PARIS — On a mild evening the terraces of the ninth arrondissement are full by seven and loud by nine. For the people who live above them, that has become a problem with no closing time.
The city allowed cafés to expand onto parking spaces and sidewalks in 2020 as an emergency measure. The measure proved popular enough to make permanent, and the number of terraces has since nearly doubled.
Complaints to the city's noise hotline have risen in step. A proposed ordinance would require terraces on residential streets to close at 10 p.m. and would cap their size at one and a half times the café's indoor floor space.
Café owners say the rule would cost thousands of jobs. Residents' associations say the city has spent five years pretending the two groups' interests were the same.
The council votes next month.
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 11, 2026, Section A, Page 9 of the European edition with the headline: Paris Loves Its Café Terraces. Its Neighbors Have Had Enough..
