Le Dîner en Blanc

A couple of weeks ago I was filling out my diary with the lady i work for.

“Oh, and make sure you you’re evening of the 17th of June.”

“Okay, what for?”

“Me and Julien are taking you and Tyler out. His parents are watching the kids. I’m not going to tell you where exactly, yet, but let’s just say that it’s a very, very special dinner party, that only a couple of thousand Parisiens will ever have the chance to experience, and it’s unlikely that you’ll ever get another invitation like this.”

And so it was that last night, better informed and dressed from head to toe in pure white, the New Yorker and I carried a bridge table and four garden chairs from my apartment, through the metro system, to Le Fumoir, a cafe behind the louvre. We arrived to find a several hundred people in similar attire, and after finding our hostess, we were led through two doors behind the Louvre, through the centre square, around the pyramids, to our square on the pavement. There, over a period of five minutes and with little said, more than three thousand Parisiens unfolded tables, chairs, a white table cloth and napkins. We set down plates and cutlery, champagne flutes and white bottles of Moët, and then sitting down with a sigh of relief, toasted.

‘Le Dîner en Blanc’ is effectively a very, very well organised flash mob, made up of many of the chic’est business owners, designers, managers, and general fabulous people in the city. It takes place annually, in busy, grandiose locations, such as outside the Notre Dame, Concorde, the Champs du Mars, Invalides. In order to be invited, you have to know one of the ‘grand rallieurs’, who organise sections of the dinner party. As such a volume of people gathering in a public place is illegal, the utmost attention is paid to timing and organisation - there are only five minutes allowed between coming out of hiding, opening and setting the tables and pouring the champagne. For the police to arrest several small groups of people dressed in white, carrying tables and chairs, is easy, but a seated dinner party of several thousand tucking into foie gras and champagne is near impossible to break up. Instead, whenever a police car drove past, the diners stood on their chairs, and waved their serviettes high above their heads.

The sight was truly magnificent. Thousands of people dressed head to toe in pure, sparkling white, scurrying like ants from meeting points all around the louvre museum to set down their dinner tables for one of the most incredible dinners i’ve ever had. Lit not by candlelight, but by the louvre.

We surrounded the roundabout in front of the museum in a circle that stretched as far as the pyramids and the Tuileries gardens. There was the apéritif, the main course, and the dessert. Champagne, acquaintances made. A very interested man sat next to us, who Sophie insists was trying to propose a ‘menage a trois’.

And then, at eleven o clock, the second the Eiffel tower started sparkling, the thousands of dinner guests lit sparklers, and standing on their chairs, held them high in the air for ‘the eternal photograph’.

Absolutely stunning.

All photographs by Tyler Magyar.

More photos and info on the official site.

  1. whatmaisiedid posted this