I hadn’t heard of this festival
until I got to France, but I’m so happy I did because it is magnificent! I’d
say it was the best travel experience I’ve had so far in Europe this year. The
weekend went smoothly, no travel hiccups whatsoever (a first)! Melissa (who I
went on the roadtrip with) and I booked train tickets about a month and a half
ago after we were able to find a few couchsurfing options. Since we both have
Monday off, we decided to make it a long weekend – arriving in Lyon at 4:30 on
Friday & leaving Lyon at 2:30 on Monday. Melissa’s friend, M (who went to
Clemson!...like my brother Ben for those of you that don’t know), was able to
join us for Friday night. We rode 1st class on the way up because it
was only 2 more,
turns out there’s not much a difference between the two classes (slightly
disappointing). Train ride was nice, I love watching the countryside change
from the dry, brownish south to lush green hills further north. When we arrived
our couchsurfer, C, wasn’t ready for us to come up yet so we went to a nearby
café for… du café. It was nice chatting for a few hours, I hadn’t spent much
time with M before this weekend & loved getting to know her! We then
searched out the bus up to C’s – turns out Lyon has a tram/bus combo…they’re
electric but have wheels instead of tracks. Haha our driver on the way up was
awful, he kept stalling the tram/bus and it took about twice as long as it
usually did. We arrived at her apartment in one piece & all (her boyfriend,
N, was with us for the weekend as well) chatted a bit before mapping out a plan
to see the light exhibits. Oh! Ok in English the festival is called the
“festival of lights”. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but turns out its
about 50+ light exhibits all over the city. The center, the varying
neighborhoods, and even into the suburbs a bit. Since M was only going to be
with us on Friday night, we decided to do the center lights…with about 30 to
see! The 5 of us took the metro to the north side of the center & started
the lights-viewing! There were so many exhibits…so I won’t describe all of
them. The atmosphere the entire night was perfection, and soo much fun!
Millions of people view the lights, and most of the streets are flooded with
people drinking vin chaud (hot, spiced wine)or snacking on freshly-made crêpes,
churros, or some lyonnaise specialties. In addition to the light exhibits,
there are Christmas lights up everywhere! Streets are lit in various ways (glowing
lanterns, butterflies, colored lights, white lights, sparkling lights…), bars
& cafés & vin chaud stands are around every corner, and everyone in the
city is out. Here are some of my favorites:
For dinner we ate a
Lyonnaise specialty - potatos, cheese, sausage stew-thing. Definitely heavier than most food you see in Nîmes, but
perfect for a cold night of walking. The vin chaud is, of course, the best I’ve
had (much better than what I had in Bath). But France does wine right, all the
time :) We made it back to C’s house around 1am, after walking since about 7pm!
Needless to say, I slept incredibly well that night.
We slept in until around 10, and
were greeted with a lovely breakfast from our hosts! Toast with all the
possible toppings (nutella, honey from the south, framboise jam, fromage blanc)
delicious green tea with a hint of chocolate, & orange juice. Hung out for
awhile, then got our things in order & went back into town for the one
thing you MUST do in Lyon – eating at a bouchon. A bouchon is a type of restaurant in Lyon that serves traditional lyonnaise cuisine, often serving
dishes focused on meat. We went for a late lunch to a bouchon called Abel that
C recommended.
 |
| Melissa, me & M after lunch! |
It. Was. Excellent. We stayed for 2 ½ hours, like proper French
women & enjoyed every minute of it. The building is really old, with
gorgeous wooden walls & paneling, old photos and paintings. I started with
a Lyonnaise salad, then had __ & finished with a caramel crème brulée. Mmm.
We also ordered a pot du vin, and since our waiter forgot our aperitifs – he
gave us each a glass of champagne to replace the aperitif! & it was
delicious, expensive champagne! When we finally emerged from the bouchon, we
started the long trek up to the Basilica on top of a huge hill. Stairsstairsstairs.
The views were worth the trek, as was the Basilica! Here are some photos:
After we admired the view for
awhile, we made our way inside the basilica where there was a service going on.
Candles were lit for Mary "Merci Marie", since the festivals’ history is religious as a
thank you to Mary.
It’s a beautiful church and I enjoyed sitting &
listening to a bit of the service (en français, bien sûr). M then had to start
heading down to catch her train, so we all walked down back to the center &
Melissa and I saw her off in le place du Bellecour (HUGE square on the lower
end of the center, with a ferris wheel & a statue of Louis XIV). Since
Melissa and I had no set plans after that, we decided to just wander the
streets of Lyon for a second time. We revisited some of our favorite displays,
and saw a couple new ones. I liked the “Luminous Seaweed” exhibit on the banks
of the Rhone River :)
Sunday morning we, again, slept
in a bit and then went to find a museum. Decided to start with the Gadagne
Museum that had the history of Lyon & puppets, and then if we had time we’d
continue on to the Musée des Beaux Arts. Turns out, the Gadagne was free for us
AND there was an exhibition on the history of gastronomy in Lyon. Also, the
history took over an hour to get through…it was interesting, but definitely
overkill. So we emerged from the Gadagne thoroughly done with museums for the
day – and starving. The Gadagne is in Vieux Lyon, and we wandered the skinny
streets until we came upon:
We got a meal of that, a sausage, salad & vin
chaud…mmmmm. Walked around a little more & then went back up to C’s to prep
for an America party! Our hosts had traveled to America this past summer &
wanted to have a few of their friends over to share their pictures & some
of the food they brought back. “American” food consisted of: PB&J
sandwiches, pigs in a blanket with BBQ sauce, raw veggies with homemade ranch
dressing (didn’t taste like ranch, but good!), s’mores, red velvet cupcakes
Melissa & I made, Reese’s cups, Jello, and mac n’ cheese! We had some funny
conversations about America & it was a good night!
Monday was relatively
unexciting, we decided to sleep in & hang out till the train back. A nice
relaxing day, ending with lesson planning back at home before bed.
The rest of this past week was
busy! Teaching Christmas, packing, prepping for Scotland & Paris, & cleaning.
I’m now in Scotland, but will do
a separate post about that!
bisous
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