Technology and Social Media in Lyon (LingoMap)
Bonjour à tous et bienvenus sur mon premier blog. Tout d’abord, laissez-moi me présenter. Je m’appelle Ollie et j’ai vingt-deux ans. Pour mon année à l’étranger je passe du temps à Lyon, la troisième plus grande ville en France. J’étudie a l’université Jean-Moulin-Lyon-III.
Technology
On the theme of la technologie, Lyon has played a significant role in the history of le cinéma. The brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, who lived in Lyon, were the inventors of le cinéma. They screened the first ever movies (10 short motion pictures) in 1895, in Paris. One of these movies, which showed a train arriving at a station, caused the audience to panic and run for their lives. I suppose they could be forgiven considering only a handful of people in the world had seen a movie. This is something that les Lyonnais (inhabitants of Lyon) are particularly proud of, and you can follow the story of the Lumière brothers at their museum in the Château Lumière. My flatmate, Emile, even bought his own projecteur so we could have un home cinéma in our apartment. Nous avons regardé quelques séries avec son projecteur, comme ‘Le Bureau des Légendes’ et ‘Narcos’ (mais, bizarrement, doublé en français et sous-titré en anglais). Like most British people, when I watch foreign films or séries I use sous-titres anglais. What I found with the French is that they prefer to watch everything doublé en français. I tried introducing ‘Hot Fuzz’ to my flatmates, but it really wasn’t the same with le doublage. We also set it up for les jeux vidéo, which was great as FIFA 18 had just been released. C’était nickel.
Social Media
Les réseaux sociaux in France aren’t really any different to what we have in the UK. Adapting to life in Lyon was smooth as there were plenty of events advertised on social media. Par exemple, sur Facebook il y avait beaucoup d’événements organisés par Erasmus. Chaque lundi, Erasmus organise une fête sur une péniche. These events are great as they offer an opportunity to meet other international students, as well as French students who want to practice their English (or help with your French)!
La Fête des Lumières
On the theme of la technologie, one of the best memories of my time in Lyon must be La Fête des Lumières, which is one of the world’s largest arts visuels festivals. This festival showcased some pretty incredible stuff, spread all over the city. It went on during 4 days at the start of December. There were so many different light shows, even after 4 nights I had not managed to see them all! About 2 million people from around the world filled the streets of Lyon during this weekend. As you can imagine, with a usual population of 500,000, les rues étaient bondées. The smell of vin chaud (mulled wine) and marrons (roasted chestnuts) filled the streets, where crowds of people drifted from one spectacle son et lumière to the next. The atmosphere was fantastic. It was also seriously chilly, so the vin chaud went down very nicely.
My photos really don’t do it justice. You’re better off watching les moments forts on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v7tyz11vR4.
J’espère que vous avez apprécié mon premier article de blog! Health and fitness will be the theme of my next post.
À la prochaine
Ollie
