Fête de Lumiére

Good Afternoon/Good Evening... I suppose I could adjouter (add) Good Morning for those that open this at that point in time. I have a feeling that I will be Franglaising it up as these posts continue... it's just what natural when I speak and think now... I'll do my best to add the correct English term nearby :)

I'm in a good mood. I took ballet tonight, then ate delicious Pumpkin Cheesecake, which I am proud to say I made without proper measuring devices (in case anyone didn't know, grams is a weight device, not a volume device, so going from cups to grams is not as simple as it sounds. For example, a 1/2 cup of plain white sucre is 100 grams, but if you have granulated sucre (crap... sugar) 1/2 a cup is 75 grams. Now try finding the correct conversion for Cream Cheese on the internet... especially when you aren't really using cream cheese but the closest thing France has to it... which isn't exactly the same thing but if you futz with it it's not too bad. Anyway... good evening, ballet and Pumpkin Cheesecake!! (Even Olivier approved of my Cheesecake and he claims he doesn't like cheesecake- you'd have to have lived here for a while to understand I think, but that makes me really proud... secretly... I don't tell him that I care what he thinks about my cooking. It would be worse that way.)

Anyway... the real reason for this update- La Fête de Lumiére (Festival of Lights).

About a month ago, or perhaps even longer than that, I first heard about this grand fête (big festival) and was intrigued. There were supposed to be about 4 million tourists coming to Lyon for the weekend to see what was due to be a spectacular weekend. I was told that the city would be illuminated with... well light. There were to be light shows and fancy light fixtures and whatnot partout (everywhere). I was excited to see what brought tourists from all over to France's second largest city for a weekend!!

As we got closer to the weekend itself I began to realize just how many people really would be coming into town. Within my group of friends alone we'd have several visitors. Andrea's roommate from Germany, Marine's German boyfriend, Kim's American friend living somewhere near here, Lucy would have a friend in town, and then my friend, Andrew, who I had met in Caen 3 years ago and would be rejoining me in France as a language assistant in December. That's 5 additional people to the city right there... and we are just 5 etrangers (foreigners). Think of all the friends of the French who live closer and can come in easier! This was going to be one crazy party. Drinking in the streets, lights all over, good times!

Friday night came around and I barley had time to realize that the fête was starting-- I had been busy with work and trying to locate lost packages in the French postal system. But Friday night arrived sure enough and Kim asked if I wanted to go out to meet her two English friends who were in town. (What? More out of town friends?? Ok.) So we grabbed some food at the grocery store and headed back to her place quickly to eat before meeting up with her friends. On the way we came upon our first taste of lumiére (light). Giant Tetris!! You could play tetris! They had a big projector showing the game on the side of a building and on the other side of the street you could step on the right, left, and rotate arrows to control the pieces. Sweet! Kim and I took turns holding the groceries to play. Turns out it's harder than it looks- playing with your feet- but not too bad. This was going to be a fun weekend!!

We ate our food, drank some wine (of course) and then headed out to see her friends. We decided to walk in order to come across more lumiére. We ran into a few things as we were headed down the hill. A giant circle of light projected onto a wall that ended up being a smiley face because of the stuff that was on the side of the wall normally. Strange colored lights hung in trees. A giant tutu made out of that bright yellow cloth construction workers wear (which, incidentally, the French were to demonstrate their displeasure with something when there is a grève (strike) going on. I see these yellow construction vests daily at work currently as there is a strike going on against a reform in the schooling system. I have had a few classes canceled because of it. Ahhh the french). Good times. We rushed through the crowds as quickly as we could to meet up with Kim's two friends and found ourselves in a little bar off the main drag in Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon). We had a glass of Kir (kind of wine... made out of cassis, which is black current I believe) and chatted for a while. Then we all agreed on calling it an early night and we split up. Kim and I, both tired at this point, planned to take the metro, but due to the "monde" (when there are a lot of people the french say there is "trop du monde" or "beaucoup du monde", which means "too many of the world" or "lots of world" respectfully- literally translated of course- it really just means there is a expletive-ton of people!) we were forced to walk back.

