Our Man in Paris

La Nuit Blanche

La Nuit Blanche means "sleepless night" in French. Now it wasn't exactly like I needed another at this point, having gone to sleep at about 5am on Saturday morning, waking up at 9am for a day's Français Langue-Etranger (French as a foreign language). It was actually quite fun, wondering around our local quarter, the Butte aux Cailles (literally, "Hillock of Quails") following clues, collecting answers, and finding all about the revolutionary history of the area: there are bars in which communist songs are still sung!
After lunch at a bar on the rue de Tolbiac, we headed back to the classroom and discussed our answers. To finish, we did a written French test, which I had been dreading for some time, but actually turned out ok.

After catching up on a few hours' sleep, seven of us headed out to find a restuarant in the quartier that we had discovered that morning. After wondering around and disagreeing to the point of extreme hunger, we found a great place on the rue des cinq diamants, where we had a pretty classy 2-course+wine meal for around E20. Not bad!


La Nuit Blanche is essentially an annual festival devoted to voluntary insomnia; how appropriate that I am devoting my time to telling you about this at nearly half-midnight, when I should really be recharging my body for my half-eight lecture tomorrow morning. Organised by the Mayor, it consists of a variety of cultural activities, outdoor spectacles, and illuminated public buildings. We headed out towards the Ile de la Cité, past the Notre-Dame Cathedral (see picture), and on to the Centre Pompidou, the famously controversial 1970's addition to Paris's tradition of being a leader, rather than a follower, when it comes to architecture. With all its exposed glass and pipe-work, it struck me as a rather impressive building which was conceived before anyone had decided what to put in it; sound familiar, Mr Mandelson?

After queuing for some time (not wishing to waste this time, we spent it necking cheap French wine), we got into the cavernous building, and decided that there was no hurry, and we may as well enjoy our exploration of its vast chasms. On the way in, we had noticed the rather distinctive (the less charitable might say "ugly") six-story escalator on the front of the building, which we had decided would be our first port of call. What we encountered next I could only describe as French perversity - the descending escalator was in perfect working order, whereas every escalator going up was switched off. So, after climbing the stairs the old-fashioned way to the top of this wonderful modern building, we had a rather good view of Paris. Highlights were looking out towards the Sacre-Coeur, and the realisation of how stupidly tall the Eiffel Tower is!
The other major attraction of the Pompidou Centre that we experienced was going round a vast collection of modern art in the early hours
of the morning. It was probably busier than I have ever seen an art exhibition. Afterwards, we wondered round Paris for a bit; the city was, rather disappointingly for such a night, beginning to close down at 3am, and, the Metro having shut down already, we set about trying to find a bus home. We eventually got onto a jam-packed bus which got us home just after 4. All said and done, an interesting (but disappointingly sober) night on the town in Paris.

posted by Rorkey @ 11:22 PM