Whether it’s for a temporary stay or a permanent one, moving to the City of Light means lots to consider, organize, and plan. While it’s not likely to involve any paperwork (unlike other tasks related to settling in here), one of the most daunting challenges you might be facing is how to make friends in Paris.
Luckily, there are lots of ways to meet people in Paris. It’s a world capital city with communities from countries and cultures around the world—not to mention groups of people who are passionate about a huge range of activities and hobbies. All of this means you’re nearly guaranteed to find some like-minded pals here.
Here are some ways of making friends in Paris, both before you arrive and once you’re set up in the city.
Make Friends Before You Get to Paris
If you have the time and the inclination, it’s a good idea to join an online Paris expat group or two before your move. This will give you some on-site friends, or at least some acquaintances to meet up with when you get here. It’s also a great way to ask any questions you might have about life in Paris. Some places where you can find future Paris friends and social events online include:
The subreddit r/SocialParis is full of posts from Paris-based people who are looking for friends, organizing activities and clubs, and setting up meetups. Another thread, r/expats, has members from around the world, not just Paris, but posts often feature the French capital. The r/paris sub is a good way to find out about events, news, and other things going on in Paris, as well as to celebrate good moments here and commiserate about the bad.
There are a number of Paris expat groups on Facebook. American Expats in Paris is a must (at least if you’re American). Expats in Paris – Solidarity is another excellent group to join; not only are there posts about meetups and social events, but as the name suggests, it’s also about expats helping each other out by sharing advice and moral support.
Conversation Exchange
A no-frills but legit site, Conversation Exchange offers a more old school way to make friends before you get to Paris: finding a pen pal! You can search for a French speaker to write to in order to practice your written French, and they’ll write to you in English. It’s a novel way to both practice your French writing skills and get to know a potential friend or two before you meet up in person in Paris.
Polyglot Club
Polyglot Club is another potential source of friends in Paris. The site is geared towards travelers, backpackers, and students, but anyone can join. As its name suggests, Polyglot Club is focused on language and culture exchange, with a website that offers conversation exchanges, language question forums, translation help, and more. When you arrive in Paris, Polyglot Club also organizes events and meet-ups. You can find out about these on their website or via their Facebook page. The club also posts events on Meetup, a site I’ll share more about a little further on in our article.
How to Find Expat Friends in Paris
Once you get to Paris, there are plenty of ways to make friends, as well. At first, you may want to meet expats who speak your native language, especially if you don’t have a good level of French. If that’s the case, no worries—there’s a bevy of expat organizations, clubs, and activities to choose from. You can opt for a membership site, a language exchange platform, or an event at a common expat meeting place, or even post your own ad looking for friends or activity partners. Here are a few suggestions.
Meetup
Meetup is a fantastic resource to help you find friends, not to mention a huge range of activities, when you get to Paris. The site hosts countless groups and clubs focused on all sorts of interests. These include language exchanges and expat meet-ups, as well as activities like networking events, photography walks, sports, and book clubs, to name just a few. It’s free to sign up, and meet-ups can be free or come with a small charge, depending on the type of activity.
WICE
WICE (Where Internationals Connect in English) organizes Anglophone expat social events, as well as courses in photography, crafts, languages, and more. This means you can develop new skills in addition to meeting new people. Unlike many of the resources on our list, WICE requires you to be a paid member to participate, but membership fees are reasonable, and you can even join for a three-month period if you’re only going to be in Paris for a short time.
Internations
An expat organization with a slightly more professional, polished feel, Internations hosts events and facilitates networking for expats in Paris (as well as other cities, for that matter). You’ll need a paid membership for access to everything, but there are some free options.
Post an Ad Online or at a Local Paris Expat Site
If you’re looking for friendship or an activity group on your own terms, another solution is to post an online or paper ad on a website or at real-life sites where expats tend to gather in Paris. Whether your ad says you’re looking for friends, conversation or language exchange partners, or people to take part in a specific activity with you, be very clear that it’s for friendship only, and definitely vet the people who contact you before meeting up. I would personally advise doing this through email at first, ideally a throwaway account, to weed out anyone who might be creepy and to stay anonymous in case you don’t want to meet them.
Posting an ad is also a good way to keep groups small, if that’s what you want. For instance, when I first came to Paris, I posted an ad on Craigslist (which isn’t nearly as popular in Paris as it once was, unfortunately) to set up an expat writing group. I ended up meeting four like-minded Anglophone writers who became good friends.
If you want to put up an ad at a physical place, there’s no single hub for expats in Paris, per se, but there are some spots you’re likely to find them. For Anglophones, these include locales like English/Irish/Scottish pubs, English bookstores, and Anglophone churches and other places of worship. There are lots of these places in Paris. Even if no one is around when you visit one, in many of these locales you’ll find that people have posted notes and ads about everything from events to making friends. Shakespeare and Company is a good place to start. Speaking of which….
Shakespeare and Company
The iconic English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company hosts numerous events throughout the year. Author readings are probably the best-known, but true to its bohemian roots, the bookstore also regularly holds open mic nights. Anyone can participate and can share up to five minutes of either poetry or prose. The convivial atmosphere is a great way to get in touch with your creative side in the City of Light and to meet fellow aspiring or established writers, poets, and lovers of words. Check the Events page on Shakespeare and Company’s website to find upcoming Open Mic Nights and information about how to take part.
