CULTURAL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD, BIG APPLE VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

New York City, the culture capital of the world, invites you to experience Mumbai. Pictured here highlights from Maharashtra.                                                         

Or wear your best French beret and trip the light fantastic into the world of French culture and dining delights. Discover marble sculptures and cross the line to enjoy French venues. It’s the best of New York, my friends, only in New York. Here’s the scoop!!

UNVEILING MAHARASHTRA (MUMBAI) invited everyone to Times Square this weekend to experience Diwali, widely known as the festival of lights and the most popular Asian-Indian festival in the first-of-its-kind international initiative to promote Indian culture, heritage and diversity with live-performance from some of the biggest names in Bollywood featured with a breathtaking laser light show. Produced by Event Guru, a global event management company. Visit www.diwalitimessquare.com

A TASTE OF FRANCE Calling all Francophiles!!! Billed as “The world’s largest event dedicated to France,” the second annual Taste of France showcases both traditional and cutting edge French contributors to the fields ranging from fashion and culture to education, tourism and technology. More than 50 of the country’s finest chefs present scores of regional specialties paired with wine and other beverages. The show includes market stalls, live entertainment, a “Promenade of the Arts” and petanque fields. September 28 and 29 at Bryant Park, 40th to 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Ave. www.letasteoffrance.com

CROSSING THE LINE Now in its seventh year, Crossing the Line is a critically acclaimed month long festival celebrating the talents of innovative visual and performing artists based in France and New York City. The 2013 edition includes “Systema,” a collaboration between the 81-year old electronic music composer Elaine Radique and the prominent contemporary artist Xavier Veilhan; “La Bibliotheque,” an interactive project by the conceptual artist Fanny de Chaille; and playwright, theater director and choreographer Pascal Rambert’s “Une (micro) histoire economique du monde, dansee.” Mid-September through Mid-October at various venues; fiaf.org

DAVID D’ANGERS : MAKING THE MODERN MONUMENT The 19th century sculptor executed numerous monumental commissions, notably the reliefs on the pediment of the Pantheon in Paris, as well as hundreds of busts and portrait medallions of the leading literary, political and artistic figures of his time. He was well versed in Neoclassicism but invested his work with forward-looking Romantic sensibility. The exhibit at the French Collection presents some 45 works on paper and sculptures in marble, bronze and other materials, many never before exhibited. Through Dec. 8, 2013. www.thefrick.org

Ta Ta darlings!! A Taste of France is my choice this week. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and in the left hand column click on the link to Blogs on fashion, remarkable men and women.