Nuit Blanche

So I realize this is a bit late, but two weekends ago in Paris there was a huge arts festival known as Nuit Blanche. The French started this a few years ago and the idea has spread quickly to many capital cities around the world, but Paris is the original and still (probably) the best.
The concept is that new artists from Paris, and all over the world, display their art for a night in Paris. The entire city stays open and public spaces, like churches and museums and city buildings all play host to art displays from 7pm on Saturday night until 5am on Sunday morning. You're supposed to pick up a map at the town hall... which is where our adventure began.
It also happened to be the night that France was playing New Zealand in the quarter-final or the rugby world cup. To all the Americans reading this that doesn't really mean anything... but New Zealand is one of the best teams in the world as far as rugby goes, so this was a really big deal. We went to get our map at the town hall only to be met by the national police, in full riot gear, and a few thousand people waiting to watch the game on a HUGE screen in front of the town hall. Then we realized that there were a few hundred thousand people in Paris that night between the rugby game and the art festival. We instantly regretted coming.
But it actually turned out to be a really great night. The French are wild about modern art, a genere I don't find to be particularly interesting or "artsy", but some of the exhibits were really cool. My two favorite were:This was in a fairly cool old church, which probably hasn't seen this much light in a few decades. While cool to look at, the brochure made it sound a lot more interesting and provocative than it really was. To me at least. The brochure said it was a scene the artist has seen of an interrogation between two people suspended in air. I was expecting something a bit more involved... but this was cool too.

Perhaps the most popular exhibit was at the Jardin des Tuileries. You might remember my pictures from the previous weekend when I was there during the day. This time it was decorated and lit up with more than 2,000 points of fire. It's easier to see than to explain.

























The entire jardin was lit up and the heat coming from each display was amazing. There were also so many people that it could have been pure body heat. I've been to the jardin several times, and didn't even know that many people could be there.

The group of us walked around for a while and then headed back home. The train didn't get in until rather late, but a good time was had by all.

Oh... and by the way, I'm writing this all from home. I finally have the internet in my apartment!