Underground & cool · Historic cinema (backstage tour) · €€ · 2e · Bourse & Sentier
Le Grand Rex — Les Étoiles du Rex
Europe's largest auditorium sits behind a 1932 Art Deco facade. The self-guided tour moves through the building's machinery — projection booth, the 2,700-seat grande salle, the special-effects room — narrated as a mock film shoot.
Booking through this link may earn par.is a commission. Same price as anywhere.
Weekend and midweek afternoon slots only (closed Mon/Fri); the building still screens films, so a tour pairs with an evening show.
Getting there
- Bonne Nouvelle8960 m · 1 min walk
- Grands Boulevards89240 m · 5 min walk
- Sentier3350 m · 7 min walk
Around the corner
Walks that pass nearby
- Cinemas That Survivedstop 1 of 6 · 140 m
Le Grand Rex
1 Boulevard Poissonnière, opened December 1932 — the largest cinema in Europe (2,800 seats), and still operating. Art Deco facade, fortress-style spire, Spanish-Mediterranean themed interior with painted starry ceiling that has its own weather (clouds drift across before the film). Classified historic monument 1981.
Worth seeing a film in the main hall (Salle Grand Rex) — the smaller side rooms are ordinary. There's a backstage tour (les coulisses du cinéma) that includes the projection booth. The starry-ceiling 'meteo' starts about 15 min before the show.
- Bouillons & Brasseriesstop 1 of 6 · 340 m
Bouillon Chartier
7 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, opened 1896. Still the original recipe: long communal tables, paper tablecloths, waiters in long aprons writing your order on the cloth itself. Three-course dinners under €20. The interior is classified historic.
No reservations — go at 17:30 (opening) or after 21:30 to skip the worst queue. Communal seating: you'll share a table with strangers, which is the whole point. Don't expect refined cooking; expect oeuf mayonnaise, hachis parmentier, and a crème caramel for €15 total.
- Paris-1900stop 5 of 6 · 340 m
Bouillon Chartier
1896. The dining room — coat racks, brass luggage shelves above the booths, beveled mirrors, painted ceiling — is unchanged since opening. Even the system of writing your bill on the paper tablecloth dates from 1896.
Stand at the entrance just inside the courtyard for thirty seconds and look at the room before you're seated. Best photo of the room is from the doorway. Order anything cheap; you're paying for the dining room, not the dish.
- Covered Passagesstop 6 of 6 · 390 m
Passage Verdeau
1846, opened immediately after Jouffroy as its northern extension. Quieter, more old-bookshops, less foot traffic. The northern half rooflight is original cast iron with the rosettes intact.
From the north end of Jouffroy, cross Rue de la Grange Batelière — Verdeau begins directly opposite. Photographique Verdeau at no. 14 sells antique cameras and is run by a man who can date any pre-war Leica by smell.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Rex ClubElectronic club€€ · 1 minParis's longest-running room for techno and house, running its programming through a Funktion-One rig that rewards the people who came for the sound rather than the scene. Long sets that don't bother with last call until daylight.
- The Hoxton, ParisDesign hotel€€ · 2 minAn 18th-century residence turned design-led social hub in Sentier, with a leafy courtyard wine bar, an all-day brasserie and a speakeasy below.
- Mắm From HanoïNorthern Vietnamese€€ · 4 minA Hanoi-born couple cook Northern Vietnamese food in a small Sentier room, and the 2026 Bib Gourmand has only made the table harder to get. The phở carries the saltier, bone-marrow-heavy broth of the north.
- Frenchie Bar à VinsWine bar with small plates€€ · 6 minGreg Marchand's no-reservations wine bar sits across the cobbles from his fully-booked Frenchie, doing brick-walled penance for the mothership's exclusivity. Small plates and wine by the glass, loud and a victim of its own popularity.
- Hôtel de NellDesign hotel€€€ · 6 minThirty-three rooms on a quiet street off the Grands Boulevards, designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte in sand tones, oak and stone — hushed where the neighbourhood is loud.
- LockwoodCafé & cocktail cellar€€ · 6 minA specialty coffee bar by day on Rue d'Aboukir; downstairs after dark, a candle-lit stone cellar pours cocktails until late. Two operations in one address, both done properly.
The district · 2e
Bourse & Sentier — Covered passages and start-upsThe smallest arrondissement, threaded with nineteenth-century glass-roofed passages and, lately, the city's tech and restaurant energy around Rue Montorgueil and the old textile Sentier.
Best for: Eaters and drinkers who want to walk home; central without the Louvre crowds.
Everything we've verified in the 2e →How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of September 2026,cross-checked against 1 source:
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