We just went to the Festival of Lights in Lyon.  It was beautiful!  Different groups set up light displays around town for the public.  It is a free event that they hold annually.  Some of the displays were just incredible.

Though we were only there for the weekend, I thought Lyon was a lovely city.  Of course, it was very crowded and security was a (necessary?) nuisance.  It was a little cool, but no worse than one ought to expect when wandering around outside at night in December.  The city has two rivers, the Rhone and Saone that flow through it, so there are quite a few bridges crossing them.  It’s the third largest city in France.

Some of the exhibits were really spectacular.  Nearly all of them were animated or in motion in some way.  My favorite might be the flowers near the Ferris wheel, but the giants mantle clock was cool, too.  The lighted horses were interesting but difficult to photograph.

We stayed in an airbnb that had a fantastic location for the festival.  It was nicely outfitted but had a few small issues that I imagine the owner will address soon.  We ate a very nice dinner at Cafe 203 Friday night and had street food Saturday night.  Jenn enjoyed a bit of Vin Chaud- a hot spiced wine.  Walnut was with during the day, but for the festival in the evening, we took him back to the apartment because of the temperature and crowds.

It was a great visit, and I look forward to going back to Lyon.  I could see us going back for the Festival of Lights in a few years or maybe spending a few more days in Lyon in better weather.

What we did right:

• Apartment was in a great location
• Had sandwiches/street food for lunch and dinner Saturday (inexpensive and tasty)
• Went to Cafe 203 for dinner- delicious food for 30€
• brought warm clothing
• The Festival of Lights was fabulous

What went wrong:

• didn’t read the sign for public transit tickets- spent a few € we didn’t need to
• didn’t have a plan for the added security and accidentally left the ‘secure’ area once, only to have to go through security to get back in
• planned to use the metro but ‘security’ didn’t allow transfers within stations- got shunted outside only to find a 1/2 mile long line to the entrance to the next metro