I'm just back home after a funny and unexpected discovery : the white dinner. Walking with friends through the Jardin des Tuileries, we decide to go up to the Concorde... The garden is empty, it is turning dark. A roar is raising over the streets, though there is no Soccer World Cup currently. Torned between curiosity and need to go home quickly, we approach from the gates, go through and get immersed in the white dinner 2009...
White dinner is an institution. So I pricked up my ears while a man was explaining the why and the wherefore.
About twenty years ago, some peniless friends wanted to meet for a dinner. Since good restaurant were too expensive, they decided to get well dressed and to eat in the upper district... for an outside dinner. They made an appointement for the following year, and the following year, each time initiates would bring some more friends. Tonight they have 10000 friends.
Although the genuine history of the origins may be a little different : a group of freinds, mostly married and former navy officers, decided in 1988 to organise a elegant white-dressed banquet at Bagatelle (Paris). Women wore (or tried to wear) their wedding gown.
In short, the White Dinner concept has existed for 21 years and take place every year in a prestigious area of Paris.
It is actually a really smart dinner. Almost a vanguard flashmob but far more chic and conservative, I guess you'll agree, than a freeze under the Eiffel tower.
We meet a man in his thirties who tells us only 10 persons know in advance the place where the dinner is about to settle. It is a guarded secret, precondition of the success of this event. Others conditions ? A pyramid-shaped organisation, a precise timing, scattered rallying points, buses to lead everybody to the final place... In a few minutes, a huge banquet is settled. White tablecothes and candlesticks, grands crus and champagnes, everyone brings what is necessary. Parisian caterer are all cleaned out. And musicians are accompagny the feast everywhere.
My last word will be a call. If you, among my friends, are member of the White Dinner "society", don't mind asking me to join you next year, it would be a pleasure to cook a picnic meal for this occasion.
> White Dinner's official website
> Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre's interesting post
> Rue89's video reporting of the 2008 edition
BONUS : a friend of mine who also discovered the White Dinner on this evening took some pictures with a real camera. She also wrote a post about it. Clik here to read it and see the pictures.
