Fête des Lumières

Fête des Lumières
DESTINATION: LYON, FRANCE
le 5 å 8 decembre 2009

Hello again, everybody!
I had a great weekend in Lyon for the Fête des Lumières, or, as we might say in English, the Festival of Lights!

Trains aren't usually this complicated in France...
Nikki and I took the train over to Marseille on Friday afternoon, where we got on our train (platform M), only to then hear the announcement (in French, mind you) that the train was NOT going to Lyon, so everyone on board wanting to go to Lyon would need to get off (although they didn't happen to mention what platform to RUN to). So, with all the other confused Frenchies, we proceeded to RUN all the way to platform D, where we literally crammed our way onto an already "complet" train. After standing in the aisle for 10 minutes, wondering what the heck we're doing (nobody had a clue what to do, we weren't the only ones)...everybody got off and RAN all the way back to platform M!! What a confusing (and pointless) ordeal orchestrated by the SNCF peeps! 40 mins late, we were on our way! (And luckily we did end up in Lyon)...

...where our buddy Tim met us at the station!
Tim is another SPU grad/language assistant, who happened to be lucky enough to be in Lyon (an underrated French gem!). It's "tied" (depends on who you ask) with Marseille for 2nd biggest French city after Paris. It's a beautiful mix of old and new, classic French architecture like in Paris, mixed with modern buildings and clean, smooth sidewalks (which Paris lacks).

We kicked off the weekend with an excellent Friday night-tour of the city, led by Tim. It was so refreshing to be walking around in the freezing (literally 0 degrees C) city at night. And it was so crazy to see other people out and about on a Friday night!! (Hyeres tends to die once the sun goes down.) On Saturday, we explored the city more and enjoyed the annual Christmas market.

At the Christmas market!

This weekend was really a weekend filled with FRIENDS! It was great to be with Nikki (as usual) :), to see Tim, meet and hang out his friend Megan (another awesome SPU grad, go figure...we're taking Europe by storm), and meet Tim's roommates. And... Laura came down from Paris (yay!) and stayed with us for the weekend. ALSO, our Austrian friend Bernadette came up from Toulon! We were able to meet up with Britney (SPU grad/language assistant) and 2 of her friends who were also in Lyon for the festival. At the Christmas market, we had a total of 6 SPU grads! Oh, and did I mention we also hung out with our French engineering friends, and their friends?! Dozens of friends, some new and some old!


It was really fun to explore the city, go out to bars with people our age (what? this does not exist in Hyeres...), and see the city all lit up (with the thousands of others who crammed into the city for the displays)!

Nikki, Laura, Bernadette, and me outfitted for the cold in our new hats, mittens, & scarves

Saturday night, we went to one of the main squares in the city for the festival's kickoff celebration. We spent the night walking around the jam-packed streets seeing the different light displays. It was fun to be a part of something that so many people were there to experience! Although we felt a bit like cattle headed to the slaughter...we were packed like sardines! Body to body...bobbing along with the rest of the crowd... it was crazy!

Break from the crowds for pizza!Photographs from a previous festival on display

And we had no train problems on the way back to the city....we got a RIDE back with some of our French friends!! I haven't ridden in a car in ... hmm... a very long time!
What a weekend!!! :)