Did you know hedgehogs are real animals that live in real nature? I always thought they were magical creatures that we domesticated for teachers and people on tv. Does this mean that hamsters and gerbils exist in the wild too? Hard to believe.
Anyways, I’ve come across one of these guys three times over the past eight months, always late at night and always near my house. I have no idea how they’ve survived, they are the slowest things I’ve ever seen on four* feet.
Wow. Four days seem to have gone by in two hours. I’ve never been so fooled by the passage of time. It could have something to do with only seeing the sun rise and set (virtually no day), and the rest of the time being surrounded by flashing lights.
I worked for three to five hours most days, then I would go home and sleep for three or four more. The rest of the time was spent rendez-vous-ing with friends, rocking out, and dancing. At the beginning I thought I would be eventually burn out on lights and music, but by the end I only wanted more.
The result of a four-day danceathon is a week long slump where no part of my body works properly. Today I discovered I might have broken a toe, along with the flu and being sore in more places than I ever knew about. Was it worth it? You bet it was.
Most evenings we would gather on the steps by the skatepark, overlooking the Rhône river. I used my sunglasses as a lens for this photo and the next.
This is at the Piscine de Rhône, a public pool which hasn’t opened for summer yet. Nuits Sonores organized parties and mini-concerts here during the days and evenings before the main events began.
This is what it looked like:
On Thursday, there were free events all over the city. This one was right outside my friend Simon’s house (pictured below), which was convenient.
Later Thursday night, we went to the Patinoire, the city’s giant ice skating stadium. They put down a carpet over all the ice, so we didn’t go sliding around like penguins. It was free for everyone, and thousands of people showed up. This was only one of the events happening in Lyon that night, there were similar soirées going down all over the city.
My favorite part was when DatA played. He’s a parisian DJ who does my favorite kind of dance music. To get a feel of what we were listening to, go here and play “Aerius Light”.
I never even realized we were on ice until the carpet underneath us started slipping around. I thought it was strange, but never put two-and-two together until part of the carpet separated from the wall and exposed part of the ice. You can imagine what happened after that…
The rest of the nights played out in the old factory I wrote about in the last post. I saw so many incredible bands and DJs, I don’t even know where to begin. Of course, none of this would be nearly as fun without all the great friends I had with me.
Jon, Mike, Ruby, and Jane
Ruby and Alex
Me, Fanny, and Charlotte
I can’t believe how many awesome friends I’ve made in just nine months. I am really going to miss them a lot.
Wondering what all of this did to my shoes? Of course you were. Here they are riding the metro home after Thursday night…
…and these are them after Saturday night. Notice a difference?
I will never forget those four days, they all blended together into a giant blob of awesome. Hooray for music!
I was lucky enough to get hooked up with the company that organizes Nuits Sonores, a four-night Electronic and Indie festival. I’m volunteering, which means I put in about twenty hours over the course of this week, and in return I get free entry, VIP access, free food and drinks. The work is pretty easy, I’ll be doing everything from setting up, taking down and working bars. Oh yeah, and dancing until I can’t.
We started a few days ago getting the site ready for the festival, which is being held in an old abandoned factory that used to make light bulbs. It’s been closed for about two years now, and after the festival, they’re going to DEMOLISH the whole thing. You know what this means? We get to do whatever we want with the place. There is a team of artists, and they were putting stuff up while we were moving everything around.
Sylvan working on couch logistics. We had a ton of old furniture from local thrift stores to furnish rooms we set up for the artists to hang out in
The complex is ginormous. The other day we went through the different buildings shutting off entire hallways with boards so people wouldn’t get lost. In just a few days we saw an expansive, desolate factory get turned into a dance-party machine. There are three different main rooms (and by rooms, we’re talking airplane hanger-sized), as well as smaller rooms with bars and lounges. Over these four days, we’re expecting to see 50,000 people in total.
(before)
This shipping crate got painted gold, then they put a DJ inside. Voila, you can listen and dance while you wait outside to meet up with your friends. Having outdoor spaces is really nice, because it gets pretty hot inside.
everything all the time 
