So, on October 1st was la Nuit Blanche – à la recherche de l’amour – in Paris. For the 15th annual event, 30 artists took the North side of the city by storm, from dusk until dawn, visible along a special visitors route, created by José-Manuel Gonçalves. Next year, my private french immersion retreat will have to include Nuit Blanche. Speaking of which, check out the article below for a poetic review of this year’s event, and watch the video for some found love! (This week: À la recherche de l’amour)

Everybody is looking for love and Paris is no exception.

Why does the World think that the French are looking for love more than others?

Maybe we have it all wrong.
Maybe Paris is not “looking for love”… maybe Paris “found love”.

Because the French do that, they don’t look, they find.
They don’t busy themselves with life, they live love in all its forms.

They breathe love from the humid air hugging Seine: sweat, tears, coffee and champagne.

They taste it in every éclair,
they touch it in every drop of Seine,
they smell it in Jardin du Luxembourg,
they see it in Moulin Rouge,
they hear it in the accordions crying for more on the banks of Seine.

This year’s Nuit Blanche was looking for love – and there are so many forms of love, and none is going to find its end.
Leonard Cohen asks his lover “dance me tot he end of love” – that end, for the poet, never comes.

Paris comes with an explosive expression of love – all forms of love – at this year’s event:
black and white faces with huge purple lips moving in the most extreme facial expressions,
live nudes, deep green waters, falling corpses, blood and doves,
moving trees dancing in the ice… dancing in the ice… dancing hands…
floating armies of white flags and ghosts, mirrors and lights,
people breaking hearts (literally).

This is what love feels like in Paris: extreme emotions, extreme colours, intense drama.

…

Shadows and lights, more shadows than lights… eventually light prevails with a multicolour explosion.

Don’t look for love, find it – in all its forms – and never stop, because it’s in you, it is you – that’s why you long for it and you never forget to look for it.

Immerse yourself next time you’re in Paris.
Find it.

 
 
 

Now, that I got your attention, please contact me to tell me what are the challenges that you are facing in speaking French.

Now it is your turn!

Tell us in the comments below, what do you like most from this year’s show?

À la prochaine,
Llyane

Don’t ever give up on your dream to become bilingual – the world needs your enthusiasm when you go to Paris and fully enjoy it!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Llyane Stanfield is a Parisian French language coach, and founder of the J’Ouellette® French Method – an organic method using techniques that are employed by the world’s finest linguists. She travels between Toronto, New York and Paris, while teaching French via Skype in more than 15 countries. She is French language coach for busy traveling professionals, and has produced an unprecedented Intensive Programand French Pronunciation Master Class, as well as other visual and teaching materials. She now spends a large portion of her time in Paris, where she also organizes an annual Immersion Retreat. Her unique methods produce a quantum leap in confidence and pronunciation, and a short session with her is the perfect start to brush up your French (whatever your level!) at the start of your Paris trip.

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