guide to lyon #5: events, places and more to feast your eyes upon

So this shall be the final guide to Lyon that I have for now.

Today will be spent discussing any events, holidays and other places of interest.

First!

For students, of course -- there is fall break. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT AND GO TRAVELING, whether it be in France or the rest of Europe. I went to Poland, the Netherlands, and Belgium during that week.

In October, there was a Fete Lumiere, to honor the Lumiere brothers who pioneered cinema. They show lots of films during that week. The fete lumiere opened in 2010 (when I was there) with "Singing in the rain" and they finished with "Amadeus". I went to see Morte à Venise (Death in Venice). It was highly recommended by the person I was living with at the time!


La Fête des Lumieres (Dec 8th-11th)

Come see the festival of lights in December to commemorate the Virgin Mary. The tradition is that on December 8th, all the people in Lyon put candles by their windows.

The festival origins started in the 1600s when Lyon was struck by a plague, and the citizens promised to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary if she spared the city from the plague.

There are fireworks almost every year. To get the best view, go up to Fourviere to see them. To check out pictures from the festival, check out my post from last year. For me, this festival marked the beginning of the Christmas season for me.

For now, this is a teaser:

Parc de la tete d'or.

Beautiful park located in 6th arrondissement, you will find many people, including tourists coming here. If you have the chance, go for a bike ride here. Or just simply walk around. There is also a small zoo in here too. Have a picnic here, jog around here.

Orchestre Nationale de Lyon.

Do come here and listen to some great concerts!! I got to see Lang Lang play here and got his autograph :)). They have pretty amazing people come here to play, so it's great opportunity for all you music lovers out there!

Check out Sciences Po, the school I attended. It was once the Nazi headquarters during World War II!

Well folks, that's it for now! SILP program is full grind right now, so back to Russian studies :))