It is sooooo pretty in Lyon at night, and with the warm summer air, I loved to stroll down by the riverside just admiring the great floodlighting. It's interesting that although Paris is known to be "The City of Lights", floodlighting actually originated from Lyon in the 19th century, when people would put candles in their windowsill on December 8 to pay hommage to Mary, for sparing their city of a plague that passed by a couple centuries earlier.
July 14th is Bastille day, a.k.a. La Fete Nationale, I got to watch an amazingly long fireworks display on. It's the biggest holiday of the year in France as it commemorates when the people of France took down the Bastille fortress-prison. This act marked "the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy... and what people considered the happy conclusion of the French Revolution" (according to Wikipedia). Basically in a nutshell, it's what's Canada Day is to us, as is Independence Day is to Americans. Everyone took to the streets and set up lawn chairs or blankets by the river to watch the fireworks and enjoy the street festivities.
On my way back to the hostel, I stopped by a little crepe cart. Gotta love the crepes in France. Paper thin, more fragrant, and deliciously chewier than what those that I've had back in Toronto. I usually go for the Nutella crepe, but that night I enjoyed a simple cinnamon sugar one. Yum! :)
