Paris October 4 : a colorful wakeful night

If you stay in Paris next week-end, save your Saturday evening, and may be the whole night, to walk around Paris and discover the seventh Wakeful Night.

This year’s edition is mostly dedicated to video and film.

If you choose east Paris, on metro line 14 between Cour Saint-Emilion and Gare de Lyon stations, an editing of space conquest footages by Artavazd Pelechian will make feel like taking off at Bercy railway station :

and in front of Gare de Lyon, you’ll can watch the shooting of a Bollywood Film directed by Shaad Ali:

And if you’re in a romantic mood, go back towards the center, near Bastille, and stop at La maison Rouge 10 bd de la Bastille, to take part in Christian Boltanski’ work les archives du coeur, and have your heartbeat (and your sweetheart’s too ) registered on a CD.

From there, you may go towards Marais and see the Saint Jacques tower in a day and night light, thanks to Gu Dexin :

and though I have no preview of it, I would suggest, if you are walking in this area, to stop at the Museum of Judaism Art, 71 rue du Temple, and see snow falling all night : Gute Nacht by Christian Boltanski, Franck Krawczyk and Jean Kalman.

Many things to see and listen too around Montparnasse and Saint-Germain. For example, if you feel home sick, go to Saint-Germain Church  to listen to Patti Smith:

Many places to visit around Gare Saint-Lazare and Champs-Elysées, as Brillant Noise by the British  SEMICONDUCTOR, as well as around Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, where Pierrick Sorin might ask you to pose for a family portrait.

More information to plan your night trip on : http://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=6806

And if you’re travelling with kids, there is a special program made for you and them by Paris Mômes, including Nabaz Mob, cour Saint-Emilion, a choir of a hundred of Nabaztags composed by Antoine Schmitt and Jean-Jacques Birgé (starts at 20 PM) :

and crossing the Seine by passerelle Simone de Beauvoir, go up to rue Paul Klee, to watch “la danse de la fontaine émergeante” (the dance of the uprising fountain) :

For more information, you can upload this program on http://www.parismomes.fr/surprises/page_surprises.php?id=43

Let’s hope that weather will be on our side!

Have a great Nuit Blanche , and I’ll be back next week with some pictures and my report.

Walk among glittering crystals in Paris Parc de Bagatelle

Bagatelle is a beautiful ancient romantic garden, created in queen Marie-Antoinette’s time, and located in Bois de Boulogne. It is famous for its gorgeous roses, but this fall, all great French historical crystal trademarks have joined their talents to change Bagatelle into crystal gardens

On a beautiful day, it’s a lovely destination, but forget it if it’s grey.

Ever lasting water lilies glitter in the sun.

Palm trees are heavy with shimmering glass fruits,

or blue flowers,

and fountains look frozen.

Walk in the Trianon to look at more traditional crystal works, like this chandelier.

Outside, crystal swans float along with their shiny transparent reflection,

but it takes more to to disturb living swans.

All these dreamy pictures were taken by my friend Anne Marie Dumas.

Jardins de Cristal à Bagatelle, every day 10 to 18 up to November 8, entrance €3.

Bagatelle garden is route de Sèvres, Bois de Boulogne. Metro Pont de Neuilly + bus 43 up to Neuilly-Parc de Bagatelle (end of the line). But you can also take bus 43 from Gare du Nord, or Gare Saint Lazare and ride all the way by bus. It might take a little longer, but it’s a nice trip through Paris.

Enjoy the beach in Paris : Paris Plage

Paris Plage has been going on since 2002 : every summer, Paris river banks are covered with sand, parasols and desk chairs.

If you go for water sports, you’ll find some activities for adults and for children as well around Bassin de la Villette : on Quai de Loire, adults can take a small boat or ride on a pedal boat (from noon to 8 PM), and 10 years old children can go sailing (9 AM to 11.30 and 13.30 to 17). Over 12 can also row (from 9AM to 11.30 and 17 to 20)

And if you feel hungry, why not have a pic nic on the water front?

