The full program was finally published today and here it is: http://quefaire.paris.fr/nuitblanche

It takes place on October 7th this year, and I will once again remind everyone:

1. Nuit Blanche does not mean "white night" -- the proper translation is "Sleepless Night."

2. The event has nothing to do with European Museum Night, which takes place in May.

What a much more intriguing translation! First time we went to Europe, it was Nuit Blanche in Paris, but we had no idea what that meant.

"Sleepless night" is a bit off putting, suggesting insomnia. I like "Up all night."

That sounds to me more like dealing with a crying baby or having intense diarrhea. But to each his own!

"Pulling an all-nighter"

"white night" is a saying in other languages, also, it isn't French (in fact, they probably took it from Russia). And it doesn't really mean sleepless night, even if some French people translate it that way. Because the origin is in the countries where it stays light really late, way up north, like in St Petersburg Russia. And it really does mean white night.

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virt...r/whitenights/

I suspect France just copied the term from Russia where it applied to a festival during their white nights period, and since it stayed light so late, they made it an all night festival thing. But the term really refers to it staying light so late in the middle of summer. Have no idea how France translated that to October, I suspect it worked better that way for the city in terms of planning festivals.

"nuit blanche" is a French expression much much older than the festival of the same name.

Français Anglais
passer une nuit blanche,
faire une nuit blanche loc v (ne pas dormir de la nuit) get no sleep, not get a wink of sleep v expr
have a sleepless night v expr
(deliberately, informal) pull an all-nighter v expr
(deliberately) stay up all night v expr

There is not a single definition anywhere of <i>nuit blanche</i> that translates it as "white night." I am not saying that in other languages the expression "sleepless night" does not use the words "white night" but it is definitely not the case in France.