La Fête des Lumières

This weekend was the popular Festival of Lights in Lyon, so I hopped on a train and headed north for Friday and Saturday! I have never been to Lyon before, but this was definitely the weekend to go. The whole city was decked out for Christmas and the festival, and it was absolutely beautiful!

I arrived Friday morning with two friends, and after finding our apartment, we headed into the center city and soon discovered Vieux Lyon, the old city. It has cobblestone roads and buildings all smushed together, and all kinds of food and wine stands were set up for the weekend. We did a little exploring before heading back to the apartment to let the late arrivals in.

After making a massive and delicious pasta dinner for all of us (and being very proud of ourselves for saving money) we headed back into the city for the actual festival. During the festival every year, artists come from all over to create complex light shows and project them on the sides of the old architecture of Lyon. It is a really cool juxtaposition, and the artists often work with the architecture in their installations. But these aren't just your average light shows with some colors and patterns; many of them were full blown spectacles with story lines or themes. One even turned a fountain into a lamp!

We wandered through the city from installation to installation, discovering all the different shows. It was really cool, but the cold soon got to us. We are all used to warmer Aix weather now, and we were not prepared for the wave of cold that hit us! Stops were made at H&M to buy more layers, and we turned to the vin chaud (hot wine) to keep our hands warm. And there was literally vin chaud everywhere. Anyone is allowed to sell anything on the streets during the festival (welcome to France!), so people set up little tables and camp stoves in the streets and sell vin chaud for two euros a cup. They are literally everywhere. And seeing as it is not at all strong - mostly sugar and spices - the goal soon becomes to have a cup in your hands as often as possible for the sole purpose of keeping them from turning into blocks of ice. 

After making the most of our first night, we headed back out Saturday to do a little more exploring by day. We started by heading back to Vieux Lyon to check out some of the shops we had seen the day before. The highlight for me was finding a chocolate shop that smelled like heaven and had lots of free samples. They also sold hot chocolate there where you get a spoon with a block of chocolate on the end and you stir it into a cup of hot, foamy milk to make your hot chocolate. I bought a milk chocolate caramel one, and it was delicious!

For lunch, we stopped at a food truck with the biggest saucepan I have ever seen. It was enormous and filled with raclette (melted cheese over potatoes and meat). We got a plate called tartiflette which is raclette with sausages on top and salad. It was warm, hearty, and delicious!

After lunch, I left my friends and headed to the center city to meet up with Clemence, Tiphaine, and Yves-Andre. I haven't seen them since the first time I was in France four years ago, and it was great to catch up! We had pastries and tea together, then headed out to see some of the early shows. They all remarked that I am much taller now - I guess I've grown since tenth grade!

After a couple shows, I went to rejoin my friends in the south of the city at Lyon's Christmas market. It is like a miniature village and has beautiful decorations! I tried mashed potatoes with truffle oil, and they were absolutely delicious!

The market also had beautiful, illuminated flower trees

Finally, we got started on our second night of the festival. We headed further south to see an installation on the water and a concert of light and music given inside a museum. I think that one was one of my favorites! After wandering around for a few hours, the cold was getting to be a little too much, so a few of us decided to take a hot chocolate break inside. My hot chocolate had four inches of whipped cream and was exactly what I needed to get me going again. After reheating, we went out to see the last lights of the night, then headed home.

It was very difficult to capture the beauty of the lights in pictures, but I did my best! I'll have some videos to share when I get home too, but for now, here are some pictures of my favorite installations.

I'm told that there were three million people expected for the festival this weekend. I can't say if there were actually that many, but there were definitely an enormous number of people. It was crazy! But despite the crowds, the cold, and the general lack of sleep, this was one of my favorite weekends of the semester. It is an incredible festival, and I hope I get to come back one day!