French Sojourn 2010: Joyeuses Fetes

Samedi 11 Decembre:
Tonight is our last chance to see the lights of the festival, so we were determined to make the most of it.

We started the day in place Bellecour on the presquile, the Louis XIV equestrian statue with the stately basilique on the Fourvier hill behind.

.... where I spotted the Lumibox to encourage everyone to recycle .....

.... then we had a quiet stroll down rue Auguste Comte where we had been told were a plethora of antique shops. However, they turned out to be mainly furniture and and other large pieces that we could not possibly bring home, let alonme afford! I was hoping for bric a brac, so will probably have to go to a market for that!

We came across another beautiful church - Saint Francois......

An exhuberant brass band busking in Place de la Republique entertained the crowd playing lots of well-known pieces .....

Sweet delicacies in small glasses .....

We went back out for the last night of the festival, it was much more crowded than any of the other nights ............

At night, large desk lamps lighting Rue de la Republique, part of the installation entitled:

White-tailed tropicbirds, pink flamingoes and lampounettes...........

At Place de la Republique, a huge crowd made it difficult to get a really good look at the light display called Sea Air where the spray of water from the small fountain/pond was illuminated to create images of ocean creatures we presume - we could not make out what these were!

The pretty pink and white facade of Printemps department store - it looked like a giant marshmallow!

We walked through this arcade ...

We found ourselves back at St Nizier and with the huge crowd completely filling the street, so we stayed to view once again the spectacular display entitled Monument Air which lasted for about 10 minutes and included hanting sound and incredible images projected onto the facade of this gothic church.

Then on to Rue President Edouard Herriot and its pretty lights entitled Snowballs - Palle di Neve, you can see why below ....

Then on to Rue President Edouard Herriot and its pretty lights entitled Snowballs - Palle di Neve, you can see why below ....

At the end of rue Pdt E Herriot, we found ourselves in an almighty crowd squeezing into Place des Terreaux and the Bartholdi fountain again.......

.. and a 10 deep queue that stretched around two street corners to gain entry to the garden courtyard of the Museum of the Fine Arts (in St Pierre Palace) installation called Urban Jungle. All we got to see was the colourful facade!