Care for a dance ? Go to the other bank, to 45 quai de Seine, Balapaname is open everyday 17 to 20.30, up to 22 on week ends.(Metro Stalingrad)

If you want to play golf, go to Paris town hall

In front of it, you’ll find a nine holes mini golf. Metro Hôtel de Ville.

And nearby, at Pont-Marie, children over 7 can take a bath. But to take a swim on the Seine, go to Josephine Baker outdoor swimming pool.

photo Marc Vernhille

It’s just below the Great Library, on quai François Mauriac, Metro Quai de la Gare ou Bibliothèque François Mitterrrand. All informations on : www.paris.fr/portail/Sport/Portal.lut?page_id=6085

And if you care for music, up to August 17, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 5 PM up to Midnight, Indétendance offers free concerts on Pont Sully. (Metro Sully-Morland). For program, go to :www.fnaclive.com/blogs/lefestivalfnac -

And if you’de rather just rest  a while, please do.

Paris Plage is running up to August 21, more information on : www.paris.fr/portail/ete/Portal.lut -

Paris Parc de la Villette : a place to visit this summer, for art, outdoor films and concerts

This summer, there are a lot of good reasons to go north up to Parc de la Villette, the largest of Paris gardens, offering a wide range of cultural and leisure activities.

The art event takes place in the beautiful glass Grande Halle :

Up to August 17, come in and discover a giant installation by Yayoï Kusama, who has been working on dots for forty years.

This artist, who was closed to Pop Art and Andy Warhol in the sixties, takes this pattern both light and seriously, declaring “My life is a dot lost among other dots”.

Tuesday to Sunday 14 to 22, free entrance.

And it goes with a workshop on dots for kids (from 2 years old). July Sunday 20, Wednesday 23 and Saturday 26 at 16.30. It’s one hour long, with a drink at the end, and costs € 7.  But you have to make a reservation, dialing 33(0)1 40 03 75 75.

Up to August 17,  you also have the opportunity to watch a film (in original version) sitting on a lawn, at Prairie du Triangle, Tuesday to Sunday at nightfall. Price € 2  . For € 5 you can book a deck chair and a blanket. Program on : www.cinema.arbo.com/index.php3?p=tous_films -

World musics every Sunday up to August 24 at Folie Belvédere : it’s scènes d’été (Summer Stages), July 20 and 27, August 3,10,17 and 24, one concert at 17.30 and one at 19.30. Free. Program and information on 33(0)1 40 03 75 75.

For all information on these events and detailed programs go to : www.villette.com/

Parc de la Villette, 211 avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris, Metro Porte de Pantin or Porte de la Villette

Saturday June 21 : Fête de la Musique in Paris

It is the shortest night of the year, and as in most of the cities, it’s Fête de la Musique in Paris, where it was created in the eighties.

Pieces for chorus by French composers in Cour d’honneur du Sénat (Luxembourg garden) at 4 PM, chamber music in Parc de Bagatelle Orangerie (Bois de Boulogne) at 2PM : afternoon concerts in beautiful gardens for classical music amateurs. And in the evening, you may go on with Psyche by César Franck in Musée d’Orsay or Gounod’s Requiem at Eglise de la Madeleine (both at 20.30)

If you’re travelling with kids, head north up to Cité de la Musique : from 2 PM up to 22, all kind of concerts and activities for very young ones and for their parents.

If you’re a jazz fan, you’ll hang around rue des Lombards, starting at 9 PM, the three clubs in the street pay a tribute to Stéphane Grapelli. You pay for one show and attend the other free.

If you don’t fear the crowd, you’ll be Place de la Bastille : world music, rap and videos, beginning at 20.

You may also wander at random. Public transports run all night long (for 2.50 euros), but some stations will be closed at usual time. Maps and information in RER, train and metro stations.

