Blanche Nuit in Paris

Oh gosh yes, and we try to avoid it. Even when we lived in Paris we disliked it. What it is is a bunch of people who like to call themselves "artists" without bothering to learn how to really draw, paint, or sculpt take to the streets and set up installations of phony art, light installations, and other ridiculous looking things, play music, or pretend they are artist by "performing art" on the white night. Go only if you have no taste for real art or are seriously impaired by alcohol. If you want to see real art, museums like the Louvre and the D'Orsay await you with delights.

Terri is not far off. We arrived fairly late one Nuit Blanche and so just went to installations in our neighborhood -- which on that trip was the 17th. You can see some of this at:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/nuit-blanche-white-night-all-night-paris-art-festival/
Within my post is a link to another blogger who did a feature with photos on other parts of Paris during that same Nuit Blanche.

The lines were long and the performances were underwhelming. The outdoor light shows were sort of fun and the whole festive atmosphere is sort of fun. I would get the official program, see what sounds like it might be interesting and in particular look for things that don't involve lining up and going into a park or building. The lines are long for low payoff.

I opted out in Paris, since it was a rainy evening. Anyway, I'd been debating the trade-offs of staying out quite late vs. getting up again in the morning to see more things on my list. If you need your 8 hours of sleep, then it has to fit in there, somewhere. You're probably not going to take the following day "off," unless it's a train ride that you can nap through.

This remark from Terri Lynn is priceless: "Go only if you have no taste for real art or are seriously impaired by alcohol."

love it!!

Thanks for the helpful and humorous evaluations of the event. I've decided to go to Chartres instead that night. I don't see all that well after dark anyway, so it's probably the wiser choice for me. If I were 30 or 40 years younger, I'd probably opt for the performances.