Walking up the main drag we saw strange swirly lights in trees... that's it... Ok, I'm thinking, I must be missing something. Kim and I have every intention of going out on Saturday to really see it all. On the way back we happened upon La Fountaine des Poissons (Fountain of Fish). This was part of the Light Festival. There were giant plastic fish skeletons... sort of... that were white and then lit with different colors of light or back lit to create shadows on the walls around the square... neat... and strange... ok, well, we'll see the rest of it tomorrow, we were thinking as we made our way towards home.

Saturday arrived and Andrew came into town, along with several other tourists. We met up with Kim and her friend and we all hung out at Kim's for a while. Then, in an odd twist of events, we ended up sitting (with our shoes off) with a group of 9 girls in a Hawaiian bar that had overpriced hot chocolate and brownies. One or two of these 9 girls happened to be friends with Becca, the friend of Kim. So now there were 13 of us... ok. So after overpriced drinks we all headed up the hill- not my hill- the other one-- to Forviere.

I must say: Lots of people like forviere. I am not one of them. I think the view of the city is better from Croix Rousse (where I live) and I think Forviere itself is an ugly church. It doesn't make much sense to me really-- I'm sure there is Catholic doctrine to back it up somewhere, but there are 10 statues of men on the front (as opposed to 12, which would make much more sense) and there seem to be extra people at the scene of the Birth of Christ (also in statue form on the front of this church). I could probably live with that if it was the only downfall of the Cathedral. But you walk inside and it's just downright gaudy. There is gold mosaic everywhere and it's just TOO decorated. What happened simple elegance? It's terrible!! And what a waste of wealth!! Yes, I understand the desire to offer God an beautiful House... but really? This is a little extreme. If I was God I would walk back outside and sit on the steps with the poor people... the view is nicer and it doesn't offend your eyes.

So anyway, our group of 13 walks up this massive hill to see the ugly church and the view. We do this mostly for the visitors in our group. After all the picture taking and whatnot is complete we are ready to redescend (does that word work in English?? Do re-descend? whatever... to go back down) and we realize we are missing Kim and Becca. No one can find them. I pull out my phone, which of course is almost dead, and I call Kim. She and Becca are inside the church. "Ok," I say, "We'll meet you in front of the church." We hang up. There is singing and praying going on inside the church (as it turns out the Fête de Lumiére was originally a thanksgiving day to Mary for saving them from some plague or something). So we all went inside briefly to check it out, but I left quickly to save my eyes from the ostentatiousness around me.

We waited and waited and Kim and Becca were no where to be found. I tried again to call Kim and she didn't answer. Well, at least they were together... the group of 9 girls were ready to move on and since Andrew and I didn't really know what to do we just kind of went along with them. I sent a text to Kim saying we were leaving and off we went. Just as we were rounding the corner however, Kim and Becca were spotted- they were just leaving the church. We waited for them and all 13 of us went down the hill together.

At the bottom of the hill we found ourselves at the other main church in Lyon- St. Jean. This church is much more beautiful!! Very typical French Gothic architecture inside and out. And these lights were impressive! The projection on the front of the church added such color and decoration. All the statues had been taken down off the front of the church years and years before- when the stone was more valuable. The projection showed the statues and was very... charming. (My first thought was to say stunning or breath-taking... but truly, it wasn't THAT cool... it was cool, but not like "Oh my goodness that's amazing" cool).

So we stood there for a while, listening to more singing from inside and taking it all in... along with the "monde" that was all around us. As we were preparing to leave, once again Kim and Becca were missing. This time the group didn't want to wait and my phone had died so off we went without them- Andrew and I and these 9 girls we didn't really know. We held hands through the crowd like kindergartners on their way to music or gym or whatever class takes them out of their normal classroom. We wandered around, looking at the lights- saw the Fountaine des Poissons again and some large building front that had a light show on it. Then weaved through the crowd trying to get to Place de Terreaux- where the really good light show was supposed to be. Getting stuck in crowds and closed off streets we stopped to grab some vin chaud (hot wine- yummy!) and a few people also got Kebabs. We finally made it to Place de Terreaux and saw the big light show. It reminded me of going to the Naval Base for the 4th of July, only not as good. It was neat. Like the things they projected onto the buildings were cool... at one point they splattered the Art Museum and the City Hall with paint (not really, just with light projection) and that looked really cool. But overall it wasn't what I would call spectacular, just neat.

