited to dress in leather, latex, or their birthday suits. And Saturday’s 'Leather and Slave Afternoon' is, as they say, only for the truly motivated. For tight budgets, there’s no cover charge and a generous happy hour until 9pm...

Full Metal
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Le Marais
  • price 2 of 4

The trendier of the two gay fetish clubs in the same street, don’t even try to get into Full Metal unless you adhere to the night’s dress code. Wednesday nights it’s leather. Monday, it’s cockrings only. So if that’s your thing, you’re in the right place. If it’s not, you’ll be invited to move to the next bar. With a semi-spacious, dimly-lit cave bar, it’s convivial enough to share a beer or two and talk to other locals, a mix of ages though not entirely unattractive...

Soirées

Le Bataclan (Follivores/Crazyvores)
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Saint-Ambroise
  • price 3 of 4

Inside Le Bataclan, a historic 19th-century Chinese-inspired theatre, the gay community gathers three times a month for the Follivores/Crazyvores soirées. The original 'Nuit des Follivores' has been going strong for 17 years and has bred two offshoots on different nights, 'Nuit des Crazyvores' and 'Crazyvores+'.  While the slightly eccentric posters don’t do much to convey the concept, the idea remains the same across the board...

Folie's Pigalle (Black Blanc Beur)
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Saint-Georges
  • price 2 of 4

'Black, White and Arab', this ethnic gay party is the only of its kind held at the historic Folie's Pigalle. BBB has been around for almost fifteen years, a staple of the city's gay nightlife. Previously a theatre, a cinema, then a cabaret, still with hints of its 19th-century décor, this intimate venue in Paris’s red light district has been a club since 1991, where things are known to heat up. Themed soirées are organized by the gay and ethnic association Kelma...

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Club Haussman (Doctor Love)
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • LGBTQ+
  • Chaussée-d'Antin
  • price 2 of 4

Can’t find the younger crowd in the Marais? It must be a Saturday when the Doctor Love party is in full swing. Located in the Club Haussmann, the monthly party is the it place among trendy and generally attractive twenty to thirtysomethings from all over the world, with a healthy mix of French, English and many other European languages floating around. Though trendy, the party’s organiser Mylène, a doctor by day...

La Scène Bastille
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Music
  • Music venues
  • Roquette
  • price 3 of 4

This tastefully decorated club-bar-restaurant complex holds regular rock concerts, as well as club events most Thursdays to Saturdays. The programming here changes constantly, so check what's on. Popular gay nights too. The monthly Saturday night boys' party Code 69 heats things up with club and electro mixes. As of 2013, the team behind the former lesbian bar Troisième Lieu hosts a gay-friendly party, Le Bal du Grand Fuck...

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