Mild consternation in Lyon last night, following the decision to pick Marseille as the French European capital of culture for 2013. Les lyonnais have invested a lot in the campaign to be elected cultural capital, so it was a bitter blow to see the Mediterranean rivals get the nod instead. Mutterings about state support for la cité phoceéne, ascribed in some quarters to supporting one of Sarkozy's pet projects, the 'Mediterranean Union'. It seems however, that Lyon's main problem was already having a well developed cultural aspect. One of the criteria used by the judges was the need for regeneration, something Lyon has seen plenty of over the last ten years.
So in the end, la cité des gaules, can console itself with the fact that it is already seen as a European city of high culture. Indeed last weekend the city saw the culmination of the Bienniale de la Danse, with a parade through the town centre, described by some as the second biggest dance/music parade in the world, after Rio...
