upbeat Guillaume, Andi, me, Letitia and Lynn on the train
Guillaume's best friend, Pierre-Thomas, studies in Lyon. He offered to give up his room for the four of us (Andi was to be staying with Marie-France, our lovable french prof from last year), while he stayed over at his girlfriend, Nina's place. That was just the beginning of this couple's hospitality.
When we arrived at PT's appartment, he settled us in like a professional host (so much so that it was hard to believe that he's just a student of our age) and both he and Nina cooked lunch for us! Talk about going the extra mile. It's always great getting to know new people like that :)
left: Guillaume trying to serenade an invisible girl =p
right: one of the dishes Nina and PT prepared
After lunch, I rushed over to Marie-France's place to spend some time with her before we had to leave to watch Lyon lit up at night while the others headed to Fourvière. As usual, she received Andi and I in the warm fashion she always does, preparing her signature cake and offering us papillotes, something typically Lyonnais, telling us stories and asking to hear ours.
left: Mme Marie-France and I with the photo collages I made as a parting gift.
right: coffee with a papillote, a chocolate in shiny wrapper with a message of wisdom (eg. quotes from well-respected poets or writers) around it, eaten during Xmas
After our brief reunion, MF sent us to the bus stop from which we were to take a bus to town. As I hugged her goodbye, I was filled with more than just a tinge of sadness, knowing that I would not be seeing her again in the time to come but well, tian wu bu san zhi yan xi. :/
left: the river Saõne, cathédrale de St Jean and Fourvière
right: many small shops were selling vin chaud (hot red wine with spices within) - typically drunk by French and Germans during the wintry Xmas period to keep warm.
Keeping in line with tradition, it was raining on the night of La Fête des Lumières. We were famished but moving around was a near impossible task, with throngs and throngs of people on the streets in a human jam (think Wisma-Taka underpass at peak hours and multiply the crowd by 5). To move a distance of 100m, we'd take 5 minutes. The food stalls in the area were doing a roaring business! Subway the fastfood chain ran out of baguettes! We decided to get kebaps from this stall which marked up its price by 2€ and told its customers they were selling only one type of kebap. Yet, customers were crowding the tiny stall, waving euro bills in their hands.
above: At l'hôtel de ville (the square where the mayor's building is situated)
left: one of the many illuminated bridges in Lyon
right: moving stars projected on buildings
right: the statue of Louis XIV in the middle of Bellecour enclosed in a giant globe. Below the statue were the words in neon-light - 'Only Lyon' which was quite a lame attempt at making this an international festival with the use of ill fitting english words.
We agreed that the light displays at the fête weren't incredibly fantastic, though they were pretty nice to look at but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Headed back after midnight, worn out but happy =)
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