Has Paris Become Snooze City?

PARIS, Jan. 14, 2010 — -- France remains the No. 1 destination in the world for tourism. And Paris is an inevitable stop for any tourist visiting France. But after a certain hour, Paris turns into the European capital of dull.

Several famous institutions of Parisian nightlife have closed their doors in recent years.

The famous Le Palace nightclub, where world celebrities used to party in the 1980s, has become a theater, after it remained vacant and abandoned for many years. And La Locomotive, another nightclub in Pigalle, Paris' infamous red-light district, where the Rolling Stones once performed, is about to become a museum and cafe.

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Berlin, London, and Barcelona, among other cities, have recently become favored destinations for party-afficionados, because these cities are easy to get to at affordable prices, thanks to the boom in low-cost travel.

"The noise is one of the main sources of problems, and the situation has been deteriorating for the past 10 to15 years, in particular with ... gentrification in the Paris city center," Eric Labbe, co-author of an online petition launched in October to help save the Paris club scene, told ABCNews.com. That, coupled with what Labbe called "concentrated urbanization with an extremely dense city center and plush housing a bit all over the place," has contributed to the decline in nightlife, said Labbe.

"It's led to tensions over the years between local residents and club owners," he said.

Smoking Ban Blamed for Noise Pollution Outside Bars

All these tensions have been exacerbated by the 2008 smoking ban, which has sent mass of people onto the sidewalks at all hours of the night, right below the windows of local residents' homes. As a result, a number of bars and clubs were fined and ordered to temporarily or even permanently close down.

"We don't want to touch the smoking ban because even us, the professionals, we have accepted it. But since the ban was supported by the society in general and accepted by everyone, then everyone should accept the consequences that this ban may have. And the noise pollution outside bars or nightclubs is one of them," Labbe explained.

With close to 15,000 supporters, the online petition titled "When the night quietly dies" displays a photograph showing a poster slapped up on the outside wall of a club. The poster proclaims that the club is "Closed due to dead city. Please apply to the neighboring capital."

Following the success of the petition and informal meetings with Paris authorities, bar and club owners are now confident that institutions at all levels are ready to tackle the problems and do something to try to save Paris' image as a buzzing, lively city.

"I ask for a system of mediation to be put in place," Labbe said. "We have to get out of this confrontation between, on one side the bars and clubs, and on the other side the local residents who systematically call the police when there is noise disturbance."

The petition's authors also suggest setting up a "festive district," and offering financial aid to smaller establishments so they can install noise insulation. They have also requested nighttime public transportation in Paris. On weekends, the Paris metro stops running at 2 a.m.

For its part, the city of Paris has set up a Web site, parisnightlife.fr, to promote its 7,500 bars, nightclubs and concert halls. It was inaugurated on Nov. 18, 2009, at 11 a.m.