For 0.35 euros, buy this week’s Officiel des Spectacles (tiny bible for all Paris shows issued every Wednesday) and have major Paris programs (filed by arrondissements) in your pocket.

Otherwise, for all information on all events around and in Paris go to : http://fetedelamusique.culture.fr/

Artsenat 2008 : French Modern Art in Paris Jardin du Luxembourg #2

Most of Artsenat 2008 charm comes from the setting of modern art next to nineteenth century sculptures and in a garden where people also come for other activities.

Morceaux Fleuris (left) and Origine Pop (right) created by Faz in 2008 might not be so charming if they weren’t set on both sides of the tribute to Delacroix by Aimé Jules Dalou and the young lady walking her baby in a red carriage makes the whole installation complete.

Just as the Arbres de Vie (2008) by Nathalie Decoster fit in the green of the original trees.

And the rain has filled the cups of Grand poète ivre (a tribute to Li Po) by Axel Cassel.

Jordi la cage de lumière et de vent 2008

Christophe Dalecki Petite ligne verte

IP 26 by Nicolas Sanhes (2007) shines on its classical architecture background.

And some prefer to sit in the sun and enjoy the view.

Life goes on as ever (I remember riding pony along this alley when I was a kid)

And at the end of this alley stands a huge head.

Tiny young girls next to the 6 meters and a half high Prophète by Louis Derbré (2007) and the statue of Valentine de Milan, duchesse d’Orléans in the background.

The huge profile fitting in the “Allée des reines” (row of nineteenth century statues of ancient queens)

As the half circle made of nine bronze sculptures spell out of the work’s title : Tolérance

Letter “E” of this installation by Guy Ferrer framing the landscape.

After pacing up and down the garden, the nicest place to rest is the fontaine Médicis, next to the Sénat.

There you can sit in the shade along the water.

the sculpture by Auguste-Louis Ottin features cyclops Polyphème in the process of crushing the lovers Acis and Galatée.

Marble and flesh lovers of all ages.

Jardin du Luxembourg 75006 Paris RER Luxembourg. Open from sunrise to sunset. Exhibition Artsénat 2008 up to September 21.

Artsenat 2008, French Modern Art in Paris Jardin du Luxembourg #1

Boulevard Saint-Michel and rue de Médicis all around the Luxembourg garden, iron gates are covered with various large photos.

But inside the garden, during all summer, “Artsénat 2008” proposes an exhibition of French Modern Art, “Du vent dans les branches” (”Wind in the Branches”).

Around Robert Combas, whose work is on the poster, forty less well known artists have settled down in the garden.

You can sit on the lawn next to flowerbeds and large orange Germination (2003/2004) by Philippe Desloubières.

Un certain walkman, created in 1987 by Philippe Seené seems to jump imitating the gesture of the sculpture laying in the bush behind him …

…l’effort, a 1907 sculpture by Pierre Roche.

Figure accroupie (2000) by Jeanne Bouchard seems to be part of the trees around.

While in her Sphère étude n°1 (1995) a skinny Sisyphe rolls his heavy burden over seated readers in front of …

…le triomphe de Silène, triumph of French nineteenth century sculpture, by Aimé-Jules Dalou

The stag in the installation by Roland Cognet (Cerf, 2008) watches the tennis players.

While red strips hang over the chess players heads, it’s du vent dans les branches, the 2008 installation by Jean-Marc Sicard which has given its name to the whole exhibition. Around the trunks, red strips on which one can read the riddle written on the hanging ones : “être dans le vent est une ambition de feuille morte”( to be trendy is a dead leaf’s ambition )

In front of the Orangerie stands the huge Pôt de jambes en bouquet de pieds et de mollets (pot of legs with a bunch of feet and calves) created in 2007 by Robert Combas.

If you are in Paris this week, up to June 15, you can see works exhibited in the Orangerie.

In front of the entrance, a 2006 canvas by Robert Combas is facing his outdoor sculpture : le guerrier païen (the pagan warrior).

