Nuit Blanche (in French) or literally White Night or All Nighter is an annual all-night cultural festival. The festival lasts from sundown until sunrise - from 7pm to 7am - on the first Saturday and Sunday in October.

During the Nuit Blanche, museums, private and public art galleries offer free admission to all, with the downtown core of a city itself (like city's train stations and in some amazing churches too..) being turned into a art gallery, providing space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art). Parisians can enjoy hundreds of artistic events, especially made to be seen at night. Search a room in a B&B in Paris to partecipate in the Nuit Blanche!

First launched in 2002 under mayor Bertrand Delanoë, Paris Nuit Blanche has become a hotly-anticipated annual celebration of all things art and culture in the city of light. Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, White Night sees countless Paris galleries, museums, city halls, and even swimming pools open their doors all night to visitors-- with free entry.

My personal experience tells me to dedicate this visit to monuments as: National Assembly, the Old Royal Palace (La Conciergerie), Palais de l’Elysée the official residence of the President, the first town Hall. These are monuments not open to the public during the rest of the year. There is a good news and a bad one, I always start with the bad one: lines are very long so be prepared to eat a sandwich standing outside; you can take pictures inside the buildings.

This year, it has also been confirmed that the metro will be open until 2am for the night, with the line 14 open all night.

The major events planned this year :
Shaad Ali at the Gare de Lyon
Gi Dexin at Saint Sulpice
Pierrick Sorin at Gare de l'Est
Javier Tellez at the Eglise Saint-Eustache
Jeremy Blake at the Eglise Saint-Paul
Tony Oursler at Gare du Nord
Patti Smith at the Eglise Saint-Germain.

Patty Smith will be back in Paris after her recent great exhibition with a musical performance based on texts by Saint Francis of Assisi.

Saint Lazare will also be used during the night, with british duo Semiconductor and electrically-assisted tricycles will be available to get between the stations! The freshly-restored Tour Saint Jacques, a 63m Gothic edifice at Chatelet, will be illuminated by Chinese artist Gu Dexin. And the Tour Montparnasse will be the subject of a son et lumière by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda. Also, a bamboo stage will be erected in front of the Comédie Française at Palais Royal, where a troupe of opera singers from Guangzhou will be accompanied by projections by Hong Kong film-maker Johnnie To.

There are a few more details (in French only unfortunately) on the offcial dossier de presse Nuit Blanche by Paris’ Municipality wirìth maps, events and list of artists.

2binparis.com is a network made by almost 100 B&B in Paris : book a room and enjoy this event!