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L’URGENCE BAR Map Bar

01 43 26 45 69; www.urgencebar.com, in French; 45 rue Monsieur le Prince, 6e; 9pm-4am Tue-Sat; Luxembourg

Just south of the École de Médecine is located this medical-themed ‘emergency room’. Here are the future doctors of France, busy imbibing luridly coloured liquor from babies’ bottles and test tubes, loosening their stethoscopes and pointing to the ‘X-ray art’ – making comments like ‘mais non! Clarisse, that’s so not the tibia!’. Even if you don’t understand French, its website gives a good sense of the vibe here.

CURIO PARLOR COCKTAIL CLUB

Map Bar, Club

06 11 22 29 79; 16 rue des Bernardins, 5e; 6pm-2am Sun-Thu, 6pm-4am Fri & Sat; Maubert Mutualité

This new place, run by the same group who run the Experimental Cocktail Club, opened in mid 2008. It is a bar-cum-club on the weekends, with a good mixture of soul thrown in for good measure. The aim is to see a return to the inter-war années folles (crazy years) of 1920s Paris, London and New York.

CAFÉ DELMAS Map Café

01 43 26 51 26; 2 place de la Contrescarpe, 5e; 8am-2am Sun-Thu, to 4am Fri & Sat; Cardinal Lemoine

Enviably situated on tree-studded place de la Contrescarpe, the Delmas is a hot spot for chilling over un café/cappuccino (€2.70/5.80) or all-day breakfast (€11). Sit comfortably beneath overhead heaters outside to soak up the street atmosphere or snuggle up between books in the library-style interior – awash with students from the nearby universities. Should you need the loo, Jacqueline is for women, Jacques for men.

LE VERRE À PIED Map Café

01 43 31 15 72; 118bis rue Mouffetard, 5e; lunch menus €13.50; 8am-9pm Tue-Sat, to 4pm Sun; Censier Daubenton

This café-tabac is a pearl of a place where little has changed since 1870. Its nicotine-hued mirrored wall, moulded cornices and original bar make it part of a dying breed, but the place oozes the charm, glamour and romance of an old Paris everyone loves. Stall holders from the rue Mouffetard market yo-yo in ’n’ out, contemporary photography and art adorns one wall. Lunch is a busy, lively affair, and live music quickens the pulse a couple of evenings a week.

CAVE LA BOURGOGNE Map Café, Wine Bar

01 47 07 82 80; 144 rue Mouffetard, 5e; 9am-10.30pm; Censier Daubenton

Prime spot for lapping up rue Mouffetard’s contagious ‘saunter-all-day’ spirit, this neighbourhood hang-out sits on square St-Médard, one of the Latin Quarter’s loveliest squares: think flower-bedecked fountain, centuries-old church and tastebud-titillating market stalls spilling across one side. Inside, old ladies and their pet dogs meet for coffee around dark wood tables alongside a local wine-sipping set. In summer everything spills outside.

LE PUB ST-HILAIRE Map Pub

www.pubsthilaire.com; 2 rue Valette, 5e; 11am-2am Mon-Thu, to 4am Fri, 4pm-4am Sat, 3pm-midnight Sun; Maubert Mutualité

‘Buzzing’ fails to do justice to the pulsating vibe inside this student-loved pub. Generous happy hours last several hours and a trio of pool tables, board games, music on two floors and various gimmicks to rev up the party crowd (a metre of cocktails, ‘be your own barman’ etc) keep the place packed. Pay €3.50/5.50/10 for a demi/pinte/litre of bière pression (draught beer).

LE VIOLON DINGUE Map Pub

01 43 25 79 93; 46 rue de la Montagne Ste-Geneviève, 5e; 8pm-4.30am Tue-Sat; Maubert Mutualité

A loud, lively bar adopted by revolving generations of students, the ‘Crazy Violin’ attracts lots of young English-speakers with big-screen sports shown upstairs and the flirty ‘Dingue Lounge’ downstairs. The name ‘Crazy Violin’ is a pun on the expression le violon d’Ingres, meaning ‘hobby’ in French, because the celebrated painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres used to fiddle in his spare time.

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ST-GERMAIN, ODÉON & LUXEMBOURG

While much of the 6e is sleepy and snobby, Carrefour de l’Odéon has a cluster of lively bars, cafés and restaurants. Rue de Buci, rue St-André des Arts and rue de l’Odéon enjoy a fair slice of night action with their arty cafés and busy