The Orangerie hall, with Extrusion de feuilles, a 2008 sculpture by Jean Isnard, in front of Cut hands, a 2007 painting by Michèle Robine.

Forêt de Songes and Le corbeau (2007), by Philippe Borderieux, in front of Eve on the promised land, two 2007 canvasses by Corinne Phima.

Enjoy 24 and 25 by Xio Fan Ru (2007)

Banc (bench, 2008) and Evitement (High pass (?), 2007), installation by Jean-Paul Réti in front of le Pont (the bridge, 2007) by Stéphane Pencréac’h.

La source by Stéphane Pencréac’h (2007)

Part of Arbre # 2 (2003) by Tian Bing Li .

Artsénat 2008, Orangerie du Sénat 19 bis rue de Vaugirard 75006 Paris (entrance in Luxembourg garden) everyday 11/19, up to June 15, free entrance. Program of following exhibitions on http://www.senat.fr/evenement/artsenat/2008/index.htm

Artsénat 2008, “Du vent dans les branches”, jardin du Luxembourg, entrance rue de Vaugirard, RER B station Luxembourg, open everyday from sunrise to sunset, free entrance, up to September 21.

Richard Serra in Paris : a walk in Grand Palais and Tuileries gardens

Monumenta is a special artistic event in Paris, confronting art and architecture : it shows a work specially created by a contemporary artist to match wit the huge and beautiful Grand Palais glass roof . This glass and steel cathedral was built by architect Henri Deglane for the 1900 universal exhibition. It has been recently renovated, and the first Monumenta occurred last year with an installation by Anselm Kiefer.

For Monumenta 2008, Richard Serra created Promenade

Though it was raining cats and dogs yesterday afternoon in Paris, it did not prevent tourists to take pictures sheltered under their umbrella. So, as you can see, I did the same.

And what better place to take a walk than the Grand Palais nave ?

The artist’s idea was to work on uprightness, so he has erected five huge steel rectangles aiming to the glass roof, disposed along a median line, though they are not exactly perpendicular to the ground. And visitors walking around look tiny.

If you get closer, perspective changes, and you discover that the surface is not plain nor even, but veined with different shades.

As Richard Serra says : “My work mostly deals with wandering and looking, but I can’t tell anyone how to walk or how to look.” Some like to touch it too.

Monumenta 2008 closes on June 15, but should you miss it, you still have the whole summer and fall to experiment another walk with Richard Serra’s work. You just have to go down the Champs-Elysées avenue, cross place de la Concorde and enter Tuileries gardens.

You go through Clara-Clara, which was designed in 1983 for this particular location, but had been removed since. 25 five years later, visitors seem much more receptive to this experience. And this is good news.

Its curbed lines enhance the straight perspective from Arc de Triomphe to Louvre. Just as Promenade, it is both a sculpture and an installation, and the movement, scale and changing point of view of the visitor is part of the work.

Monumenta 2008, up to June 15, Nef du Grand Palais, Main entrance, Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris metro Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau. 10 to 19 Mondays and Wednesdays, 10 to 23 Thursday to Sunday. Closed on Tuesday. Entrance 4 euros. Special events on Saturday nights : Saturday June 7 at 19.30, concert : Etudes and other works for Solo Piano by Philip Glass. Saturday June 14 at 19.30, sound surrounding by Motus. More information on : http://www.monumenta.com/2008/

Clara-Clara will be part of the outdoor modern sculpture exhibition in the Tuileries gardens, up to November 3, entrance place de la Concorde, metro Concorde (way out towards Jeu de Paume and Orangerie museums). Free entrance, open daily up to sunset.

Paris Bastille Antiques : treasures and oddments along the waterfront

There are a lot of flea markets, antiques shows and secondhand goods sales in Paris streets, in this time of he year, almost every week-end. One of the most nice and interesting “salon” takes place twice a year - in May and November - for 10 days on place de la Bastille and along the banks of Canal Saint-Martin.

