Paris does not have sports bars in the way London or New York or Sydney does. What it has is something better: 12,000 cafés with terrasses, and a population that turns every single one of them into a stadium when the right team is playing. During the World Cup, televisions appear in brasseries that have never shown sport. Screens are wheeled onto sidewalks. The terrasse becomes the venue, the commentary drifts across the street, and entire arrondissements watch together.
France kick off their World Cup against Senegal on June 16 in Dallas. The match starts at 3 AM Paris time. The bars will be closed. But every subsequent France match will be played at a viewable hour, and when that happens, Paris will do what it did in 1998, 2006, 2018, and 2022: lose its collective mind.
Paris's football map
Paris has the largest African diaspora in Europe. It has the largest Algerian diaspora in the world. It has significant Portuguese, Senegalese, Malian, Cameroonian, Tunisian, and Moroccan communities — each concentrated in specific neighborhoods, each with their own national team, each with their own World Cup.
When Algeria play, Barbès in the 18th fills with a crowd that treats the match as a national event — because for the Algerian diaspora in Paris, it is. When Senegal play, the bars around Château d'Eau in the 10th come alive. When Portugal play, the cafés in the 19th switch from French commentary to Portuguese. When Cameroon or Ivory Coast play, Château Rouge in the 18th becomes the loudest neighborhood in the city. When France play, the Champs-Élysées becomes a river of tricolour — and in the bars of Barbès, Château d'Eau, and Château Rouge, many of the same people cheer for France as well, because the squad is theirs too.
This guide lists bars. The real guide is a Métro map.
Fan zone on the Seine — Quai de la Photo
Quai de la Photo, banks of the Seine
The official FIFA World Cup fan zone in Paris occupies the banks of the Seine from June 12 to July 19. Giant screens. Live matches. A music program that runs alongside the football. The atmosphere will be closest to what Paris experienced during the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2016 — tens of thousands gathered along the river, every goal audible from the bridges above.
The fan zone is expected to be the city's primary public viewing destination for France matches. Entry details are still being confirmed, but previous editions have been free or nominally priced. For visitors who want to experience the World Cup as a civic event rather than a pub experience, the Seine is the answer. The Eiffel Tower is visible from the banks. There is no better backdrop.
The Frog & Rosbif — Rue Saint-Denis
116 Rue Saint-Denis, 75002
The original Frog pub. A British-style microbrewery in the 2nd arrondissement that has been Paris's default English-language football bar for years. The beer is brewed on-site — the house bitter, the IPA, the stout — and the crowd on match days is a mix of British expats, American tourists, and Parisians who prefer their football with English commentary and pints rather than pastis.
The Frog chain has multiple locations across Paris (the Frog & Underground near the Bastille, the Frog & Princess in Saint-Germain), but the Rue Saint-Denis original is the one with the deepest football roots. Screens are plentiful. Sound is on. The atmosphere during an England match or a France match is equally charged, which is rare for a bar in Paris. For the World Cup, The Frog is the bar that serves both communities.
The Bombardier — Latin Quarter
2 Place du Panthéon, 75005
A British pub directly opposite the Panthéon. The location is absurd — Voltaire and Rousseau are interred across the street, and you are watching a World Cup match with a pint of London Pride — but The Bombardier has earned its reputation as one of the best football pubs in Paris. The crowd is academic (the Sorbonne is a five-minute walk), international, and knowledgeable about the sport.
The Latin Quarter location makes The Bombardier one of the most accessible football bars for visitors staying on the Left Bank. The interior is proper English pub: dark, warm, memorabilia-covered. The beer selection favors British imports. The TVs are positioned for watching rather than decoration. During a France match, the pub fills with French students and British expats who have found themselves, for 90 minutes, on the same side.
Le Sous Bock — 1st Arrondissement
40 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001
The bar on this list for people who want to watch football in a French bar rather than an imported British one. Le Sous Bock shows Champions League, Ligue 1, and international football with the kind of attention that most Parisian cafés do not bother with — dedicated screens, sound on during major fixtures, and a crowd that is there for the match rather than for the décor.
The beer selection is one of the best in central Paris: Belgian imports, French craft options, and a rotating tap list that rewards return visits. The difference between Le Sous Bock and the Frog or the Bombardier is language and atmosphere — here, the commentary is in French, the crowd is Parisian, and the relationship to football is Ligue 1 first, everything else second. During the World Cup, that means the France matches will feel different here than in the expat pubs. More intimate. More invested. More French.
Café Oz — Denfert-Rochereau
3 Place Denfert-Rochereau, 75014
The Australian bar chain with multiple Paris locations has long been a reliable option for live sport — rugby, cricket, AFL, and football all get screen time. The Denfert-Rochereau location is the most established, with a large ground-floor bar and a basement space that opens for major events.
Café Oz is not a football-first venue, but during the World Cup it transforms into one. The crowd is international — Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Americans, and Parisians who have adopted the bar as their sports home. For matches involving Southern Hemisphere teams, Café Oz is the only bar in Paris where you will find genuine partisan support.
The Auld Alliance — Rue François Miron
80 Rue François Miron, 75004
A Scottish pub in the Marais that takes its name from the 700-year-old alliance between Scotland and France. The Auld Alliance shows football with the seriousness of a pub in Edinburgh — sound on, screens positioned for watching, whisky selection that could sustain a debate about single malts for the length of extra time.
Scotland are in the World Cup this year, which gives The Auld Alliance a partisan edge it does not always have. During Scotland matches, the pub will be a pocket of tartan in the middle of Paris. During France matches, it will be a Scottish pub full of people who — for complicated historical reasons — are supporting France. The alliance holds.
In 1998, France won the World Cup on home soil and a million people filled the Champs-Élysées. In 2018, France won it again — the same avenue, the same tricolour, the same joy, 20 years apart. Few events unite Paris the way a World Cup does. The neighborhoods will watch their own tournaments — Algeria in Barbès, Senegal at Château d'Eau, Portugal in the 19th — and then, if France win, reconverge on the same avenue. That is Paris. That has always been Paris.