Our second night in Paris is Nuite Blanche. Anyone been in Paris for this ( all night arts festival ) - we are staying near the Tuilleries Gardens - but I am concerned about being in a very loud raucous party all night.
I do like art, but not crowded venues ( no mona lisa for me )
I'd love to know what anyone has experienced. Thanks
To start, if you search above without an "e" on Nuit Blanche, you'll find a few Forum threads from the past couple of years, with feedback both positive and negative.
We did this a few years ago -- I don't like standing in long lines for lame events and this thing is full of that. It was kind of interesting to do once. I would map out some of the interesting sounding events near your hotel and try a few. You can quit when you get bored. Here was our experience; we were staying in the 17th. It was the day we arrived in Paris and so we were jet lagged and didn't have it in us to stay up until the wee hours.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/nuit-blanche-white-night-all-night-paris-art-festival/
I visited during nuit blanche a few years ago. I did not visit many venues during the night but did stand in a very long line at the petit Palais. If I visit again during that time I would eo a lot more web research ahead of time.
Years ago, this was a fun almost spontaneous event. An example. Once the French Communist party in a space by the canal exhibited all the paintings Picasso had given the party that were not on exhibition any where else. Over the years, Nuit Blanche has become considerably more planned and crowded. Offerings of art and music have become partly geared to a much younger group with the idea of showing Parisians parts of their city with which they might not be familiar. Consequently, many of the events are in the outer arrondissements. As others have said, research, read the reviews, concentrate on locating venues near where you are staying, and choose carefully.
I’ve been 3 times and enjoyed it immensely each time. I don’t know if you speak French, but I imagine that might change someone’s level of appreciation of it, as many of the performances are french only. That being said, there WILL be crowds, though not at every venue—typically more in those on the river or near major tourist spots (hello, Hôtel de Ville!) If you research the map ahead of time, you may be able to avoid them. It’s a great opportunity to potentially visit some museums with very few crowds, particularly the later you stay up. I remember being in Pompidou with about 5 other people—very calm. I think it’d be a shame to have the opportunity to experience so much free art and performance and not take in at least a little bit of it.
This email just made it to my mailbox. It gives this year's theme and featured locations in general with few specifics. You can get an idea.
Thank you so much !
We went a couple years ago and took in several venues but museums weren't a large part of the celebration that year. We selected several of interest and found all of them packed, crowded, and raucous. After several hours and some fairly amateurish productions, we called it a night and went back to our hotel on the islands. It's worth going to experience once but it's not something we'd ever be interested in again. It seemed like heavy drinking was the goal of many in the crowds at the open air street venues. It might be different this year with hopefully more museums involved.
I'm thinking this really won't be something I want to do .... I've been to several big crowded events at other cities. We will probably take a walk around - but make it an early night.
