Trois Couleurs: Blanc

If blue is liberté or freedom, white is the colour of egalité, or equality. A difficult subject however, as Krzysztof Kieślowski, director of the film Trois Couleurs: Blanc points out; "The concept of equality suggests that we are all equal, but I don't believe that can be true. Nobody really wants to be the equal of another. Everybody wants to be more equal". A murky concept for a colour that is never quite what it seems to be either.

White is not a colour, but white is all of the colours combined. White is the light before refraction, but nothing without another colour to provide contrast. Equality is contradiction.

White is also tellingly absent from the official colours of the city of Paris, which display just the red and blue. White the colour of the royal family and the Catholic church, not the colour of the people. White a colour that nevertheless seems to be everywhere in the city - until you look more closely. It's a pale city, not a white city, but can any city ever be truly white? Wipe it clean, but time, dust and fingerprints soon bring the colours back.

Something for the Weekend? (27th - 29th November)

Food, drink and nostalgia this weekend. It must be the winter!

If you have any events or activities this weekend you think should be promoted please add them in the comments. Let me know also if you have any events in the coming weekends you would like me to promote.

The French national amateur cooking and table dressing championships
The competition has been fierce around the country over the past few months, and now the time has come for the national finals! These are two separate events, but run at the same venue, the CEPROC in the 19th, and on the same day, Sunday the 29th. The cooking competition will see finalists preparing meals from a set number of ingredients within a given time, whilst the table dressers will have to set a table for two on a particular theme using the objects of their choice. I'm not sure if it's much of a spectator sport, but the 5 Euro entrance fee also includes access to cooking lessons and cheese and wine tasting.

1pm, Sunday 29th November
CEPROC (Centre Européen des Professions Culinaires)
19 rue Goubet, 75019 (M° Ourcq)
http://www.ffcuisineamateur.org/cuisine-amateur/mot-de-la-semaine.php

Two to Tango
The Festival Paris Banlieue Tango has been running since October, but this Saturday sees the grande soirée de cloture, or the end of festival party. The good news? Everyone is invited and it’s free! Artists and musicians who took part in the festival will be there to play music and give free lessons, and there will also be food and drink available. The evening will continue with a bal, and end somewhat bizarrely with “Buenos Eros A Buenos Aires” a show described as being erotic cabaret!

6pm, Saturday 28th November
Le Réservoir
16 rue de la Forge Royale 75011, (M° : Faidherbe Chaligny)

Back in the Days
For those (like me) who remember growing up in the 1980s (like me), La Bellevilloise will be the place to be this Sunday for an afternoon of nostalgia. The Back in the Days events have been held since 2006, and this weekend will see the 9th such happening. Special guest this time round will be photographer Ricky Powell, known in the 1980s as the 5th Beastie Boy. He will present photos of some of the leading hip-hop and rap names of the era including Run DMC and Public Enemy. Alongside, expect to find vintage sneakers, vinyls and computer games as well as DJs and a live graffiti performance. There will even be a competition to find the person with the best hip-hop old skool look!

3pm, Sunday 29th November - 10 €
La Bellevilloise
21 Rue Boyer, 75020 (M° : Menilmontant)
http://backinthedaysparis.blogspot.com/

Salons des Vins des Vignerons Indépendents
Wine salons come around unsurprisingly frequently in Paris, but with Christmas only four weeks away, this one is particularly well-timed. These events with the small-scale independent producers are generally the most fun, and you should be able to find some real bargains too. Pick up your free engraved glass as you go in, then wander around from stand to stand and sample whatever takes your fancy. Don’t forget to spit into the buckets though or you’ll probably need to be carried out of the room!

November 26-29 (10am-8pm), November 30 (10am-6pm)
Porte de Versailles (M°: Porte de Versailles)
6 Euros (although free entry vouchers are easy to come by. Ask me if you are interested)
http://www.vigneron-independant.com/auxsalons/recherche.php?changesalon=132&salon=Paris

A Private Dinner in Paris

It is the eternal question of the tourist – how can I get to see the true heart of a place if I just drift through hotels, museums and restaurants? Few visitors to Paris ever get to see beyond the public face, but two sisters in the city have come up with an idea that may just help them to do so. Here, Maryam Ingar, one of the two sisters, explains that concept of the MyPrivateDinner website and how by using the service hungry visitors can get more than a glimpse into a very private Paris.

Maryam and Sarah Ingar are in many ways typically French - passionate about food and cooking! Maryam explains that her favourite pastime is finding new culinary venues and places to taste new creations and flavours. From this passion has come a desire to bring together other people with similar interests on a Web 2.0 platform. “The idea first came when I tried to organise an evening with some old college friends at home. We all use Facebook and other platforms, but we receive so many e-mails and requests to sign up to things that my invitation would just have been overlooked”. The solution, she decided with her sister, was to set up a social platform that would be open to people who wanted to get together for dinner parties or other culinary events.

