Montreal “Dîner en blanc”- a magical evening under the stars

Once a year, there is a “secret” picnic dinner in Montreal that brings together in a public place, beautiful people all dressed in white for a magical evening under the stars. They only eat the finest food and drink the best champagne and wine with over a thousand people like them. It is quite a sight for passersby. As the organizers don’t control Mother Nature, the weather was more than uncertain the night of the event, with a dark grey sky and couple of drops… However, once arrived, the sky cleared as if the gods had decided they could not have these people soaking wet for such a beautiful evening. This year the Montreal event took place at Square Victoria on August 19.

@indigonat

So what is Dîner en blanc? A picnic where the participants don’t know the destination until they board the bus that will bring them to the event location. The same type of event has been happening in France for over 20 years, but it was only its second year in Montreal this summer.The organizer of Montreal version of Dîner en blanc, Aymeric Pasquier is the son of the man who is in charge of this event in France, so it is a family affair! Couple of non-negotiable things is that guests must be accompanied by a person of the opposite sex. Participation is by invitation only and each couple must pay a small fee to cover some of the costs, like the music band and the buses.

Who goes to Dîner en blanc? Foodies like you and me from all ages. One major requirement is that they have to dress in white from head to toe, bring a picnic of only fine food, a 28″ x 28″card table, two white chairs, a white table cloth and napkins and some white candles. They receive specific instructions as what to bring as far as food is concerned and only wine, champagne and water are allowed as beverages. Each couple receive instructions as where is their meeting point. From there, they board buses and try to guess where it will bring them…I have to say that there are a lot of rules and that they can be quite restrictive. However, when you see the result of more than 1200 people being seated within 10 minutes of arrival at the site, you have to raise your hat to the organizers… and you can as of course hats are strongly recommended! We all ate our dinners and then at around 9h30, we all lit our individual firecrackers. The band started to play some dance music and the place became quite festive as everybody was dancing in the park and on the street. At 11h00, we all had to pack our things and leave the place as clean as it was when we got there. We boarded our buses, with a thought that specific spot would never be the same, as we will always remember the magical evening we spent there!

Will I be there next year? Without a doubt. My bestfriend Eric and I enjoyed it a lot. We had a marvelous evening and even met cool new friends! If you are interested in attending, you can already put your name on the guest waiting list for next year.

Here is couple of images of the evening to put you in the ambiance!