We finally met back up with Kim- I got enough juice in my phone to call her one last time and we met up at Place de Terreaux- Becca then took off with another group of 8 friends she had run into. Kim and our large group all went to sit down in a bar after walking around so much in the cold. We had one drink and then Kim, Andrew and I decided it was time our large group of 12 become a little group of 3. It was, by this time, about 10:15 and we were considering heading out-- this wasn't going to be possible with a group of 12. So we delicately thanked our new friends for the afternoon and departed for Kim's apartment, where we took a few minutes to recharge phones and strip off layers before heading to the warmth of a crowded bar.

Barbarrous is a bar Kim's French boyfriend showed us a weekend or two previously. It's a fun bar with lots of cheap shots and great music for dancing- even if there's not really that much space. This, we discovered, is where the French people come. Many of the bars we'd been to were usually filled with a few French and a lot of foreigners-- Lyon is a very cultural city-- with 3 universities plus the assistantship program it's not uncommon to hear a lot of spanish and english while out and about and it's very possible to hear a little German every now and again (maybe it's just the friends I've made plus the salsaing I love, but that's what I've found at least). But this bar has all the French people!! We danced and tried to hook Andrew up with a couple of French girls (sadly, no go... French women are too closed off and uptight). It was a fun evening.

On Sunday Andrew and I grabbed baguette sandwiches and headed to the stellar Croix-Rousse view to eat them. Then we met up with Andrea (my German friend) and Jenni (her roommate) for a hot chocolate before taking Andrew to catch his bus back home- which was due to depart around 3:30.

After Andrew left (the unmarked bus stop we just kind of assumed was where we were supposed to be despite the lack of any information telling us so- lucky for us we guessed right), I wandered into Old Lyon with no real intentions and happened upon Christmas Carols in English- due to start at 4PM. SWEET!!!! This, truthfully, was the best part of the weekend!! When we started singing O Come All Ye Faithful I almost started to cry-- I had missed this expression of Faith- so simple and so pure- but so real and in a language I am sure to understand. :) It was a beautiful ceremony with carols and readings and a fun part where children came up and played Go Tell It On The Mountain with bells based on the color of their bell and flashcards.

Then I met up with Kim and we headed to Marine's to meet her German boyfriend and have dinner. Due to crazy metros and trop du monde we were a little over an hour late. Oops!! But we managed to have a lovely night and then Kim and I went home to crash as Marine took Johannas to the bus station.

Monday started as Mondays tend to- I slept in. Then I prepared holiday lessons plans for my classes for the next two weeks. I made early dinner and headed out once more. Having only spent about 40 minutes or so with Andrea and Jenni the whole weekend long I headed back to Old Lyon to meet them for a drink. We went to one pub and then another- just to show Jenni around a little. We chatted and joked and even played a round of Never Have I Ever- a game I told them about when I was in Germany for break. (If you don't know what it is... I'll explain later... or google it.) It was an enjoyable evening. But it had been a long evening and it was, after all, a Monday night. So we headed for home.

Once again, due to "la monde", the metro was still messed up and I had to walk most the way home. Monday was the 8th- the typical day they celebrate the fête de lumiére. Everyone had put candles in their windows. It was neat.

After the whole weekend, the whole experience, my first ever Fête de Lumiére, I was left... underwhelmed. As I've said repeatedly... it was charming and neat. It wasn't something I would come in from out of town specifically to see. It just wasn't that cool. The lights in Time Square or in Downtown Chicago coupled with the window decorations and whatnot totally outdo the whole business. It's that it wasn't cool in the spots where it was... I guess the thing is that it wasn't EVERYWHERE. There should have been MORE light. The swirls in the trees along the main street just aren't enough to impress the Americans I guess. Oh well, it was fun.

And thus life returns to normal. As normal as life in a foreign city can be. I might not have class on Friday... the teachers (and students) might still be on strike... normal.