In Paris, you're see the sun come up because the party is still going on. Whatever you like to do after nightfall, it's likely you'll find it and discover new pleasures and new friends along the way. While other travelers can book ahead and map out itineraries, you make the party as you go along. You only need pointing in the right direction, which is to say Le Marais and Montmartre. What follows is not an exhaustive list of possibilities, for something is always popping up in Paris.

Book into a hotel like Jules et Jim in the Marais, the center of Parisian gay life and walking distance to major attractions if you find time for sight-seeing. Begin your party at Breakfast in America diner, where hearty America-style breakfasts are served all day. Stroll along Rosiers, Temple, Francs Bourgeois where major brands like The Kooples, Comptoir and COS have shops and check out BHV, the giant department store. If it's between noon and 8 p.m. , Mr. B, famous for high quality leather and rubber fetish goods, will be open on Rue du Temple.

Your American breakfast wearing off? Stop for kosher Israeli street food at the insanely popular l'As du Fallafel, a reminder that this was once the Jewish quarter.

As the sun goes down, guys head for the gay see-and-be-seen bars on Rue Des Archives, the chief among them l'Open. Its sidewalk terrace (heated in winter) is a good place to grab a bite between noon and 5 p.m. After that, it morphs into a bar with Happy Hour from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with Happy Champagne from 10 p.m. to midnight. Lesbians start their night over at bars on Rue St. Martin. La Mutinerie and Le Barouf have snooker and various types of girls.

Paris bathhouses are most popular late in the day and on Sunday afternoons and mainly for gays, but Atlantide Sauna over by Gare de Lyon train station calls itself "the open-minded sauna" and is open to everyone, including straights. It has themed nights throughout the week. Another co-ed activity is the long-running La Boîte à Frissons gay nightclub in Le Tango, an old-fashion dance hall with wooden floors. It's couple dancing until midnight, then disco until dawn.

Paris has a number of famous gay clubs, mostly for men, including Le Raidd where strippers perform while taking showers and Le Dépot, one of the biggest clubs and cruise bars in the city. Lesbians can go dancing at 3W, a cult bar in the Marais, or So What, which opens at 11 p.m. with dancing in the cellar. The only women-only dance club is Rive Gauche on the other side of the Seine in the 6th arrondissement.