In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present. - Francis Beacon.

After an unusually long absence from the blogosphere, I am back, and not without some stories to tell.  A sudden disappearance which I feel can be reasonably justified by such an uncharacteristically manic and exciting weekend - one which stretched from Saturday right through until Tuesday no less!  It was, of course, the weekend of the annual Fête des Lumières in Lyon and so the whole city descended into absolute chaos.

It was a wonderful sort of chaos though; huge crowds of people filled the streets and it was difficult to get anywhere with any speed, but everybody was feeling particularly cheerful and we were all quite content to slowly meander through the streets, enjoying the incredible light displays and sampling the vin chaud from various different street vendors along the way.  Quite apart from the fact that half of France seemed to have come to join in with the festivities, we also had several visitors of our own, with friends and family members from every corner of the globe (or at least Europe) making the journey to Lyon, hoping to see the city in all its festive glory.

This opportunity to play host in a city that I have been living in for several months, but have still not full explored, allowed me to discover a few new things myself and made me rather proud to call this city my home (or at least my home-for-now!)  The festival itself was utterly amazing; I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but it certainly exceeded any expectations I may have had!  There was such an incredible amount to see, with exhibits ranging from gigantic, themed light displays on the city's major buildings to indoor laser shows and the projection of 'La Dolce Vita' on the fountain at the Place des Jacobins.  With more than seventy individual light installations - some of which were far more spectacular than others - it would have been all but impossible to get to them all in only four days, but we did our best to see as many as we could and I feel confident that we did the festival justice.

Unfortunately, the photos taken on my 4 megapixel, point and shoot camera leave something to be desired - I feel it would be rather unfair, having raved on about how spectacular all these exhibits were, to share my rather blurry and lacklustre pictures with you, so I have instead selected some of the very best photos from the 'Fête des Lumières' group on Flickr, which will give you a far better idea of just how wonderful the weekend was.