Festival of Lights - LYON, MY BELOVED
Ah, the month of december, finals kicking in, strikes making it so much easier and the cold weather settling in…
But december also is : |
The Festival of Lights |
It was december 8, and for all of us, Lyonnais, it is an important day. If you are not familiar with the concept - even though it is worldwide known #69RPZ (that you will not get but I am leaving it as it is cause I am a proud French) - I am writing you a tailored historical resume of it, adapted from the official site of the celebrations.
Sacred year 1850 : religious autorities launched a contest for the realization of a statue, envisionned as a religious signal on top of the Fourvière hill (you know it). It was the sculptor Joseph-Hugues Fabisch (damn u good), who realised the statue in his workshop on the quais de Saône.
The inauguration was planned on 8 september 1852. However, all swollen, the Saône river, as unpredictible as it is, postponed the latter to8 december. On that day, because they would have had it too easy otherwise, the bad weather had to be added to the table. Malheur ! (Yeah, that I also leave in French, because it sounds so much more dramatic). Religious autorities were about to cancel the inauguration... Que nenni (dramatic effect again), as we were cool kids full of resources, candles were lit on the windows, thus lighting up the entire city. Religious autorities followed the path (sheeps, all of em - oopsie, sorry, quite blasphemous) and the chapel of Fourvière emerges from the night.
"From that time on, on december 8, the Lyonnais put candle lights on their windows and wander around the city to admire the exceptionnal light installations in the streets.”
And it is true : there does not exist a 8 december that would not be illuminated by cute candles (or IKEA tea-light candles of the poor, sold by packs of 30 for 2 euros) and the Ferris Wheel, Place Bellecour. Neither exists a better way to patiently wait for Christmas than walking around, churros in hand and beanie over the ears in the street of Lyon all lit by the most creative and quirky installations, while being puzzled by the smell of mulled wine coming from all parts the city.
This year again, I went again on a small adventure, camera in hand, in the real city of Lights to admire the novelty given by this year's outstanding performance.
Extremely dissapointed in me, I did not gather the courage to face the crowd in front of Saint Jean Cathedral, which, for the occasion, had even put on a all-lit costume - made of LSD-like hallucinations people say - and I also did not see the installation in the Hôtel de Région (yes, I was too lazy to go). But I will now let you enjoy the little sneek peak of what happened from december 8 to 11, on my beloved Presqu’île.
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Par ordre d'apparition : Un songe forain (Place Bellecour), Jurassic Spark (Place Bellecour), [mon petit coup de cœur] Roboticum (Place Bellecour), Coups de cœur (Théâtre des Célestins), Fontaine d'étoiles (Place des Jacobins), [gros, gros coup de cœur] La Carpe Koï (Place de la République, vive la République !), Les Lanternes de Zigong (Rue de la République Sud - De Bellecour à Cordeliers), Les Pivoines (Place de la Bourse), Sans dessus, dessous (Place des Terreaux).
J'ai aussi pris d'autres endroits en photo - mais avec mon téléphone - et c'était bien sympa, si jamais vous êtes curieux, c'était : Vols de Nuit (Place Antonin Poncet), Off Lines (Bassin de la place Bellecour, Sud-Ouest), The Bright Boat (Passerelle Abbé Couturier), Soleil (Colline de Fourvière), [vraiment une idée bien coolos, need] La bétonnière boule à facettes (Rue du Président Carnot) et Seventies Lights (Rue Edouard Herriot).
11.12.16 - Steffi Janiszczak
