We'd been racking up some hotel points over the last 3 years, so we decided to put those points to good use and stay in Lyon for a night during the Festival of Lights. We booked our room months ahead of time and the hotels had already started to fill up! We got a great room and here was our view.
We took the train in on Thursday because we heard Thursday was a good night to go since there would be "less crowds". Less crowds?! There was an insane amount of people, everywhere. It was crazy and so fun to be a part of. This was one of my favorite light displays.
The festival is in honor of the Virgin Mary. It began in 1852 with people placing candles in their windows (which people still do) but now it has also become a collection of high tech light shows. This exhibit above included dancing lights choreographed to music.
This street actually wasn't too crowed, yet. The butterfly lights went on for blocks and blocks. The shops were all closed but there were vendors in the streets selling snacks and hot wine. It was really something to see and experience and it took our minds off our relocation for just a little bit.
We had the train car to ourselves on the ride back to Chambery. It was a relaxing trip home but a sad trip too (not that you can tell by Max's face). This was our last trip we'd take together while living in France. It really started to sink in that we were leaving. We were ready to go but we were really going to miss our little (and sometimes not so little) trips through Europe. It had been an experience of a lifetime. I saw and experienced more than I ever thought I would and I am extremely grateful for that. And so comes the end to our three year adventure abroad. Time for the next chapter in our lives.
During our last couple of weeks in France, my friends at AVF threw me a little going away party at one the restaurants in town. It was so sweet of them! I enjoyed meeting with them every week and I appreciated all their efforts to make me feel more at home in Chambery. I will keep in touch with them for a long time to come.
I know, I am so far behind on my posts! We are in the middle of our relocation and I feel like I finally have a minute to update the blog. We were so happy to have our friend Matt visit us over the Thanksgiving holiday! We decided to take a small trip up to the Grotte de Choranche, located at the bottom of the Presles cliffs (above).
The stalactites in this cave are referred to as soda straws since (I believe) they are hollow inside. (I don't have my little informative sheet in front of me right now. I think it's somewhere in our sea shipment, so please, bear with me.)
The soda straws grow at a rate of 2 cm per hundred years (I believe). There are some staws up to 3 meters long (that part I really do remember). They are very beautiful and extreamly delicate. Due to the very narrow opening, this cave remained undiscovered until the end of the 19th century and the straws have remained largely intact.
The temperature of the cave remains a cool 10 degree celcius (or 50 degress farenheit) despite the temperature outside. There are small little blind amphibians that have lived in the cave since prehistoric times. We couldn't really take pictures of them since they were so sensitive to light. They were kind of ugly anyway.
Here's Max and Matt in the cave! We had a lot of fun during Matt's visit and we're glad he had the chance to see where we lived. We always felt so fortunate when we would get visitors; having Matt was no exception. We were sad to to see him go since he would be our last visitor to our home in France.
