This is my vacation budget. Free outdoor cinema screenings

As scorching temperatures once again descend on France, you may be tempted to go and cool off at the cinema. But the places are expensive, count minimum more than ten euros in full price. Getting a canvas for free this summer is possible in Nice, Strasbourg, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Biscarosse or even Paris.

For more than 30 years, people have crowded in front of a huge inflatable screen at the Parc de la Villette, on Christmas evenings. July August. “It’s the first time we’ve come because we wanted to enjoy the summer a little, do some activities”, enthuses Vera. With her friends, they are installed on the lawn, in the front row in front of the screen, a picnic spread out on a towel.

“We had seen the films that interest us. And we saw that it was free. It’s good because suddenly, if we don’t like the film, we won’t have spent for nothing. And the atmosphere too. It there are people from everywhere, they all bring things to eat and drink”she explains. “It’s better than at the cinema, when we’re all seated. There’s not necessarily an atmosphere. Everyone is waiting for the film to start. Whereas there, there’s music, all these people around talk.”

>> This is my holiday budget. A treasure hunt around your home with your smartphone

But when night falls and the film begins, there is still silence.
You don’t hear a lot of conversations anymore. That evening, it’s Billy Elliot.
The story of a teenager in working-class England in the 80s who wants to become a dancer. His father prefers to see him boxing in a ring.

The event does not compete directly with traditional cinemas, there are no recent releases in the programming of the open-air cinema of La Villette. Exactly, it’s been a long time since Jade and Adèle, students, have not sat on a red sofa. “It has seriously increased the cinemas, at the moment it’s 8 euros per place. As a young person in addition. I would like to go there often, once a week, but I can’t. So there’s free, it’s I’m sure it attracts.”

Jade and Adèle have settled into their own camping chair. Ingrid, her friends and their children have agreed to pay seven euros to rent deckchairs and blankets. But nothing to do with a traditional cinema seat, at full price.
“11.30 euros at MK2, and in the other cinemas, it’s 12 euros and bananas. We are waiting to see if the reviews are good before going there.”

Here, no need to wait for reviews. For twenty years, Ingrid has come to take advantage of free open-air cinema. “It’s nice, we’re with friends. We have a picnic, we’re on deckchairs, there’s always great programming. It’s free, the children can be there, knowing that they’re not watching. necessarily”.

“Knowing that it’s free, we can fall asleep quietly in front of the film”, confesses the woman’s mother, who admits doing it for “pretty much every movie”. But she’s not the only one. “You have to be at the end of the session to see those who don’t bring their deckchair back, they’re sleeping in it. And we have to go and wake them up”she says.

Indeed, that evening, there were a few dozes. Up to 9,000 spectators attend, more or less assiduously, the outdoor sessions in the Parc de la Villette, which will end on August 21.