Between Rhône and Saône | City of Lyon
Just before the start of the summer holidays, Lyon will celebrate its most precious resource: water. The new event, the Entre Rhône et Saône festival, will indeed be part of the calendar of Lyon festivities. Structured around several highlights, it will offer the people of Lyon the opportunity to reconnect with the waterways, to get closer to them. Because most of the entertainment will be concentrated on the banks of the Rhône, at the height of the Guillotière bridge, and the Saône, in particular at Île Barbe (9th). Here, all weekend long, taverns will invite you to live together happy moments. As a highlight, on Saturday, a big parade with 9 colors will break from the Place des Terreaux to the Guillotière bridge. It will be made up of processions from all the districts, with the participation of social centres, the MJC and popular education associations. Accompanied by stilt walkers and batucadas, this family gathering will end with a show at the foot of the Guillotière bridge under the watchful eye of Machekrautancestral monster of the Rhone.
Another highlight, the Ilotopie company will offer drifts, a show that will transform the Saône on a real theater stage.
Cultural, sports and artistic activities carried out by local associations are also supposed to make this event festive, joyful and popular, shared by as many people as possible. The festival will also be an opportunity to discover the water cycle through scientific conferences; its history in the form of an exhibition; the biodiversity it shelters, revealed by naturalist associations. These themes will be contained in an educational booklet given to all Lyon schoolchildren. Finally, to help protect water, the public will be invited to participate in depollution actions such as waste collection on the banks and in waterways. Other actions in favor of the preservation of the Rhône and the Saône will be planned.
Questions to Yann Arthus-Bertrand, sponsor of the festival
The 1D edition of Entre Rhône et Saône will be sponsored by photographer and director Yann Arthus-Bertrand, whose commitment to the planet, water and rivers echoes the festival.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand present in Lyon for the launch of the festival (photo: Muriel Chaulet)
What are the ecological issues around waterways?
Yann Arthus-Bertrand : The rivers are very important because they are surrounded by protected areas where animals live. The Rhône basin, for example, extends over nearly 10 million hectares. You can imagine it all ends up in the rivers… In France, 90% of the rivers are polluted by pesticides. We really need to rethink the way we see the Earth around us.
What will your role be in this event?
My role is above all to help and to talk, very modestly, about ecology to everyone. Ecology is respecting the life around you, it’s loving life. I plead for a loving ecology that makes you want to change, to get involved. Today we are in incredible collective denial. This relationship to growth in which we find ourselves prevents us from reflecting on the place of the living. Yet we all have a responsibility. And I think today is the beginning of a change of way of life.
How can cities act to preserve biodiversity?
Cities are easier to act than a government. A city can decide on organic in schools, give land to market gardeners, act on mobility… I made a film for The Parliamentary Channel on the Citizen’s Convention for the Climate: 150 people taken at random, who do not know nothing to the environment have become greener than me in a few weeks! They have assumed their role as citizens, it is important. Today we have a film project with France Télévisions which is based on taking a town of 20,000 inhabitants and getting them to change their behavior. To involve local associations, to film what works and what does not work. To see where the blockages are.
Your bedside book of the moment?
It’s not my bedside book but there is a book by Léo Cohen that has just come out: 800 Days at the Ministry of the Impossible. Ecology put to the test of power (ed. Les Petits matins) and which fascinates me. He was an adviser to the Ministry of the Environment. He says we can put Greta Thunberg at the Elysée, that won’t change anything. He explains very well how complicated it is to get things moving, the pressures that exist from all parties. But we have to stop being angry with the lobbies, with the politicians. It’s no use. You have to ask yourself: “What do I want to do? Are you engaged? Or, acting makes you happy. »