The Paris Autumn Festival, in fact, is so big and important that its initial language on its website is English, so you don’t even have to mess around with Google Translate trying to figure out what’s going on.  It’s been going for about 40 years, and comprises over 40 events from September through to the end of December.

A few examples of what you’ll find in 2011 edition’s programme towards the end of the year:

The final week in November 2011 will see the ballet Artifact, by choreographer William Forsythe, performed by the Royal Ballet of Flanders at the Théâtre National de Chaillot.  Artifact is a seminal piece of work from 1984.

Running throughout the whole of December at the Théâtre du Rond-Point is the play La loi du marcheur, a work which revisits the life of cinema critic Serge Daney and explores the force of cinema.  Daney was associated with the famous French New Wave Cinema genre and wrote for the Cahiers du Cinéma, and this play is based on an interview he gave shortly before he died from AIDS-related complications.  The play is a mixture of acting imposed upon a backdrop of scenes from the film Rio Bravo.

Onzième, to move away from traditional theatre works, is a play that doubles as a visual arts spectacle, and is something akin to a magic lantern show.  Onzième means eleventh, which refers to Beethoven’s 11th string quartet piece.  The play features texts from Shakespeare and Kafka – both of whom are known for their evocation of the surreal and the magical – and combined with Purcell, Schubert and Berio, Onzième creates a dreamlike alternative version of our contemporary world.  It is playing at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers from the end of November to mid-December.

Music events tend to be one or two day runs, such as vocal works of John Cage on December 12 at the Théâtre de la Ville, and pure cinematic events include a retrospective of Béla Tar running all the way through December at the Pompidou Centre. 

The events on offer covers a range of genres, as mentioned above, so you can find something that appeals to you.  But bear in mind that theatre and cinema events are put on in a range of languages, so scrutinising the schedule thoroughly and finding something you’ll understand is important.

The events take place at a range of venues, in theatre all over Paris, so if you have an interest in the theatres themselves then you can choose an event that will also allow you to admire the scenery.  Tickets vary in price from event to event, with the cinema showings at the lower end.  You can reserve your tickets for individual events online, and also find out more about them on the Paris Autumn Festival website: www.festival-automne.com