Hereafter, in order to water your mouth, you will find some of the most beautiful illumination events of the festival in 2008 and the results of an opinion poll:

The Place des Terreaux was the absolute highlight of the celebration, where you can take the pulse of every year’s success. The animation of this place will set the tone of the whole festival. Let’s remember the fantastic illumination realized in 2004 and 2005 when the complete facade of the museum was animated with pictures of bikes and puppets.

HOTEL-DIEU: The inner court was arranged as a typical French country inn (guingette) with a street organ, which played French melodies for dancing.

PLACE DES JACOBINS: A nice fountain with beautiful nymphs under a mobile (which, unfortunately, did not move) looked very poetic.

THEATRE DES CELESTINS: Like every year, the decoration in this site was very successful: A story about theatre history and passion through pictures of famous personalities projected on the façade- the magic of theatre and lights.

Let’s see what happened along the river Saone right now. For visitors one of Lyon’s magic points is the flow of the two rivers so close to one another. The banks of the river Saône offers one of the most beautiful sights of Lyon where perspectives are literally piled up: the river, the top of the cathedral, the hill, on its top basilica Fourvière, the catholic and its laic answer the “Eiffel Tower of Lyon”. Between both, every year, the archbishopric lights a message of tribute to the Virgin Mary. The place is very spectacular every year. Jean-Michel Jarre (born at Croix-Rousse and son of Maurice Jarre) performed successfully in concert on this site in 1989, during the visit of pope Jean-Paul II in Lyon.

The Cathedral Saint-Jean comes often out in all its beauty. Such as in 2008: The theme “Visit of the kings” showed the façade of the cathedral though in classical colours, but not less in an impressive beauty.

PLACE DU CHANGE – A SWARM OF INSECTS: thick clouds of insects romp about on the square, on a true fake phone box and a fake advertising board in particular. We remember well this phone box transformed into an aquarium with living fishes on the other side of the Saône in 2007, one of the most attractive animations of the festival of lights 2007.

SAINT-NIZIER, another classic, not always made a success these last years and no more made a success in 2008. However, there is still hope for the coming festivals.

LA CROIX-ROUSSE: If you are not too tired, you may climb up the hills, where an alternative spirit resides (the first workers’ cooperatives based on the socialist ideas of Holy Simon and de Fourier, a French philosopher of the 19th century, came up here). There are always interesting things to see, the events are though more simple and integrated in the district. In 2008, windows were placed in the gardens of the hill.

The banks and the park “Tête d’Or” were favourite places for light events, because they emphasized the natural environment: the trees, the lake and the river as well as the stonewalls of the banks. This is an ideal location to have a quiet walk, away of the crowds of visitors at the peninsula (the centre of Lyon).

Subscribe here for the two guided tours: the first one, which is a try-out and will be available from beginning of November; the second one, which we edit the first day of the festival in order to optimize your visit of the festival of lights.

Let there be light!

Gilles for www.lyon-visite.info

Translation: Monika Abbey