Part of it takes place under a large tent, with one entry on boulevard de la Bastille in front of the opera, and the other one on boulevard Bourdon. It is the smartest, and the hottest (on sunny days) part of it.

There you can find most valuable goods, furniture, paintings, carpets, books, glass works…

oriental antiques…

ancient plates and African art…

and jewels to die for.

But it can be really hot in here, so step out in the open air.

a lot of smaller stands offer you all kind of secondhand and sometimes rare goods, in a warm atmosphere.

like this welcoming Bedouin camp offering beautiful kilims.

And it is really nice walking along the outside alleys overlooking canal Saint-Martin.

You can go from one side to the other by the footbridge over the Arsenal harbor, and you may feel the breeze.

It is more casual too. You may find wonders, and if you are interested in something, debate price with the stand owner, and if you wish some time to make a decision, ask for an invitation (or two) to come back.

Some stands specialize in a single kind of thing

like ancient linen

frames and paintings

or posters (mind the apparent disorder and the setting of this kitsch nativity and the carnal embrace on Slogan poster. )

Most have an appealing setting

or show an elaborate ” bric-a-brac”

in a surrealistic spirit.

Even if you don’t feel like buying anything, take a walk in there on a sunny day, you’ll have a great time.

“Antiquités Brocante” place de la Bastille, Metro Bastille, up to May 18, open everyday 11 to 19, entrance 8 euros. Next session : November 6 to November 16, same schedule.

And if you wish more information on when and where you can find this kind of event, go to : http://www.pointsdechine.com/

Places to see around Paris Beaubourg

There are several nice passages to discover in the streets around Beaubourg.

For example, take a few steps north on rue Saint-Martin, at #157, you’ll see one entrance to Passage Molière.

It’s a charming quiet paved alley, where you will find “the house of poetry” in the Molière Theater, and a few shops.

and it will lead you to rue Quincampoix # 82

Crossing boulevard de Sébastopol, you’ll find at rue de Palestro corner the main entrance of passage du Bourg l’Abbé.

It is one of the most genuine of Paris covered galleries.

Though the pipe’s factory at the entrance is now an insurance company office, at #18 the woodwork shop still exists.

And on the other side of the gallery, you’ll find another passage entrance:

On the opposite side of rue Saint-Denis opens passage du Grand-Cerf

With it’s three floors, and apartments doors, it is the tallest Paris covered gallery.

Under it’s beautiful glass roof, you’ll find mostly design shops. It leads you out on rue Dussoubs

There, rather than looking at your map, just look in front of you :

This strange and quiet place next to the crowded Montorgueil shopping area is called place Goldoni, and on the wall inlaid with soccer balls, two white pannels with strange “poetics” tales written on it.

This one says : “It’s been told that the vibrations created by balls thrown against this wall might wake up the roots of some small trees that have been sleeping for centuries. It might be just a coincidence, but when they reach the prints made by the balls which made them come back to life, most of these trees are fully grown. But on the contrary, some look for other landmarks to have a reason to grow up a little more.

The other talks in the same way of bugs grubs asleep in the wall, awaken by the children’ voices, and going out, they make tiny holes forming letters echoing to the children’s screams and songs.

Just an unexpected pause.

Passage Molière : 157 rue Saint-Martin/ 82 rue Quincampoix 75002 Paris metro Rambuteau. Information and programs for Théâtre Molière - Maison de la Poésie on : http://www.theatreonline.com/guide/detail_theatre.asp?i_Theatre=436

Passage du Bourg l’Abbé : 3 rue de Palestro/120 rue Saint-Denis 75002 Paris Metro Etienne Marcel, more information on : http://www.passagesetgaleries.org/texts/passages/2fiches_passages/fiches/bourg_labbe.html

Passage du grand cerf : 145 rue Saint-Denis/10 rue Dussoubs 75002 Paris Metro Etienne Marcel, all about it on : http://www.passagedugrandcerf.com/