The first Saturday in October is "Nuit Blanche" ("white night") in Paris, which means that the city organizes a big, all-night art party. They invite people to create art installations in unusual buildings or spaces and open them up from dusk until dawn, more or less. It's a great event that attracts hordes of people with some 38 city-sponsored exhibits and another 50 or so others. Many of them had half-hour lines, so to see even a quarter of what's available, you would probably need the entire night. We went to seven or eight spots, and Jeff put together a little video to show you a few of our favorites.
It's hard to convey just how cool it is to be in a centuries-old cathedral with a giant LED panel (that's a statue of Jeanne d'Arc, by the way), or on a bridge above the Seine with several thousand people in a crazy cube environment.
Apparently there are versions of Nuit Blanche in a bunch of cities, mostly in Europe, but also in Toronto and Santa Monica. We think Minneapolis should institute one. It wouldn't be quite so big and we don't have any Gothic cathedrals to play with, but it could be a lot of fun anyway.
So that was the big excitement for this week. Other minor events: we found the Japanese noodle-shop neighborhood, a guitar for Jeff, and the parc Reuilly, yet another fabulous place for a picnic - hopefully the weather will continue to allow picnics a little while longer. Unfortunately now we have both got colds, so if the rain stops we'll go out for internet and decongestants, but otherwise it is going to be a quiet day at home.
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