Pub Quiz Nights
If you’re a trivia fiend (or just one of those people with lots of random knowledge floating through your head), taking part in a pub quiz could be the perfect answer to the question, “How to meet people in Paris?” Many Anglophone bars and pubs in Paris host pub quiz nights, including The Highlander, The Auld Alliance, and Rush Bar, among numerous others. While the particulars vary for each location, many will pair you with someone or include you in a group that wants to participate if you don’t already have a team. You can also sign up for a pub quiz or trivia event through Meetup.
An Anglophone Place of Worship
If you’re religious, finding a place of worship is a two-birds, one stone situation, since you’ll have religious services in your native language and also meet fellow English-speakers and participate in activities.
For instance, there are nearly a dozen English-speaking churches of various denominations in and around Paris. Some Paris-based synagogues, including Kehilat Gesher, also offer English-language services and activities. You may be able to find other kinds of religious services in English in Paris, as well.
Pro tip: Fellow book lovers, regardless of your religious preferences, keep your eyes peeled for ads about used book sales at the American Church in Paris. Open to the general public and chock full of books donated by members of the English-speaking community, these are an amazing and cheap source of English reading material.
Join an Expat Club Focused on a Specific Activity
Meeting expats in general is good, but you can also add an activity you like to the mix, which should help you hone in on like-minded people. Although you may not find a specific expat club for every interest, it’s worth a shot. A good way to start is to do an online search for a topic or activity that interests you and see what comes up—for instance, “expat book club Paris” or “expat running club Paris.” By the way, if either of these examples interest you, there are actual groups like this in Paris! In fact, there are at least a dozen or so expat Anglophone book clubs here, just waiting for you to join and weigh in on their next read. You’ll also find lots of expat running groups in Paris, where you can share the rush with potential new friends.
How to Make French Friends in Paris
Once you feel more comfortable with speaking French, or if you’re a beginner who feels confident and motivated to learn more, you may want to branch out and make some French friends.
The first kind of activity group where you can meet French friends is a language exchange. Lots of French people want to learn or perfect their English, and they’ll be happy to help you work on your French, as well. Language exchange groups typically meet in cafes or bars, but you might find some that opt for parks or even tie into an activity. Although the rules can vary from group to group, you’ll typically have a certain amount of time to talk to someone in English, and then the same amount of time to speak in French.
One Paris-based language exchange group worth checking out is Polyglot Club, which I mentioned previously. Conversation Exchange is another site I mentioned before; once you’re in Paris, you can go beyond pen pals and find in-person conversation exchange partners. The site lets you search by language and location, but also less common and extremely helpful filters like language level, age, and gender.
If you want to branch out beyond language exchange, or if you already speak French at a high level, there’s a myriad of clubs and activity groups in Paris. Once you can speak French well, they can be ways to meet like-minded French people. These include:
Activities at a Centre Paris Anim’
Community centers located throughout Paris, Centres Paris Anim’ offer an impressive selection of group activities, from sports to singing to sewing, and so much more. The best time to sign up for an activity at a Centre Paris Anim’ is during the rentrée—that is, the start of the school year/return to work from summer vacation (early September). But if there are still slots available, you can sign up at any other time of the year, too (although most Centres are closed in July and August). The price for activities is based on your income, rather than a flat fee, which makes them accessible to most people.
Clubs and Organizations in Paris
There are millions of Parisians, which means that no interest is too obscure. For instance, my husband has been a part of historical reenactment groups and even a Paris-based scuba diving group. (If you’re scratching your head at this, they practiced in pools and went on diving excursions.) He easily made friends at both. There’s bound to be a club or group geared towards your particular interest, so go get started with an online search (in French) for your activity of choice.
Meetup
I mentioned Meetup in the section about making expat friends in Paris, but the site is a good way to make French friends, too, since it features language exchange events as well as purely French-language groups and clubs offering all sorts of activities.
Volunteer
There are lots of Paris-based volunteer organizations. You can use a site like the French government’s official JeVeuxAider.gouv.fr to find a list of organizations in Paris that are looking for volunteers. Or do an online search to see where you can be a part of a cause that particularly inspires you. In addition to helping out, you’ll also be able to connect with people who feel the same way.
Classes and Events at Paris Public Libraries
I’ve written before about how much I love Paris’s amazing libraries. In addition to so many other resources, many of Paris’s public library branches offer clubs, groups, and activities, including fiction or poetry writing (in French), board games, crafts, and more. Some French library branches also offer free French classes, if you want to brush up or improve your French. You can find information about activities by visiting your neighborhood library branch, or by subscribing to their monthly e-newsletter. The Paris libraries’ main website also features information about one-off as well as regular activities.
Believe it or not, this list of ways to make friends in Paris isn’t exhaustive! There are so many ways to find friendly people and even kindred spirits here. If you’re worried about feeling lonely in Paris, I hope this reassures you, and inspires you to start your new social life in the City of Light.
Alysa Salzberg is an American freelance writer, worrier, teacher, travel planner, and cookie enthusiast who’s lived in Paris, France, for nearly two decades. Author of Hearts at Dawn, a historical fantasy novel set during the 1870-1871 Siege of Paris, she often shares things she loves about life and history in the City of Light on her blog here, and on Instagram @lamarquisedecarabas.
