The Festival of Lights in Lyon

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For four days each December, the Festival of Lights in Lyon makes the city sparkle. The Fête des Lumières is the largest lights festival in the country. The origins are much darker than the present day show says local Anna Richards.

Renaissance portraits belting out Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time on the façade of 200-year-old buildings are just one of the things that attract crowds to Lyon’s Fête des Lumières. A five-day celebration of light, some two million visitors embark here annually to see the installations, which change each year.

Technically, I’ve been attending the Fête des Lumières for 12 years, when as a fresh faced 20-year-old I drank so much mulled wine that a projection of Le Petit Prince (written by Lyonnais local Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) seemed to fly over the Hôtel de Ville in slow motion. I’ve missed a fair few in the intervening years, but five festivals later, I’ve picked up plenty of tips on how best to experience the celebrations like a local.

A Light in the Dark

Fourvière Basilica, festival of lights Lyon — *Fourvière Basilica, Fête des Lumières © Robert Brice, ONLYLYON Tourism & Conventions*

The Fête des Lumières today is all about neon lighting, the scent of roasting chestnuts and cinematic projections, but the origins are much more modest, and much more macabre. In the 17th century, the south of France was ravaged by plague epidemic after plague epidemic, and Lyon was no exception. During the winter of 1628-29 a violent outbreak of plague had wiped out almost half the city, a suffering still raw when the plague came knocking on Lyon’s door once again in 1643. Terrified that history would repeat itself, on September 8th 1643, Lyonnais citizens climbed up Fourvière Hill by candlelight to pray to the Virgin Mary for salvation. Their prayers were answered, and the plague never spread.

The fact that the Fête des Lumières takes place around December 8th, and not in September, isn’t due to erroneous record keeping but to a flood. Over two centuries later, sculptor Joseph Hugues-Fabisch who had a workshop on the banks of the River Saône was commissioned to create a sculpture of the Virgin Mary to sit atop of Fourvière Hill.

Shortly before the sculpture was due to be unveiled on September 8th, the Saône burst its banks and flooded the workshop. With the time it took to repair the statue, its inauguration was pushed back to December 8th, when it was mounted on Fourvière via a procession, with locals all lighting candles in their windows to light the way. As a result, 1852 is often considered the true ‘start’ of the Fête des Lumières.

Festival of Lights in Lyon

*Place des Jacobins Fête des Lumières © Robert Brice, ONLYLYON Tourism & Conventions*

In its present form, the festival dates from 1999, with the full festival programme unveiled a month or two before. Although the installations themselves change, many of the sites stay the same year-on-year, with projections on Lyon’s most famous buildings, including the Hôtel de Ville, Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Vieux Lyon, Fourvière Basilica, Place Bellecour and in the enormous urban park, la Tête d’Or.

Generally, the festival runs from Thursday to Sunday on the weekend encompassing or closest to December 8th, the anniversary of the unveiling of the Virgin Mary statue, but this year, with the 8th falling on a Monday, it spans Friday December 5th to Monday December 8th. if you’re crowd-adverse, arrive a day before, when the production teams test all the lights installations. You’ll get the full show (albeit perhaps not as slick as during the festival), and it’ll only be you and the locals.

All of the lights shows are completely free, but accommodation during the festival can be extortionate. Book early, and if you miss hotels in the city centre, stay somewhere at the end of the metro line. Saint-Genis-Laval or Vaulx-en-Velin la Soie, for example, might not be the most happening quartiers, but you’re only a 20-minute straight metro ride out of the centre of town. Many locals also up and leave for the weekend, renting out their accommodation on Airbnb. These are often illegal sublets, so while they can be cheaper, proceed with caution.

Similarly, restaurants close to the action (on the Presqu’île or in Vieux Lyon) risk bursting at the seams. Book early and look for restaurants in quartiers where the festival isn’t taking place. The 6th, 3rd and 7th arrondissements are across the River Rhône from the action and have plenty of world cuisine, everything from Iranian and Indian to Ethiopian, as well as French bistros with old world charm, like Brasserie Roseaux.

*Place des Terreaux, Fête des Lumières © Robert Brice, ONLYLYON Tourism & Conventions*

My best tip? Don’t rush it. If you’re in Lyon for the full festival, don’t try to see every installation in one evening, but choose two or three in the same part of town before heading for dinner. A very reasonably priced tram and metro ticket, TCL en fête, allows you to take as many journeys as you want from 4pm onwards for just €3.60, but naturally, public transport is crowded and becomes an elbow war. Bikes are banned in much of the city centre during the festival, as are cars, and even pedestrians are often subject to one-way streets. By getting around on foot, you’ll likely discover some of the smaller lights displays along the way. Wrap up warm, you’ll be spending a long time outside and sub-zero temperatures are commonplace here at this time of year.

*Snow globe around the statue of Louis XIV on Place Bellecour © Robert Brice, ONLYLYON Tourism & Conventions*

Until the festival gets underway, there’s no saying which the best displays will be. Last year I particularly liked the snow globe around the statue of Louis XIV on Place Bellecour and the aquarium-style spectacle with floating neon sharks on Place Sathonay. For views, climbing up to Fourvière Basilica to see the city lit up from above is a must. You’ll get to see the famous gold-coated statue of the Virgin Mary which nearly got swept away by the floods, and give a little thanks for Lyon’s salvation from the plague epidemic too.

Find out more at fetedeslimieres.lyon.fr/en; visiterlyon.com

Anna Richards is a writer & guidebook author living in Lyon. Her work has appeared in Lonely Planet, National Geographic and many more.