Les lumières brillaient, plus ou moins

La Fête des Lumières, version 2007, was a rather average millésime, a bit of a mixed bag. The organisers this year tried to make it a more accessible, personal event. Some of the big, set-piece displays in recent years have led to pedestrian bouchons - traffic jams - in some places, most notably around Place des Terreaux. A couple of years ago we had to give up trying to get in to watch what was a rather impressive show one evening because the crush of people trying to get into and out of the square was too great.

Thus this year, instead we had a giant disco ball in Place des Terreaux instead, which proved somewhat less of a draw, and a sea of illuminated blue ballons in Place St-Jean instead of the usual projected show on the façade of the cathedral. But there were still impressive displays here, and quirky ones there, including a giant mechanical caterpillar inhabited by deep-sea divers and welders. And in the final analysis, more people than ever were out on the streets to watch it all...

Winter is here

Rather chilly in Lyon at the moment, which, added to the heaviest snowfall in the Alps for 11 years, persuaded us to book an overnight stay in the mountains this weekend. The excuse is to celebrate l'anniversaire de la bienheureuse. First time we'll have been skiing before Christmas & led to me spending a not-so happy hour in the car yesterday, taking the skis to be serviced. Part of my campaign to avoid doing any Christmas shopping, but I almost regretted it. The Lyon streets yesterday were full of daft drivers (in addition to me), road works and double-parked cars. Then had to spend more than 60 euros filling up. Next time I'll get the bus...

The Lights of Lyon

So, after 3 evenings spent trudging the streets of Lyon with la bienheureuse et la belle-mère, La Fête des Lumières is over once more. Impressions? Mixed, I'd say, an average year. Fewer big set-pieces, but perhaps a more varied selection. For instance, on the main day, the 8th we went to watch a wierd & wonderful mechanical caterpillar inhabited by what appeared to be deep sea divers making its way along one of the main roads. Short video below.


Another short video of part of the show projected onto the façade of the Préfecture du Rhone, perhaps the most impressive display:



Still photos of some of the other displays here on Noonadek.com, including the popular phone box fish tank. The weather was mostly somewhat less unkind than forecast. Thursday we stayed more or less dry, Friday we would have done apart from an abrupt and violent squall, which lasted about 10 minutes but managed to completely blow away everything on the food stall we were sheltering near. Saturday night there was light, intermittent rain, inconvenient but not unduly unpleasant.

La Fête begins

Today marks the start of the annual Fête des Lumières and therefore also the start of the annual visite de la belle-mère. Drove out to the airport to collect her at lunch-time in glorious, almost spring-like weather. Unfortunately the forecast for the rest of the weekend is threatening a repeat of last year's weather conditions which gave us driving rain and wind for most of the 4-day event.

I retrieved la voiture from our friendly local mechanic before heading off to the airport, swooning at the size of the bill for the service. Not, I hasten to add, because garages here overcharge any more than their counterparts across La Manche. In fact I'd say our jolly garage owner is a particularly friendly, helpful and honest example of his breed. The size of the bill owed rather more to the age of the car. As we're driving to the UK for les vacances de Noël we decided we'd better get it serviced first.

Bad decision. Or good decision, depending on how you look at it. Clutch on the point of failure, bald front tyres, leaking radiator. All needed replacing. Total bill: erm, rather a lot. Let's hope it lasts another few years while we console ourselves that, having been given the chance to buy the garage we currently rent, we still have a car to put in it.

Que La Fête commence

That annual light and sound extravaganza that is La Fête des Lumières de Lyon starts today and continues until Sunday. Impressions of this year's event in the next few days...

Meanwhile I was given a small insight into the French way of doing business today. Not that's it's a method restricted only to France, but anyway, I was taking the car back to the garage we rent after a painfully expensive service this morning, when I bumped into the owner of the garage. He has previously asked us if we'd be interested in buying it, but having taken the decision to do so, he's been remarkably difficult to get hold of since. Probably something to do with the fact that he appears to spend most of his time in Costa Rica.

I thus grasped the opportunity and asked him about the garage. Yes, he was still interested in selling, but not in any hurry. Then he asked how we would finance the purchase. Not sure, I said, probably get a mortgage.

"Ah, you couldn't pay cash?".
Maybe for part of it.
"Ah, because you see, I don't want to pay capital gains tax."
Ah, I think I see. In that case, the price would be a bit lower, perhaps?
"Ah, no. It's a very good price. Garages round here are highly sought after."

Hmm, quite why he thinks we'd do him a favour by pretending the garage cost less than it really did without any gain to ourselves I don't know. His price, by the way, had mysteriously gone up by 1000 euros. Perhaps a demonstration of why he's a good businessman. I wonder if Costa Rica is one of those tax havens...?

Tiring business, eating and entertaining...

We seem to have spent most of the weekend eating. Dinner out on Friday evening at Le Cazenove, courtesy of our guest, the lovely Ms M. Champagne & wine, five courses, someone else paying: what better way to spend an evening? Well, perhaps Saturday evening topped it. Dinner in, cooked by la divine bienheureuse, naturally even more delicious, champagne, wine, and six courses, depending on how you counted. With enough left over to save me cooking for a couple of days...

Sunday was recovery day. We left our guest to walk around Lyon on her own, saying her goodbyes. Gracious hosts to the last we were too lazy to even accompany her to the bus station. I summoned the energy to go and watch OL last night, but la bienheureuse, with another two day trip to Germany starting today, chose an early bedtime instead. I did dither for a moment myself, but was glad I went. 5 goals and a bit of a pre-match birthday party for the Bad Gones supporters all contributed to a very enjoyable match.

Joyeux anniversaire Bad Gones

An otherwise routine 5-0 win for OL against Racing Club de Strasbourg yesterday was distinguished by the pre-match celebrations in the Virage Nord, and the appearance of fan's hero Sonny Anderson in the midst of les vrais supporters.

Football fans and stadium atmospheres in France are often denigrated in comparison to the so-called passion amongst fans in the UK, but while that may be true for a certain proportion of spectators here, it's certainly not true of the fanatical groups who tend to populate the virages ('ends') of French stadia. At Gerland, for instance, the lower tiers in the virages nord et sud keep the chants and songs going for pretty much the entire match, led by a cheerleader who stands on a raised platform at the front of the stands, back to the pitch, conducting the fans' choir with the aid of a microphone and loudspeakers.

Another difference between the France and the UK is that the most committed supporters over here are usually members of official supporters groups who are given strong backing by the clubs, to the extent that they often organize pre-match displays in the tribunes - banners, coordinated card displays, etc. The oldest supporters' group in Lyon is the Bad Gones who populate the middle blocks of the Virage Nord inferieur (indeed membership is compulsory to obtain season tickets (discounted) in that section), and have this season been celebrating their 20th birthday.

A rather impressive display was organized before the Marseille match last month, and last night's game was preceded by a group of Bad Gones parading round the pitch with a banner, and then by an enormous banner being unfurled over the entire Virage Nord. Can't tell you what it said because I was underneath it all.

Helped by being 2 goals to the good, excitement amongst les Bad Gones was at fever pitch in the first half because amongst their number was none other than Sonny Anderson, the Brazilian goal machine from OL's first two championship winning seasons at the turn of the century. Towards the end of the first half he even climbed up on the cheerleader's podium and led the singing of a song, words to which roughly translate as "This is OL, if this team gets up your nose, to really p*ss you off we'll make them win."

I tried hard to imagine Thierry Henry doing the same thing in the North Bank at Highbury, but failed. Perhaps Ian Wright, at a stretch...