Nuit Blanche

Ok ok ok, it has been a while since I’ve last written but here goes…

NUIT BlANCHE- one of the most incredible nights Paris has to offer. Needless to say, I highly highly recommend that if possible, one should absolutely visit the city the first Saturday in October to catch it…now allow me to explain…

Translated to ‘white night,’ this is a time when Parisians fully recognize and embrace the spectacular atmosphere that comes when the sun goes down. Slight tangent, Paris is magical during the day, but words cannot begin to describe what the night has to offer here. At the risk of sounding somewhat off, roaming the streets in the dark has been far and away one of my favorite activities since being here. There’s something about the different people you see, the transition from espresso being the drink of choice to wine or champagne, the streets lights that set the mood with a dim glow that compliments the surrounding buildings, I could go on but you understand my point.

Back to nuit blanche, essentially this event takes place between the hours of 7pm through 7am. 12 hours dedicated completely to discovering the city of lights in the dark! Essentially, three different arrondissements of the city are chosen each year. This year, the 19^th (fairly far out) was chosen along with, conveniently, the Latin Quarter and Jardins du Luxembourg (my neighborhood) along with Les Halles, Chatelet, Notre Dame (also very close to me). Selected monuments, museums, gardens, etc. leave their doors open throughout the night. Various contemporary artists are invited to use certain spaces to create an exhibition thereby transforming a well-known and established space into something very new and different.

We started our evening by catching a cab across the river to the Grand Palais which is currently hosting a Renoir exhibition. The exhibit was not only open all night but gratuit (free)! After a bit of cruising through that, we hopped on the metro to Chatelet (making our way back to our neighborhood) and had a very long yet very lovely dinner at a restaurant called Le Chien qui Fume or the Smoking Dog…a restaurant we frequent quite regularly. We rolled out of dinner close to midnight to find the streets absolutely packed with people. It was amazing, there were shows going on everywhere, lights zooming around and an electric atmosphere.

Having hung a giant disco ball in the Luxembourg Gardens, we made our way back home to check it out to no avail. The gardens were so packed we couldn’t even get near the entrance. Somewhat defeated we vowed to take a more American approach on the night and go home to kill a few hours before heading back out into the night. Aftering having passed out in my bed fully dressed with boots still on and all, I rallied again close to 4am and Jen and I set out to explore. We first walked down a block to St. Severin church where we discovered a pretty awesome experience. An artist as taken choral songs performed by various singers and dissected the music. In the middle of the nave of the church we found 40 speakers set up in an oval. A single voice was projected from each speaker, which combined created an extremely powerful effect in a gothic atmosphere. There were all sorts of people from all ages lying down around the floor just listening. It was truly unique.

Next we set off for our second attempt at Luxembourg Gardens. Find it far less crowded, we entered freely to an enormous disco ball hoisted over the central fountain spinning while illuminated by various spotlights. Although a rather simpler concept, it was pretty amazing to see the shimmering speckled light pattern reflected up on the clouds. From the gardens we made our way down to the river to find among other things, giant colorfully illuminated boxes blasting chill house music-esque beats…an exhibit set up by Samsung over a bridge behind Notre Dame. We also visited the Cluny Medieval Museum just down the street from us where an eerie wintery exhibition was installed with haunting music and cold sounds of wind echoing through the already hallow chambers of a medieval castle. It was incredible to see how the artists expanded upon and complimented the overall themes of these monuments and spaces with their work.

We started heading home close to 6 in the morning. While we encountered a few creepers that came out to wander the wee hours of the morning, Jen and I were rather impressed with our level of comfort throughout our late night roaming although I don’t think we will make a habit of it!