Fete des Lumieres 8-11 Decembre 2010

Tonight we ventured into central Lyon with about 4 million other people to see the grand opening of the Fete des Lumieres, Festival of Lights 2010. The trains ran like clockwork, with precision crowd control at all stations. The journey took no longer than normal ( about 10 minutes - Craig thought it would take an hour!!) and, after weaving our way through the well behaved family crowds in Place Bellecour, we were at the head of the Louis XIV statue to meet Fabienne at exactly 6pm!

My photos will of course not capture the atmosphere nor do justice to the amazing light and sound spectacular to follow.
The apartments surrounding rectangular Place Bellecour had the traditional coloured glass holders with tealight candles lined up on their window sills - so pretty, and such amazing French decor ( red walls, chandeliers, antique furniture).

 there was a countdown to the festival opening........

The La grande Roue had begun when a puff of white balloons was released from the ferris wheel, floated off like a cloud into the night sky and gradually dispersed ......

 

An egg-shaped balloon lifted off the ground, under control of a person guiding it from underneath....

then a huge white caterpillar-like creature worked its way through the crowd .......

and then they took off into the air to resemble birds in flight and the moon.....

Looking up to the lights of Basilique Fourviere and the huge words shining brightly from the hill.... 

Merci Marie

we then walked along Rue de Brest and marvelled at the loopy strings of white fairy lights hanging over the street like chandeliers and shop window decorations.....

And heading past Rue Emile Zola towards Place des Celestines.......

The light and sound show titled Perspectives Lyriques, designed by an architecture firm 1024 Architecture. used spooky images projected onto the elegant facade of the theatre, distorted and shook it,  transforming it into a haunted house. see the transformation below!

..... who should we bump into in the crowd, but Emma and her host sister Lauriane and her French mum!

Then the Place de Jacobins display titled la Source de la lumiere, a brightly lit fountain......

We branched off to Rue Merciere, an narrow cobble-stoned street lined with beautifully decorated bars and enticing restaurants - this district was once a rough part of Lyon and one you were not safe to walk through 35 or so years ago. Now, it is somewhere we intend to come back to sample food from the street vendors - crepes, huge pots of chicken, salad, kebabs, chestnuts, mulled wine etc  .....

Then we walked onto the imposing gothic and romanesque church Eglise St-Nizier to see the display titled Monument Air , designed by a firm of architects, this church's gothic-romaesque facade morph using projections resembling a Tim Burton movie put through photoshop - it was constructed, burnt down, changed colour, was then turned into ruins overgrown by tree roots, branches and leaves - stunning and haunting!!

Then on to Place des Terreaux and the display titled Homage a Bartolodi, Place a la Fountaine, to see the elaborate Bartoldi fountain lit up with changing colurs and holgrams of horses, accompanied by horses neighing, on the surrounding buildings - quite amazing to see!

then we walked across to Cour de L'Hotel de Ville ( no not a hotel but Lyon's Town Hall) where we were able to walk through the building and courtyard normally closed off - the title of the light display is Traboule de Lumieres, and because just yesterday we had trapsed throught the traboules on Vieux Lyon, it all made sense - the passageway through a normally private residence!

The vibrant blue light created an amazing atmosphere - ethereal, it accentuated the vaulted ceiling, columns and the gorgeous huge candelabra in the foyer and the warm red colours beyond in the courtyard ...........

Once I saw the gorgeous fountain all lit up, I realised that the colours of the French flag had been used - blue, red and white!

A huge sea urchin-like light ball hanging over the street .....

 Across the road, Le Opera is lit up too.

we walked through Place Louis Pradel towards the river ,

to wait for the fireworks over le Rhone, from the Pont Morand - beautiful to watch but very hard to get any good photos!

we then went across the river to the rather chic and very exclusive Place Marechal Lyautey, with its Lugmnoin Odyssey.......... 

then along to see the with wall to wall designer shopswell positioned lights in the avenue of trees along Cours Franklin Roosevelt, heart of the ritzy shopping district on the east bank of the river Rhone, made an interesting effect, like upside down umbrellas or jellyfish......

 and the best chocolate shop in Lyon  Bernachon ...........

these images are part of their beautiful window display........

A very welcoming Christmas doorway!

We then walked to Fabienne's beautifully decorated apartment where she had prepared a delectable French "tea party", with a number of delicous local cuisine savoury appertifs, some in small parfet glasses, smooth and creamy courgette soup, tabbouleh salad with sultanas and a very rich and smooth chocolat ganache layer cake - YUM, and wonderful company talking to Fabienne and her gorgeous and talented 21 year-old daughter Eglantine ( Egg for short!).

More Fete des Lumieres tomorrow night!