During my trip to France in mid December, I spent a pleasant morning listening to Gad Weil's dreams, imagination and how to realize them while tasting the delicious coffee and snacks at his studio WM Evenements in the suburb of Paris.

I always remember what he said to me that day: "Impossible is nothing. People should dare to dream, imagine and then attempt to turn it all into reality."

Working on the project "From Champs-Elysees to the Great Wall," a spectacular open-air party to celebrate the closing event of "Year of France in China," Weil has hung a huge red Chinese lantern at the centre of the ceiling in his two-storey studio to add an atmosphere of the far away eastern country, and has bought clothes in traditional Chinese style.

I asked him why his China project is called "From Champs-Elysees to the Great Wall"?

"It is a sequence I and my partners carried out from one legendary place to another in the world," sums up Weil, the 44-year-old well-known in France for many public events he directs.

On January 22, 2004, Weil and his partner Nathalie Morlot, the co-founder of WM Evenements, succeeded in organizing an unprecedented Chinese New Year's parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue.

As a major event of "Year of China in France," it was the first time the street has been used for such a non-French cultural event.

About 7,500 costumed participants, including 800 from Beijing, and 54 giant floats paraded the 1.2-kilometre stretch from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place du Rond-Point near the Elysee palace.

Banging gongs, dancing dragons, acrobats, musicians and wave after wave of Chinese visitors transformed the broad boulevard into a noisy sea of red and gold, traditionally lucky colours, to welcome the Chinese Year of the Monkey.

And highlighting the rare celebration, the Eiffel Tower was lit up in red for five nights.

As an answer to the parade, Weil has designed for "Year of France in China" a super French picnic at the Badaling section of the Great Wall with folk performances.

Party's best

Weil showed me some drafts featuring the scenes he has planned: some 2,000-metre-long paintings of the famous architectures and historic relics are hung along the Great Wall to "dress it up;" the colourful flags and balloons wave over the Great Wall; on the square at the foot of Badaling section, visitors taste delicious French food such as cheese, cakes, bread and wine; French folk musicians and acrobats are performing here and there.

He introduced, the long painting that covers two sides of the Great Wall will feature some 20 sister cities in France and China such as Bordeaux and Wuhan, Marseille and Shanghai.

The square will be a mirror image of avenues in Paris such as Georges V or Boulevard Saint Germain.

Visitors will be able to buy French souvenirs including rooster seals that Weil and his colleagues have specially designed for the event.

The red seal features a white abstract figure of a rooster with an shine blue crest. The line of the rooster's body is like the shape of the Badaling section.

"2005 is Chinese rooster year while the rooster is the symbol of France. Chinese seals have been known worldwide since it became the logo of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," said Weil.

Galic idea

The idea of such a picnic on the Great Wall is developed from "The Incredible Picnic" that Weil and Morlot organized on July 14, 2000 to commemorate Bastille Day.

The giant banquet ran through 337 towns and cities in more than 320 kilometres from northern Dunkirk to Prats-de-Mollo on France's border with Spain.

Weil said he designed the event and hoped to help break down everyday barriers of class and social position still palpable in the 60 million population of France.

"The Incredible Picnic" is only one of Weil's many ideas.

Between May 17 to June 15 last year, Weil offered 6 million people an unforgettable exhibition of trains to mark the 150 year of France's history of railway.

Entitled "Le Train Capitale," the exhibition had some 40 trains from across the ages in the history running from Place de la Concorde to Avenue Georges V. Along the Champs-Elysees, screens, performances and workshops displayed the development of train in France.

"It is not hard for me to think out these ideas but how to make them true is not so easy," he said.

"I can get an idea in two days, but it might need two years to realize it. There are many practical problems," said he.

"But to me and my partners, every event is a fantastic venture and it always fascinates us," said Weil.

Although still more than half year left before the Great Wall event, Weil has paid three visit to Badaling and done much research of the geography, weather and so on.

"If I have no more interesting cases to do, I could be a qualified tour guide on the Badaling section of the Great Wall, because I have become so familiar with it and even know every inch of it."

I asked him about his education.

His answer was as interesting as his projects, "It's my great luck that I have no high-level education after high school," he said.

He added: "It does not mean that education is bad but sometimes education limits people's imagination.

"You are far better off if you open yourself to ideas. The brain is a sponge which can absorb much information. A book or a movie all can give you inspiration."

Weil said at the age of 8, a movie called "Kite" gave him much inspiration and sparked his imagination.

The movie which was co-produced by Chinese and French film makers in 1958, tells about a French boy's adventure in China after he receives a kite from the Monkey King and in his dream he flies on it and lands at the Forbidden City.

After high school, Weil was lost in confusion about what to do for a career. He joined a band of folk artists and travelled and performed on the streets of cities across the country. At the age of 19, he served as a volunteer for a college drama festival in Nancy where he met the organizer Jack Lang who later led him to appear at events such as Nancy Jazz Festival.

Source: China Daily