#fête des lumières lyon 2023 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

redwineconversation · 2 years

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What’s the best time of year to visit Lyon? I’d really like to see a home match.

Lyon is a gorgeous city year-round, but it is truly magical during the Festival of Lights (Fête des Lumières), which usually happens beginning of December. As the name suggests, the city is lit up. It's cold but magical. While I live in California now and do consider 18 degrees as being "sweater weather", I cannot shake my European roots and love when it is cold enough to see your breath and there's a definite chill in the air.

Even the Old Town is lit up during the Fête des Lumières. Which you should definitely check out, because that means you can walk by the Cathedral - a gorgeous monument in itself - while munching on roasted chestnuts. My pitch re: roasted chestnuts is once you try it, you understand the hype. I say the same about soy lattes.

Downside of visiting Lyon during Fête des Lumières - the big games are typically over by then.

The big home games are either PSG (which won’t happen again in D1 until April / May 2023) or the UWCL home games. Fleury / Bordeaux / Montpellier would be other fun games, but the level of intensity isn't as high as a decent rivalry game. Because of the new schedule, you would be able to catch the group stages home games between September - November, but the official schedule for that won't come out until later in the year.

But let's say you're like, nah, I will never like the taste of roasted chestnuts and I don't care what you say, you don't have to freeze to death to buy into a decent love story.

Then you have two options! Beginning of the season or spring.

Now, Lyon does get humid, so if you're wanting to catch the first home games of the season, you are going to sweat a lot. Beginning of the season doesn't tell you a whole lot about Lyon other than how exhausted they are from the previous season. Lyon's true colors don't really show until October, when the team has started to gel and you see the broader picture.

Lyon in the spring, though, that's a whole love story in itself. Decent weather, and more importantly, Lyon is starting to enter in God Mode around this time of year. April!Lyon just looks different. You can see it almost in the way they hold themselves. Their eyes, too, look a little different when they are in God Mode. It's hard to explain but when you see it you'll understand.

Long story short: I would avoid Lyon home games in August and probably January-February, but we can discuss things in more detail if you want. As I said, the high intensity games will be PSG + UWCL, but PSG at home next season won't be until April or May 2023.

#all good love stories start in the rain

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