The Best Swingers Clubs in Paris

The best swingers club in Paris is Les Chandelles on rue Thérèse, in the 1st arrondissement, where a night can start with dinner in its own restaurant. The Mask, a couples-only permissive bar in the 2nd, comes next, then Taken Club on the Île Saint-Louis and Overside on rue du Cherche-Midi, the one to pick if you want to dance.

In Paris these are called clubs libertins. Four make the list, in the order we would send a couple, with the reasons under it.

We ranked on the room, how well each night is run and what kind of evening each club gives you.

Les Chandelles is the full Paris evening. Chef Gaël Choplin's restaurant serves from 9:30 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday, and the club opens at 10:30 p.m. and runs to 5 a.m. Its nights are for couples only from Wednesday to Saturday, and for couples and single women on Tuesday. The dress code is formal: evening wear, a dress or skirt and heels for women, and a long-sleeved shirt, dress trousers and dress shoes for men.

The Mask is built around a cocktail bar rather than a dance floor, with a large salon and smaller private ones. It is for couples only, except on Wednesday, when single women are admitted too. Masks are optional but encouraged, and it is one of two clubs here that opens in the afternoon as well as at night.

Taken Club is a salons club on the Île Saint-Louis, with a bar, a dance floor and a smoking room. It opens Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 p.m. Tuesday is a trio night, Wednesday and Thursday are champagne nights, and Friday and Saturday are for couples. Single women are welcome alongside couples, and phones stay in the cloakroom all night.

Overside, open since 1999, is the party. It has a big mirrored dance floor with three pole-dance bars, a run of salons and an indoor smoking room, and holds more than 320 people. It is also the club on this list with nights that admit single men.

Friday and Saturday are the couples' nights almost everywhere. Les Chandelles is couples-only Wednesday to Saturday. Taken runs couples' nights on Friday and Saturday until 5 a.m. Overside opens at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday for couples and single women, with a buffet included from 9 p.m. and the DJ from 11 p.m., and stays open until 6 a.m.

Midweek is quieter and more mixed. Overside's Wednesday and Sunday nights are open to couples, single women and single men, close at 4 a.m. and let single men in from 10:30 p.m.; Thursday is its Secret Paris night for the same mix. The Mask opens from 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. Overside is not open on Monday or Tuesday, and Taken is not open on Sunday or Monday.

For an afternoon, Les Chandelles opens Monday to Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the Mask Monday to Friday from 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for couples.

New to the scene? Our guide to swingers clubs, libertine clubs and the formats they get confused with explains how a night works, and the upside-down pineapple and other swinger signals decodes the symbols you may come across.