Paris Pop Up - Dinner in White

Big exhale. I sent manuscript #16 to my editor and just  made it on time with the clock breathing down my neck. So now, blink, breathe and move on. Until I get the editorial notes back...

 Meanwhile in Paris it was the annual Dîner en Blanc.

You might not be able to plan ahead to reach the secret location but at least you'll always know what to wear - white.

The dinner in white has taken place in Paris for the past half a century but the exact location is a closely guarded secret until the day. Getting invited isn't easy -- one must be 'sponsored' by one of the organizers, yet this exclusive pop-up dinner grows every year -- now with many more than 10,000 participants here in Paris. 

Every year it takes place in a different spot, and one never knows where until the very last minute. At noon on the day of the event,  participants receive an email explaining where to meet at 8 p.m. At that appointed time, as everyone gathers wearing exclusively white from head to toe, the group leader gets instructions as to where to lead the group -- so even the group leader isn't informed until the very last moment. 

 The tradition began in 1988 when a group of ten friends decided they wanted to eat at a forbidden spot in the city.They ended up dining as a 200 strong flash mob at the Jardins de Bagatelle, once a favourite spot of French royalty including Marie Antoinette.

Thousands turn out smartly-dressed from top to toe in white for the occasion, which raises money for cancer research.

Although always in Paris, the event is held at a different location in the city every time. Last year, nearly revellers dined in the outdoor courtyard of the Louvre and at the Trocadero, while in 2012 the event took place at Place des Vosges and in front of the Notre-Dame Cathedral.  Past dinners have taken place at such illustrious settings as the Pont des Arts, the grounds of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles.

The rules also say guest must arrive by public transport, bring a guest and be dressed all in white with a foldable picnic table, chairs, wine and food. Those on the guest list will have either attended the previous year's event or been invited by someone who did.

Guests must bring a picnic table, a picnic basket, foldable cheers and a table cloth - all in white of course. Men and women sit on opposite sides of the table to one another and guests are forbidden to sit down until their entire row have set up their table.

They must only drink wine and champagne and must leave before midnight as discreetly they arrived, taking all their rubbish with them to leave no trace of the event.

This year the pop up dinner took place in the Palais Royal. Incredible.

Meanwhile what's going on going in Paris besides the pop up dîner en blanc? Laurent Fabius has launched a 'let's be polite to tourists' manifesto. Parisian teenagers have gotten back the results of their Bac exams - tears of sadness and joy seen on the streets - as their future is decided regarding to university and future jobs. Schoolkids are chafing at the bit, only another week to summer holidays. Fête de la Musique comes up on the Equinox, a dizzy night of music played on street corners, in courtyards, in parks, and squares.
Wishing you a wonderful start to the summer
Cara - Tuesday

words on ribbons

A French artist has made this installation piece in the Palais Royal with words from famous authors who've written about the Palais Royal; Flaubert, Zola, Colette etc. I think it's so very cool. A great synchronicity of words and place. It made me think of Christo, remember the artist who wrapped huge things in the 70's and 80's? We've got a print of Christo's wrapping of the Pont Neuf and I'd love to see some mesh of buildings, structures and monuments wrapped with words written to describe the stories set there.

I was just in LA for the West Hollywood book fair. It was a wilting 108 degrees - - of course I got lost driving downtown taking surface streets to avoid the freeways and ended up in some decrepit once flamboyant area of old Hollywood. Full of 30's Spanish stucco bungalows and old apartment buildings that knew better days...very Chandleresque. You could almost see a man with a Fedora hat stopping on the heat flattening pavement to light a cigarette. Or Mae West pulling up in big Packard with her retinue of rent boys and swirling a boa. The tall sentinel Palm trees lining the streets and out in Glendale the coyotes cried in the early morning. Eerie keening like screams. It made me want to know the history of this place when orange groves filled the landscape instead of the #405 and strip malls. To know the geography when the air held no smog, the streetcars ran, the past of these buildings, these mean streets Chandler wrote about.
LA despite it's Elayness still evokes more than the less than tasteful billboards on Sunset Strip, the tourist buses heading to the La Brea tarpits. There's an energy, most people come from somewhere else and it's an industry town. The industry being film and TV and writing. The real insiders treat their work as a craft, a trade. On one panel at the WeHo bookfair the creator and writer of Columbo, now in his 80's, was interviewed by Christopher Rice and talked about the old Hollywood.
When writing a good story, script or 'treatment' meant something. How even in network TV a good story line dealt with issues, emotions and had something to say. "That's why Columbo became an icon, the everyday man who by sheer persistance and plodding got his 'man'. His raincoat, his old French car on the streets of LA, no one ever confused Columbo with anywhere else. People identified with Columbo and the stories I co-wrote with my partner still hold up." He then smiled and leaned forward "But I'll tell you the most important thing you need to remember about writing." Everyone leaned forward, wiping our brows in the heat. "Good writing is good writing."

Cara - Tuesday