Christmas

Our Christmas Eve dinner - first time at a Moroccan restaurant in Lyon
We both had tajine, which was fantastic, followed by pastries and mint tea.

Me attempting to cut this cake. What a mess.

The traditional holiday cakes in Lyon are all round like this, but they have lots of flavors. Our was chocolate mousse.

Beautiful Place des Terreaux

Tom thought we should title this one "Runny Nose"

?? Not too sure.

I couldn't keep the camera steady enough, but here is Place Sathonay in the snow with the lights still up from the Fete des Lumieres.

a nice dinner at a restaurant to start off the holiday

Tom's ideal end to a meal: a plate full of different cheeses.

I can't remember the name, but it was basically thick chocolate and orange.

Tom's final selection

My first hamburger in France! Finally!

The first snow of the year

Marzipan at the Marche de Noel of Lyon

Creepyyy...

little castles of marshmallow

Franchement Formidable (Fete des Lumieres)

Every year thousands of people come to Lyon for its Fete des Lumieres. Colored lights are strung up all over the city, down the major roads and in the major courtyards. In the "Places" there is some form of an installation piece with colored light and a soundtrack that corresponds with the movement of the light. In a way it's like an abstract art film. The biggest installation was at Place des Terreaux, right by our apartment. The last few nights of the Fete we couldn't walk through the Place to get home because police were blocking off every entrance for crowd control. It's hard to describe the Fete because it was such a different experience, but it kicks off the Christmas season and really makes the city beautiful. One section of the Fete this year was a series of installations along the Quai that were experimental. One of the nights of the Fete there was also a fireworks show at Fourviere, just across the river from us. We had front-row seats and one of the photos above shows the people gathering below our apartment on the street and in a park to watch.

On every corner of every street, there's a booth selling either vin chaud (hot spiced wine), or some other regional hot food. We of course went for the vin chaud to top off one of our nights.

France vs. Ireland

not the most exciting storefront in the Guillotiere, but I didn't have my camera with me on the right day

A post-game nutella crepe for consolation from the crepe man in Vieux Lyon

Pre-gaming with some pastries (Tarte Praline)

Over one week ago now, there were two World Cup qualifier matches in the same day: Ireland vs. France and Algeria vs. Egypt. During the week there were riots in Marseille, so even though there weren't any riots in Lyon, the atmosphere was lively. The day of, green jerseys and flags for Algeria covered the Guillotiere. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me that day, which was a big mistake. There's a store called "Romance" that sells eastern wedding dresses and some random western formals, which usually has sequened, glittery fabrics covering the display windows. During the days before the game, it was nothing but Algeria paraphernalia: flags, scarves, banners, everything. Even Romance was taken over by pre-game hype.

Tom, myself, and some others went to Johnny's Kitchen, an Irish pub in Vieux Lyon, to watch the France vs. Ireland game. Our thinking with Johnny's Kitchen was that since it's a popular Irish pub, there would be lots of Ireland supporters. Not so much: our group was the only one for Ireland. Everyone's probably read the stories about the hand ball by now, which was really blatant. It was a great tense game, but it should've ended differently. A watered-down version is that France hadn't been playing well, Ireland had, they tied, went into overtime, then Thierry Henry made the winning goal for France by cheating with a handball. All of the France supporters in the bar cheared when he made the goal, but afterwards the reaction of the city as a whole was very telling. Algerians were riding around the city everywhere waving big flags on motorcycles, out of cars, yelling and cheering. There were police cars all over the Guillotiere for crowd control and even around Bellecour. We could hear cheering from our window up above the centre-ville all night, all from Algerians. There were no French people cheering. We didn't see a single flag for France, only Algeria. In the heart of the city, the police were there for the Algerians. It was not a dignified win for France and the city showed it. It's been a little bit of a controversy since then, but the results aren't changing and France is going to the World Cup. Tom still isn't over it, but I have to say I'm thrilled to be living in a city and country that gets so heated by the World Cup. Sorry Coach, but I still think soccer/World Cup is so much more fun than football/SuperBowl. :)

La Sucriere

Weeks ago we made our second trip to a Biennale site. La Sucriere is one of the main venues and it's at the bottom of the presqu'ile, behind Perrache, one of the major train stations in Lyon. Immediately behind Perrache, the presqu'ile gets extremely seedy with streets full of prostitutes. It seems that the city is trying to revitalize the area by starting a lot of commercial projects there along with this new museum, La Sucriere. Walking there right now is interesting because you're basically going through an abandoned industrial area and then all of a sudden, there are signs pointing towards this random cluster of buildings along the Quai. What makes it even more creepy is that when we went, there was an enormous circus tent set up for some circus that was passing through. There couldn't have possibly been something creepier in the area. Anyway, in the cluster of buildings, first comes the orange building shown above. So it's still surrounded by some run-down looking industrial structures and also keeps the same industrial aesthetic, but then it's covered in this crazy orange material that gives it a more artsy look. Next comes a little reflection pond in between two square buildings, then another building that would be a little boring except that it has cut-outs of soldiers on the balconies. Finally there is La Sucriere, which was the old Chamber of Commerce but has now been converted into a museum. Naturally they have a display of graffiti with a huge mural on the side of the building, which just screams contemporary art. Most of the displays were at least interesting to look at, some were even funny. Tom's favorite work was a motorized wooden head banging against a wall. My favorite was a display of books entitled Steal This Book. Most people stopped to pick one up and read it, which we also did. The inside described the thought process most people were probably having of whether or not you're really supposed to take it, if the security guard, who was standing right next to it, would let you, and if you would be guilty of stealing if you did. I asked him if I could take it and he responded, "Why are you asking me?" so I laughed and just slipped it into my purse. I've seen a few copies floating around the city, like at our laundromat. Another exhibit was a "house" with walls made of movie film, but I'm not really sure what the message was. It just seemed more like an interesting spectacle. After the visit, we took a little boat farther up the river. The photo of the old abandoned mansion is the same mansion that we took pictures of earlier in the blog. I think the old fortification walls are fantastic. And last but not least, can't finish the entry without a pastry.