La Fête des Lumières!

Last weekend was something called the Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights), which Lyon is really famous for in France. The purpose of the festival is to celebrate the virgin Mary because it's believed that she protected the city from being struck by plague like all of the other major cities in France were a long time ago. People come from all over Europe to enjoy the festival, so the city was completely packed all weekend.

To kick off the weekend on Thursday, some of us went to the Christmas market in front of the school and explored a little bit. Some of us ended up getting food from a little German booth. I got something called spätzle (which is a kind of German pasta) with bolognese sauce and it was so good! After hanging out at the market for a little while, we walked to Bellecour to meet up with some others. It was crazy in Bellecour though so once we all met up, we ended up getting separated again. The group that I was with decided to ride the huge ferris wheel that had been put up in Bellecour for the festival. It was actually kind of scary because it went so much higher than we expected and the wheel was making creaking noises! After a few minutes though, it was really cool and we could see most of Lyon from up there! Afterwards, we decided to head to a pub in Vieux Lyon because it was so cold and wet out that night. On our way, we saw some cool light festival things! The castle and some of the other big buildings nearby were all lit up in different colours that would change every 30 seconds! We went to a pub called Johnny Walsh's that I had been to before. It has a very Irish feel to it! Some other IBPs came too and we had fun just sitting and chilling for a while!

the ferris wheel in Bellecour

on the ferris wheel!

on the ferris wheel!

On Friday night, Lucy, one of the girls from Australia, was having a big IBP party in her apartment. Her apartment was huge and so nice, and almost all of the IBP was there--even some who I don't normally see out! Lucy was such a good hostess and had a bunch of appetisers set out for us. And at one point, she was going around with a baguette and vegemite trying to get people to try it. I was a little hesitant because it looks pretty gross and I have heard horror stories from people who have tried it, but it actually wasn't that bad! It tasted really salty. I could never eat a lot of it but it was definitely not disgusting like I expected! After Lucy's we had all planned to go out and see some of the festival but we lost track of time and when we were going to leave, it was close to the end of the festival for the night, so a bunch of us stayed at Lucy's longer. It was a really fun night hanging out with everyone!

with Virginia, Anna, and Sandra at Lucy's party

with Melanie at Lucy's party

On Saturday, I decided to go check out the Confluence mall with Virginia, Anna, and Ben. I had only been there once when we went to see Twilight and hadn't actually gone into the mall. It was so cool and modern looking inside! When we first got there, we went to Starbucks for a little snack (I got a delicious cranberry and white chocolate chip muffin!) and then spent some time going into stores. There were some cool French stores, but it was actually a lot smaller than I expected it to be. And there were some Christmas decorations which was cool! After shopping for a couple hours, we went to a little Asian restaurant where we got "pâtes thaïs" with chicken that was soo good! I have been craving Asian food all semester and this did not disappoint!

After going home to change into some warmer clothes for the night, a bunch of us met outside the school to see the Fête des Lumières. First, we went into the Christmas market in Place Carnot where the university is. It was insanely crowded this night and it was such a challenge just to walk around without losing each other! We all tried some really yummy chocolate things that were creamy in the middle (I think the middle might have been marshmallow), and then we went back to the same German booth as Thursday and got sausages with curry ketchup. Then we walked through the city and saw a lot of the cool light displays! We walked down Victor Hugo and then over to Vieux Lyon where there was a really cool light spectacle projected onto the cathedral. Then we walked through Vieux Lyon some more, then over to Hôtel de Ville, Rue de la Republique, and Bellecour. The Fête des Lumières is what Lyon is most known for and it was so cool to experience!

the cathedral in Vieux Lyon

the cathedral in Vieux Lyon

the cathedral in Vieux Lyon

Fête des Lumières with Josh, Jasmin, Virginia, Ben, Anna, Kirsten (and Ciela who was taking the picture!)

Rue de la République

On Sunday, the last day of the festival, the city was still really crowded but definitely starting to calm down as the festival came to a close. I met up with Virginia, Anna, and Ciela to do a little Christmas shopping! We went to Zara first which was absolute torture because they have the best clothes ever but I can't afford to be spending money on shopping now :( Then we headed over to the Part Dieu mall! It looked so cool because it was full of Christmas decorations! The first thing we did was stop at a restaurant called Hippopotamus to get some food. I had already eaten lunch back in my dorm, so instead I got a brownie sundae that was delicious! Me, Virginia, and Anna decided to get cocktails with our food too and I got something called a Pink Cadillac that was soo good! After getting some food, we headed back out into the mall. We went to Galeries Lafayette which is the big French department store and a bunch of other French stores too! Later on when I was back at Saint Bernard, I ordered some Domino's pizza with Sandra, Kristina, Josh, Ben, and Juni and we watched Love Actually. I love that movie so much so it was a good night!

Christmas decorations in the Part Dieu mall

It was so sad to think that this was my last weekend in Lyon. But I had so many great times this weekend and over the next week, which made it a little more ok that it was the end of the semester.