Nuit Blanche Paris

Well, although our feet were sore from a long day in Paris we took up the challenge to follow one of the art tours at the Nuit Blanche 2005.

Just a few words to describe our experiences:

Extremely crowded, loooong queues, exhausting, disappointing displays but at least some Metro lines run beyond the magic 1AM shut down.

We started at Hôtel de Ville where none of the 2000 free bicycles which were provided by the french Telekom were still available (of course! 40 minutes after they started to hand them out). Isabelle Grosse's installation was huge but the wait of 30 minutes to become part of it motivated us to move on.

Close by was the Collectif Métazone which looked interesting in the brouchure but the queue indicated more than 2 hours wait and you would not get a free t-shirt!

Next was the German Peter Klasen with a weird movie screening at the Maison Européenne de la photographie. Although it intentionally was supposed to reflect on his life in Paris, all we saw was a japanese women running around some concrete walled basement (WTF!?).

Disappointment increased when we found (after quite a long search) the light installation of François Morellet which was in fact just a blue light rope dangling from the quai wall - oh great!

At the Institut du Monde Arabe we finally gave up as the queue inside again was way to long to end up looking at pottery (c'mon, it is not the Louvre afterall!). In fact the only funny thing was to watch Parisiennes (who probably experienced their first bicycle ride since decades) trying to cross a four lane highway completely ignoring the traffic lights.

Oh... and no, next Nuit Blanche I'll stay in bed.