The concept is a simple one. Hosts create events which are then opened to anybody who is registered on the platform, and the guests sign up if they want to take part. Of course, the hosts charge a fee for their event, but it becomes a great way for a visitor to try real homecooked food – in somebody’s home! There are no specific rules, and events planned at any particular time might be dinner parties, brunches, wine tastings or cupcake workshops.

The site, available in both French and English, was only launched around two months ago, but the network already includes several hundred people, and over 30 events have already been organised. Are all the hosts amateurs though, or are professionals trying to take advantage of the service to encourage people into their venues? Maryam Ingar agrees that it could be an issue, but has faith in the self-policing policy of the site. “The host is free to create an event and decide their own price. Yes, there are some professionals, for example those who organise wine or cheese tasting and also some restaurants. The principal is to create something convivial and to invite people you don’t know. A professional can still do this by making a private event with a limited number of guests.”

Maryam sees the site more as a way to create a community and believes that it will also lead to friendships developing. Indeed, it is possible to become ‘friends’ with other members and hosts can choose which members they would like to invite. Although a monthly prize is available to the host judged to have organised the most successful event, Maryam does not see the site as a promotion of haute gastronomie. “A nice pasta dish is also very nourishing, and enables people to get together just as successfully!” she smiles.

The idea is an intruiging one, and a genuine way to see behind the closed doors, but will the site not eventually become a kind of private club with a limited number of members? Maryam waves away my concerns. “No" she insists, "we want to see as many people as possible join up. The site is a great way for tourists or people from other countries living in France to eat with French locals very easily and in just one click! What better way to get to know France and her culture than through the 'art de recevoir'!”

http://www.myprivatedinner.com/en/

Trois Couleurs: Bleu

"Blue is freedom and the story of the price we pay for it. At what point are we truly free?". This is how Krzysztof Kieślowski described the first installment of his Trois Couleurs trilogy of films based around the French tricolore and the famous national motto; Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. Before white and red, here is a look at how I see blue in the city.

Looking through photos I have taken recently, I can see that blue is omnipresent in Paris. Or is it just my eyes that are attracted towards it? It is obviously seen on all street names and on Metro signs, and even on the city coat of arms, but does it not simply just offer a striking contrast to the somewhat pale face of the city?

Do the objects I have snapped represent freedom? On the city coat of arms, the colour represents the royal family, but on the national flag today it is the colour of the revolution. Colours are cultural and subjective, but there does seem to be an almost tranquilising, dreamlike quality to these images. What does this colour inspire in you?

Rue Véron

Hopital Saint Vincent de Paul

Palais de la Porte Dorée Aquarium

A Falun Gong march, seen from my window.

Something for the Weekend? (20th – 22nd November)

This weekend will be...well, scroll down and find out!

If you have any events or activities you think should be promoted or which you would like to promote yourself, please add them in the comments. Let me know also if you have any events in the coming weekends you would like to promote.

This weekend in Paris will be…

Rustic

Two large-scale country markets will visit Paris this weekend, helping local gourmets to stock up for Christmas. Producers from the South West of France will set up their stands between the Metro stations of Dausmesnil and Dugommier in the 12th arrondissement on Saturday and Sunday. Expect to find meats, wines and cheeses from this region as well as live music and cooking lessons. If you're lucky, you may even win a weekend in the Correze!

Marché des Producteurs de Pays

21/22 November, Boulevard de Reuilly 9h à 19h

At the Hippodrome de Saint Cloud to the west of Paris you probably won't find horse meat, but you will find the Salon du Terroir de Reuil and 160 producers from all over France.

20-22 November

11am -10pm on Friday, 10am - 9pm Saturday, 10am - 6.30pm Sunday

Oval

The Parisians are recent converts to rugby, but now have two teams to follow in the country's top division. The two teams, Racing Club de France and the Stade Français will meet this Saturday afternoon at the home of RCF in Colombes, but the event will be spoiled somewhat by another event taking place across the city at the Stade de France. The French national team are taking on Samoa, meaning that the star players from the capital's club sides, such as the hairy Sebastien Chabal, will be otherwise engaged.

Racing Club de France v Stade Français

Stade Yves du Manoir, Rue François Faber, Colombes (Le Stade train station).

Saturday 21st November 2.30pm

France v Samoa

Stade de France

Saturday 21st November 6pm

Photographic

The artistic star of the weekend is the immense Parisphoto exhibition at the Carrousel de Louvre (well, it's not just an Apple Store and a McDonalds..). The exhibition features photos from galleries around the world and gives you the chance to meet and discuss with some well-known photographers.

http://www.parisphoto.fr/
Carrousel de Louvre

19th to 22nd November

Environmentally Friendly

If you need a good conscience at the moment, take yourself down to the environmental international film festival. Having said that though, it will probably make you feel even more guilty as all of the film showings are completely free and it's all taking place in the thoroughly charming Pagode cinema!

http://www.iledefrance.fr/fife-english/
La Pagode, 57, rue de Babylone 75007

18th to 24th November