This time there was snow for real in Lyon. It made the city look very pretty and wintry.

The cycle ride to work was a bit slower than usual.

It was cold at work. In one meeting, six people were wearing scarves, four others padded gilets.

This is a nice touch by one of our neighbours. A basket of sweets for people to help themselves in the run-up to Christmas.

However it coincides with the reappearance of mice in the building so the timing might not be the best.

These baubles around Lyon are a nice Christmas addition.

Il fait vraiment froid à Lyon ce weekend. Et il y a de la neige. Seulement sur une voiture mais de la neige quand même.

Not long now til the big match. Everyone is talking about it. One of Cath’s students predicted a 6-0 victory for Les Bleus with Lloris among the scorers.

One thing’s for sure – there’s no getting away from it here.

COME ON ENGLAND!

*UPDATE: No, it’s not.

On 8 December we went out again to experience the festival of lights – this time with crowds.

We watched some famous buildings in Vieux Lyon light up and look a bit different.

And everywhere – candles.

The atmosphere was lovely – Presqu’Ile was pedestrianised – and though there were lots of crowds, there was plenty of mulled wine and hot chocolate stalls dotted around.

It all made for a very nice evening.

I’m not sure what they were doing on the crane in front of la Sucrière – practising?

La fête des lumières is a yearly light festival in Lyon from 8- 11 December where buildings are lit up with light projections.

It is said to date back to 1852 – on the feast of the Immaculate Conception – for the inauguration of the bronze statue of the Virgin Mary at the top of Notre Dame de Fourvière – built of course to thank Mary for saving the city from a plague in 1643

The story goes that a storm ruled out a fireworks display to mark the inauguration so Lyonnais put candles in their windows instead – and a tradition was born.

So with our Super Voisine Patrizia and her friend we set out to see the rehearsals the day before – when Lyon isn’t quite so full.

The first few installations we went to see weren’t being rehearsed when we were there so instead we went for a drink.

Then we timed it perfectly to see the show in Place de Terreaux.

It featured figures from the world of art singing along to songs from Serge Gainsbourg, Britney Spears, Eminem, AC/DC and others. Watch for yourselves.

Fete des lumières is coming but the Christmas lights in our street are already quite impressive.

So impressive in fact that we decided we should play our part too.

Inside, our flat it is looking a lot more festive too.

Thanks to my friend Has, who came to Lyon for a few days in October with Kristina, for sending me this piece from the Sunday Times about a weekend break in Lyons.

Fortunately when they were here, Has and Kristina experienced the lion’s share (geddit?) of things on this list.

But we now have a few new restaurants and bars to visit – as well as the St Antoine market.

But more importantly I didn’t realise Lyon had an S at the end of it in English! Might change the name of this blog – it would work better.