Sara’s abroad in Paris, France, until Dec. 13.

Despite my recent communications problems, which have since been at least partially remedied, this past week in Paris has really been fun. Not only was it Fashion Week but Saturday was also the annual “Nuit Blanche” celebration along with the “Potager du Roi”.

Surprisingly, at least to me, Fashion Week was kind of a dud in Paris. I expected the city to be abuzz with celebs and fashion forward elites. I had looked up the schedules for the shows and had all these ideas about going to the tents in hopes of catching the likes of Agyness Deyn, Chanel Iman or Daria Werbowy.

But, at least from what I could tell, the city didn’t change much last week — not even an increase of traffic downtown or at night, in clubs and bars. There were a few famous people sightings — my friend Allison spotted Natalie Portman shopping in the Mairee last Sunday and my friend Ozzy saw a few supermodels getting onto the metro Saturday night. Other than that? Tres calme.

But what wasn’t “tres calme” was Nuit Blanche — the annual all-night art celebration in Paris. Basically, it’s Looptopia done right (and might have even been the inspiration for the Chicago arts festival). The event features different exhibitions at major attractions throughout Paris. Patti Smith played at Saint Germain and Jeff Koons had an exhibit at Versailles. And while we were told by our program leaders that it truly is about art and not about partying, that definitely wasn’t true. It felt like New Year’s Eve, with people everywhere, wasted in the streets until about 4 a.m. There definitely were spectators out for the various artists and artwork, but most of them came after downing a few drinks.

The highlights of the night would be hard to pick out. Droves of people headed to the Montparnass Tower to see these beams of light that were shot up into the sky ,accompanied by strange musical tones. It more or less felt like you were moments away from alien abduction. Then there was a traveling marching band that played 1950s American music followed by crowds of French kids doing the twist (check out the video of that — too great to pass up). In general, everyone was in good spirits and out to have a good time. Nothing wrong with that.

A little less crazy, but infinitely more delicious, part of last week were the festivities during the day on Saturday. The Potager du Roi is sort of a mini-Taste of Chicago. Tents around Versailles offer tastes of different French food all afternoon. You buy a ticket to get in, but after that you just wander around and taste to your heart’s content. And when you’re a poor college student studying abroad, that means tasting a lot. From fried carp to garlic soup, I felt like I pretty much tried it all.

I couldn’t help but splurge on a crepe with cherry sauce or a few macaroons though. Mmmmm. The great thing about the Potager du Roi is that all of the vendors are happy to hand out tastings of their delicious food. Or just give away candy as “presents” as my friend Julie and I found out. Basically, free French food served along the backdrop of a beautiful fall day completely made up for the fact that I didn’t get to see Agy strutting her stuff for Fashion Week.

And in the end, I really did get to have my cake and eat it too. After spending the entire day eating free food and preparing for a night out on the town for Nuit Blanche, I did catch a glimpse of the Hermes tent right in front of the Eiffel Tower.

No celebs, no models … but I can officially check “scoping out Paris Fashion Week” off my to-do list.

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