Its beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Even though its not snowing and I'm not home, this weekend brought me more into the Christmas spirit. I went with friends to look at the Christmas lights in my city on Friday, where we took a ferris wheel next to the city hall to see the market and lights from above. Then chocolat à l'ancienne warmed our bellies, basically the richest hot chocolate I've ever had. The next day I went with a huge group to the Festival de Lumières in Lyon. The festival was all weekend because the 8th of December is a French tradition of lighting candles to the Virgin Mary, in front of the Fourvière cathedrale was a light ficture saying "merci Marie". We went around the Christmas market in front of the train station Perrache, had some hot wine, and then followed the crowds past the filled stores to the Place Bellecour where we watched a band play (sadly not Christmas carols but still really good). Then it was off for a beer in Vieux Lyon until the light festivities began at 6. We saw the beuatiful twinkling lights of Saint-Jean, a bit of the laser light show on the river, and then headed North by the Hotel de Ville to see the lights by the Opéra and the fountain there. On the side of the Opéra were people climbing and dancing, some modern art show, but I don't know how they weren' blinded by the flourescent lights in front of them. After a bit more trekking uphill our little legs were numb and we walked to Part Dieu to take the train home. My socks were gray and wet when I took off my shoes, and I was ready for bed before a day of shopping on Sunday with the stores now open on Sundays until Christmas.
Fun: sparkling Santa hats, being harrassed by the costumed animals, vin chaud (hot wine with cinnamon and sugar added), ferris wheels, twinkling lights, nutella waffles, French people saying "Follow Père Noel" when they needed to follow me to exit the thimble stairs, singing jingles and reminiscing about cartoons from our childhood on the train ride bac, finding a dress to wear for New Year's. Not so fun: train strikes, rain and wet socks, weird people pulling hats or saying they're Ukranian but from the East coast, people leaving Irish pub doors open, drinking hot wine and having to pee but there are no public restrooms, four euros for a waffle, my pretty gloves turning red from wine and brown from chestnuts, wishing my friends and family from home could experience these fun things with me.