Top choices - Paris e-guide: The Travel Guide with its Own Website - page 4

TOP CHOICES - the year

Celebration is a year-round affair in Paris, with the French ever ready for a
party. The Champs-Elysées is packed with happy revellers on New Year's
Eve as people congregate to ring out the old and ring in the new. The
annual Fête de la Musique kicks off summer on 21 June, when both sea-
soned and amateur performers take to the streets. Then come outdoor jazz
and classical music festivals, and dance and theatre performances. And
next, because it's summer, a sandy beach materializes beside the Seine. In
mid-July, the Champs-Elysées is swamped again during the Bastille Day
parade and the climax of the Tour de France. Finally, in early October Paris
officially becomes the city that never sleeps as museums, swimming pools
and clubs stay open all night for La Nuit Blanche.

SPRING

Summer Music Festivals
Festival de St-Denis, 01 49 33 66 66, www.festival-saint-denis.fr;
Paris Jazz Festival & Festival Classique au Vert, esplanade du
Château de Vincennes, 12ème • Q Chateau de Vincennes;
Fête de la Musique, www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr
Throughout the summer, Paris is alive with the sound of
all kinds of music. St-Denis' Gothic basilica (see p108) is
the glorious backdrop to a month-long classical- and
world-music festival starting in June. Inside the building,
renowned performers belt out Brahms or Beethoven,
and jazz, world, urban and folk music also reverberate
both inside and out. At the same time, as part of the
Paris Jazz Festival (Jun-Jul), both big-name and experi-
mental jazz artists strike up in the Bois de Vincennes in
a series of open-air afternoon concerts. Noise-pollution
laws are in abeyance at the Fête de la Musique's all-day
and all-night extravaganza on 21 June. The summer sol-
stice is fêted by apprecia-
tive crowds as interna-
tional and world-music
acts, serious profession-
als, one-man bands and
musical wannabes play
their kind of music in
varied locations all over
the city. To round off the
summer, classical music
wafts over the lawns of
the Bois de Vincennes
during the Festival
Classique au Vert (Aug-
Sep). Jun-Sep

Foire du Trône
Pelouse de Reuilly, 12ème • Q Liberté/Porte Dorée/Porte de
Charenton Open 11:45am-11pm daily (to 1am Fri & Sat)
This colossal fun fair began in AD 957, when merchants
first met up with farmers to trade grain and wine. Today
at this site to the east of the city, instead of wheat sacks
and wine barrels, there are 350 attractions, including a
giant Ferris wheel, gravity-defying rides and carousels,
and clouds of candy floss. End Mar-end May

Portes Ouvertes
Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville (AAB), 32 rue de la Mare,
20ème; www.ateliers-artistes-belleville.org
There's more to the Paris art scene than majestic muse-
ums and pricey private galleries, as the annual Belleville
Artists Open Studios confirms. For four days, more than
250 artists in this multi-ethnic quartier (Map 12 F2) open
their doors to the public. Pick up a map from the AAB
and set about discovering the neighbourhood's cornu-
copia of painters, photographers and jewellers, along
with the bistros, funky cafés and shops. Mid-May

SUMMER

La Fête des Tuileries
Jardin des Tuileries, 1er
Open 11am-midnight daily (to 1am Fri & Sat)
After the spring Foire du Trône, a similar array of rides
and attractions springs up around the rue de Rivoli bound-
ary of the Jardin des Tuileries (Map 9 D4). Aug-Sep