Yes, it has been a while since I last posted on here, and I apologize for those of you that have been sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for me to drop my latest and greatest words of wisdom. The week long absence can be attributed to two factors. First is not as fun; exams have officially begun, making the whole vacation-in-Europe aspect of this semester vanish into the night air. Just as Penn begins their exam period, my exams in Lyon began today, with two more coming next week. But, in case you think that my life has been completely dominated by school work, remember that I am not at Penn, so there still is time for taking advantage of the surroundings. This brings me to the second reason for my absence, the subject of this post.
Remember back when I kept hinting at the one major tourist weekend in Lyon? Well, it finally came, along with three million tourists. Aptly named “la Fete des Lumieres”, or the party of lights, this Saturday to Tuesday Lyon wide party featured countless lightshows, colored street lamps, and plenty of street vendors selling everything from hot wine to hot dogs. The history, like every major holiday, has largely been forgotten, but I will give you a quick synopsis; threatened by a nasty plague in the 16th Century, the citizens of Lyon prayed to Mary (their patron Saint) for protection, and after she delivered, they decided to celebrate in her honor every year on December 8th (due to commercialization, and much to the lament of my host mother, this now always includes a weekend, somehow). The traditional way to celebrate is by placing little candles on your windowsill, and throughout our Tuesday night travels, we were impressed by the number of Lyonnais that still hold to this tradition.
But the new and improved way to celebrate is with lightshows, and the city did them up right. The premise is that they use the historic buildings of the city as a backdrop, and splash 10 to 15 minute short films onto the building’s façade. Examples: on City Hall, the show was called “playing with time”, and featured a huge clock and metronome surrounding by the changing of seasons (seen in the picture above). On St. Jean Cathedral, they had an animated history of the Church. You get the picture. Over the course of three nights (fine, I had to take one night to study/relax), and with both my host family and fellow Americans, I managed to see about five out of 15 of said shows. Clearly need some work, but I definitely was not disappointed in my performance either.
But the lightshow was not the entire attraction. The historic Louis XIV statue in Place Bellecour is currently in the shadow of a massive Ferris wheel, visible from basically the entire city. Apparently it is going to be up through Christmas, but this weekend it doubled as another screen for a lightshow (those Europeans do not like to waste anything). The other main feature of the weekend was not one, but two sets of fireworks displays (the more impressive display booming over the Basilica was the set of fireworks saved from this year’s rained out Bastille Day festivities). Although my host mother kept complaining about how her taxes were literally going up in smoke as the show dragged on, the “leftover” fireworks were very impressive, up to American quality. Sadly, the second round, set off Tuesday night from a bridge on the Rhone, failed to live up to the lofty precedent, and were so low to the ground as to seem somewhat illegal. Still, I was skeptical going into this about the quality of French fireworks, but I am coming out of it pleasantly surprised.
It really was a party for all, with infants and French students and elderly people seamlessly interspersed through the crowds. And speaking of crowds, they were impressive. The unofficial count was placed at three million but whatever the official figure, the city seemed to be just about stretched to the limit. The entire center of town was shut down to cars, yet the streets were still jam-packed with people. This festival is a Lyon only thing, so people came from across France (even the Parisians respect its value) and Europe just for this weekend. Never had I seen so many people in any part of Lyon, and the scene just repeated itself on every corner, street, hill, even the stairs were crowded (of panting people stopping for a midway break). The cameras were out in full force, complete with those tourists who take pictures of buildings that even I can look at and question why someone would ever want to remember that. Languages spanning all of the Old World floated into my ears, including English, and plenty of maps were being analyzed by groups sporting faces with that distinct look of being lost. Tents of street vendors lined the Saone, selling everything from kebabs to crepes to French fries, and there was even a Native American music tent. Everything tacky/touristy you can think of, for one weekend, Lyon had it.
For four days, Lyon was awash in light, and the city I have come to love came to life. It was a completely different side of the city than I had ever seen, with a typical cultural celebration overwhelmed by the crowds. It was fun to see so many people trying to get a glimpse of this city I am currently calling home, even while I realize that the majority of them were bouncing to and from historic sites simply to gaze at what is projected on them, and not caring about what is inside them. But if that is what it takes to get people to recognize this hidden gem on the Rhone, then I am all for it.
Quick editor’s note in that I am nearing the end of my semester here, yet still have a few topics to rant about, so both this weekend and after the close of my exams next week, I hope to roll a few of these out consecutively in order to beat the clock. Hope you can keep up.
