Oy With the Poodles Already: Cultural Activity #2: Nuit Blanche

Date: 10/6/12
Location: All around Paris
People who went: Me, Noah, Olivia, Kaitlin, Caitlyn, Mallory, and Lucy

I don't know if this is technically on the list of approved cultural activities, but I am definitely going to count it, as it was probably the most cultural I've felt while here.
Nuit Blanche is basically a free, all-night, cultural party. It feels like the whole city is awake and outside walking around. What happens is pretty much all the museums and monuments stay open almost all night, and let people go on them or in them for free. There are also other spectacles going on, such as a fire show on the Seine (which we sadly missed) or a techno concert at the Pompidou (which is where we spent most of our time). We chose not to go into any of the museums or anything because the lines were ridiculously long, and we can pretty much get into all of them for free with our student ID's. Hooray! Instead, we hung around the Pompidou pretty much the whole time. It's the modern art museum, and it fittingly had a techno concert going on outside. There was a DJ up on a balcony thing with lights going all over the place. There were tons of people just dancing and having a good time. After we had spent some time there, we decided to see what was going on at Notre Dame and Hotel de Ville. Unfortunately, Kaitlin, Noah, and Olivia had to leave because although most metro lines were staying open all night, theirs closed early. Caitlyn, Mallory, Lucy and I got ice cream, and walked over to the Eiffel Tower, and then went home.

This night was seriously so much fun. It was so cool to see SO many people up at a time when Paris would usually be pretty dead. There was something for everyone going on, and the fact that it was all free was an amazing perk. For people other than students, this is one night where they could really experience the museums and things not on a Sunday. I loved the energy and atmosphere of the city, and with the little bit of rain we got, everything really was just so sparkly and exciting. It was quite the nuit.