City nights, city lights (bis) Monday, Dec 14 2009

One of the plazas had a plant theme going on. This was probably one of my favourite display.

Echinodermus luminis

Ombrellum

Place Bellecour was home to a giant Ferris wheel which served as a screen for the display “la nuit au musée” (Night at the Museum). Works from Lyon’s Museum of Fine Arts were pictured, interspersed with random quotes (like this one: “Tout l’océan du grand Neptune arrivera-t-il à laver ce sang de ma main ?” Yup, from the Scottish play.)

Zeus, I think? Or maybe Poseidon.

There’s also a statue of Louis XIV in Bellecour.

The Sun King... at night

In the 7e arrondisement there was an interesting display with plastic mannequins which lit up and played recordings when you approached them…. I couldn’t get a decent photo of them, so here are some lanterns instead

More low-key lanterns

But the biggest surprise was wandering around Vieux Lyon on the last night of the festival and running into this random puppet show. It ended with “Vive la crise!” and the puppets chucking foil-wrapped chocolate coins onto their adoring public below.

Pour Guignol, la crise n'est rien

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City nights, city lights Sunday, Dec 13 2009

So every year, since 1852, Lyon has had a Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) in early December. The story behind it, as I understand it, goes something like this:

On December 8, 1852, the town had planned to inaugurate a statue of the Virgin Mary on Fourvière Hill. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating, and the celebrations were duly cancelled. However, the townspeople had already placed candles in their windows for the event and were kind of getting ready to celebrate anyway. At the last minute, the skies cleared up, and the celebration went ahead, spurred on by the people taking to the streets spontaneously—and so every year since then, the Lyonnais commemorate the occasion by lighting up the whole city.

This year the Festival ran from December 5 to 8…. and I didn’t even get to see everything I wanted to! It’s a huge thing here.

These photos are a bit fuzzy, but I hope they give you an idea of just how beautiful this city is when it’s lit up.

PRETTY!

PRETTIER!

PRETTIEST!

With more to come

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Ready… set… IMPRO! Friday, Nov 27 2009

I recently headed to a match d’impro (an improv match) between Lyon and Montreal. Improv matches, as they are played here, were invented by a Quebecois, so hockey references abound. It’s played in a fake ice rink, with a ref and two linesmen who give out penalties (majors and minors), and goes on for three periods with the possibility of overtime. The players wear jerseys:

Montréal team huddle

Two teams battle for supremacy in an improv match. At the beginning of each round, the ref draws a card and names the criteria for the sketch. At the end of the sketch(es), the members of the audience vote for the team they feel did better, and the winning team is awarded a point.

Scoreboard

The big numbers are points; the smaller ones are penalty points. Penalties are called by the ref at the end of the sketches, for things like non sequiturs and going off-topic. As in hockey, only the captain can discuss calls with the ref:

And sometimes they do strange things

Unlike hockey, the spectators are given slippers to throw at the refs in order to express their discontent with calls.

Oooh, it's a close one!

[Silly side note: At one point I noticed one of the Montréal women was wearing Lululemon pants, and that we might have been the only two people in the building wearing Lululemon.]

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The lie revealed! Tuesday, Nov 24 2009

Okay, so first a confession: I did really take all of these photos over the course of one Sunday afternoon.

That being said….

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Two truths, one lie Sunday, Nov 15 2009

Ever play that ice-breaker game “two truths, one lie”?

Here’s deux verités, un mensonge, Lyon edition:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

A: Orange businessmen are found all over town.
B: Driving in France can be dangerous.
C: Interpol headquarters is in Lyon.

Guesses accepted until I decide to stop accepting them.

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Je me souviens Wednesday, Nov 11 2009

November 11 is Remembrance Day in Anglophone Canada, le Jour du Souvenir in Francophone Canada, and le Jour de l’Armistice here.

So let’s start off here:

Seemed appropriate.

I had a bit of a time finding the ceremony and actually got there a bit late. This is basically what I was looking at the whole time while listening to speeches about the terrors of war.

Flag-bearers.

These guys were pretty cool.

I’ll wait for someone with more knowledge to come along and explain these guys to me.

Memorial on the Ile du Souvenir

The wreath-laying was done here, on one of the islands in the Parc de la Tête d’Or; it’s dedicated to the memory of fallen Lyonnais in the Great War.

Okay, so I like taking pictures of flowers

It’s kind of a special time in Franco-German relations; Angela Merkel was invited by Nicolas Sarkozy to take part in the Armistice Day ceremony in Paris. Since Germany obviously does not celebrate Armistice Day, this is a huge (if symbolic) step forward in putting aside old grudges and working together, a theme which was echoed in one of the speeches.

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Another truism! Monday, Nov 9 2009

So remember this quote I took a picture of? I walked by the cafe again the other day and noticed the sign had changed! I really wonder how often they do this….

Here’s the new one:

"Those who fall into ruin by making promises grow rich by not keeping them."

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Weird, the stuff you can find here Sunday, Nov 8 2009

Okay, so while running around yesterday (remember, everything is closed on Sunday in France) I ran into a large grocery store called Lidl. Little did I know I had just walked into a “hard discounter” where the ambiance is lacking, the aisles are crowded, and the wares are cheap.

Not to mention kind of random. I always feel a little better experimenting if I don’t have to break the bank to do it.

One French food and one decidedly non-French food

Quenelles are a Lyonnais specialty: they’re kind of like a fish-based sausage/dumpling/thing, comparable to Chinese fish balls, but less dense (more fillers). I’ve only had them at the campus cafeteria, which is probably not the place to go for the best quenelles in town. Frankly, eating them out of a can is probably not the best either, but it’s cheaper than eating out. (I promise to post a picture when I actually make these things.)

The other thing is just a package of chocolate chili cookies. Yes, you’ve heard of the drink, but now you can have them in cookie form. I have no idea where they came from, but they were so weird (and cheap: 0,59E!) that I had to buy them.

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GLOVE GLOVE GLOVE Saturday, Nov 7 2009

In keeping with the three-part titles, I present: la boîte à gants à trois gants (the three-gloved glove box).

Acronym: BAG

It’s basically right in between your single and your double glove box in size. The two gloves on the left are ambidextrous, but the last is right-handed. For some reason I have a really hard time getting into the ambidextrous gloves.

Here is where I spend a lot of my time, the high vacuum line:

It looks complicated, but.... okay, so it is kind of complicated at first

And this is what we use to achieve high vacuum, a refluxing mercury pump. Just a little bit scary. I usually don’t get this close.

Mmmmm, Hg

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WINE WINE WINE Tuesday, Nov 3 2009

A salon du vin was also held this weekend in Lyon: in particular, independent wineries (whatever that means) were represented. Unfortunately I don’t really know how to appreciate wine the same way I do chocolate, and the extent of the exhibition was really kind of overwhelming.

Lots of wine. Lots of people

Admission to the salon got you a tasting glass Did I mention admission was free because my co-worker had procured invitations somehow?

My haul from the salon

And this is the only thing I bought (I don’t even own a corkscrew, actually, but I kind of felt bad not buying even a single bottle of wine…) It’s called Prelude d’Hiver (Prelude to Winter) and it’s a very mild, sweet white wine. I have no idea what I would serve it with, I think I’d just…. drink it.

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