Nuit Blanche is the all night fete every October that has public art installations, concerts, and performances all over the city. The party starts on Saturday evening and goes into the wee hours of Sunday morning, like a secondary New Years Eve.

This year it was a mixed bag as le tout Paris was out celebrating not only Nuit Blanche, but also the rugby matches. The event is over promoted, which means there are hordes of people everywhere with big lines to get in all the events, packed metro’s worse than rush hour, and sometimes fighting the crowds just to walk on the streets. However, it was a beautiful, clear, crisp, night and everybody was in a joyful mood to celebrate.

I was selective about the events I attended. I started with a 6-hour performance installation, Insomnia, by renowned artist Marina Abramovic just outside Paris in Gentilly. The venue was the cavernous art space/gallery Le Generateur. From the outside it looked like a club with red lights, velvet ropes, and two bouncers wearing all black. Once inside the warehouse-like space, there were 5 live tableaus with different performances, all silent. The two most intriguing were the trio of glam rock performers wearing kilts, silver sequins cumber bunds, and bad Dynel wigs, silently preparing for their big concert and a woman in a pink organza dress lying on bench with a large monitor reflecting her on a beach surrounded by other people.

But the most bizarre experience was with an attractive young Asian woman in a black business suit offering people a piece of gum from her purse. I said yes and she placed a piece of gum in my mouth and then a piece in hers. After we chewed for a few moments, she hugged me literally cheek to cheek and held me on each side for a minute or two so we could intimately experience each other’s gum chewing. She then asked me to spit out the gum in the gold wrapper and she did the same, making an Origami sculpture from our saliva infested shared gum as a souvenir from our bonding experience. I’ll cherish it forever.

Chandelier of Fire at Place Concorde

I stayed for about an hour and afterwards headed to the Tuileries. It took 10 minutes just to exit the metro station, with hundreds of people making there way through only two doors. The Tuleries were ablaze with sculptures of fire creating a mesmerizing bon fire effect all over the park. The highlight was the chandelier of fire dangling from a crane high over Place Concorde.

I came home exhausted but somehow exhilarated by the unusual evening I had spent.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

 

Comments

[Janet]

tout Paris
le tout Paris
mais pas "toute le Paris" s'il vous plaît Richard...

ah! le français....ah! ces Français!

[richard]

thanks for the correction.