Photo credit: Benh Lieu Song

For a long time no one could accuse France of being a corny destination, because, theoretically speaking, it has not had cause to be. It attracts more tourists than any other country annually.

Paris itself, the City of Lights, is emblematic of many things: the cosmopolitan, the gourmet, the artistic, the haute, the ironically witty. It usually feels far more acceptable to frame Paris in provocative adjectives such as sniffy or libidinous, and expect orgueil (pride) rather than outrage from Parisians as a reaction.

But boring? Even in French boredom translates to l’ennui, an emotionally-loaded term that spans angst and grief. To reduce Paris to the “Capitale Européene de l’ennui” (European Capital of Boredom), as Le Monde has labeled the City of Lights recently, eats away at the decadent spectacle the historian Andrew Hussey traced in Paris: The Secret History, published in 2006.

The latter is a thick volume of previously unexplored historical mazes within the city that hark back to days when the Parisian nightlife teemed with vagabonds, demimondaines (sex workers) and drunken philosophers, artists and writers.

Hussey’s work could be contrasted starkly with a popular bewailing of today’s dead Parisian night life. Le Monde reports that London, Barcelona and Berlin are becoming more attractive spots for the fetard (party-going) life than the increasingly dead nightlife quarters of Paris.

Café and club owners aren’t blaming themselves anyhow, pointing out the prohibitiveness of ordinances against smoking and noise. A petition called When the Night Quietly Dies, circulated by musicians from the techno and electronic genres, had gathered more than 11,000 signatures from disenchanted regulars of the Parisian soirée. En route to the mayor, the petition seeks to reject the closure of landmark bars and ordinances that restrict partygoers the way disciplinarian parents impose curfews on their teenage children.

The city hall itself is rejecting the dismissal of Paris as the purveyor of parties. By publishing Paris Night Life (www.parisnightlife.fr), a web site that lists down the addresses of bars, bistros and cafes with upcoming events and concerts, the city hall hopes to dissuade the drain of tourists headed toward other European capitals. The site’s format is bilingual, catering to English speakers and Francophones, and embellished with a gyrating logo of the Eiffel Tower in a spirograph of colors.

Here’s hoping that site followers will no longer have sore soirées.(Frances R)