The queer green socialist Mayor of Paris [just try using those adjectives anywhere in this country to describe a town executive!] was stabbed, apparently by a deranged man, in the midst of the all-night party he had given to the City of Light. But Delanoe, a Socialist elected last year, insisted to aides while he lay bleeding on the parquet floor that the French capital's festival continue until dawn.

"He told me the Nuit Blanche should continue unchanged and not to dramatize what had happened," [Deputy Mayor Christophe Girard] told journalists. "He was completely conscious and determined that an isolated incident should not affect what was supposed to be a nice festival of Paris for the Parisians."

.... Officials said Delanoe, a soft-spoken man with a grass-roots image, had wanted City Hall as open as possible. "There was no checking at the door," one woman at the party told French radio.

The ornate City Hall, decorated as a 1930s nightclub with soft lounge music, was such a popular feature of the "Nuit Blanche" festival that many people could not get in during the evening. Some outside chanted "Bertrand, Bertrand!"

The Louvre museum, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and other city landmarks were open for free visits all night. Jazz and reggae bands played at bistros and Vietnamese models put on a fashion show at the historic Palais Royal.

One glass facade of the National Library was turned into a giant interactive light show that passers-by could operate by sending messages with their mobile telephones.

During the summer, Delanoe's "Paris Plage"(Paris Beach) brought sand, potted palms and beach sports to the highway along the Seine River. He wants to repeat both festivals next year.

But Delanoe, who with his Greens partners wants to make the city more livable, has also angered small businessmen and taxi drivers by creating bus lanes to cut down traffic congestion.