Fête des lumières

I'm going to try and get back in to the habit of writing a new post each week.  And since I've actually done something other than revising and going to the market this weekend, I actually have something to write about! Because this was the weekend of Fête des Lumières in Lyon. It did take a bit of organising and reorganising to get the transport sorted out as SNCF (the train company) was hit by a strike. La greve is something you can never get away from in France.. So our visit was shortened by a couple of hours and we were going home with the last train at 21.20. But as we left Valence at nine thirty in the morning, we still had a long day in Lyon.  We being Lara and Caroline, both staying in Valence, and Pip from my french course who was joining us from Grenoble. 

Artisan macaroons with some quite original flavours,
I went for the safer choice, caramel beurre salé. Yummy!

Drinking vin chaud in the Rue Mercière

We did have an inkling that Lyon was going to be quite crowded, and this turned out to be very true. We didn't get on till the third metro going from Part-Dieu to Bellecour because of all the people. But
when we finally got there it eased up a bit as all the people spread out over town.

Disco at Fourvière

The day was spent walking around, snacking on crêpes, hotdogs (in baguettes), aligot and drinking vin chaud. It's getting quite cold down here as well and I'm considering buying a new coat… We visited the market, old Lyon and of course Fourvière. It's the touristy thing to do.

Think Pip regrets not buying a crêpe 

As the night, and the start of the fête, was getting closer we got a tip that lead us to the Marché de Nöel which was a really nice place to get the christmas spirit going.

Marché de Nöel

Making xmas tree cakes, was so nice and warm in front of the fire :)

Trying french specialities 

At six o'clock the show started and we began our tour at place Bellecour with a light show celebrating the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. After this it started to get really crowded. (There are more than 4 million visiting the city during the fête.) We did see some lovely shows and had a rally good time and we made it to the train station with 5 minutes to spare. But I won't recommend anyone to depend on catching a train during the fête as it's nearly impossible to get from A to B. Unless you fly, that might work…

Light show at place Bellecour

Crowd… 

"Before the Words",  installation at place saint nizier

The weekend was ended with a visit to the Valrona (best chocolate in the world!)  shop, to get some xmas goodies. And you can basically eat as much chocolate as you like, because they let you taste everything. I'm definitely going back to se the cité!  So, that was my weekend. Hopefully I'll have something nice to write about next weekend to:)

The Valrhona cité 

À Bientôt!