Rendez-Vous Lyon

During October of the same year Jean Michel Jarre travelled to his home town of Lyon, where he was invited to play for the City’s welcome of Pope John Paul II. The concert, which was held near the River Saône, was a spectacular show with the singular visual and sound technology now Jarre’s unique signature. A choir of no less than 120 people and 60 musicians accompanied him on the stage. The concert attracted more than 800,000 people who gathered on the banks of the river and in the surrounding streets.

In the days leading up to the concert the organisers were very apprehensive, as an ancient prediction made by Nostradamus foretold that a pope would be assassinated in a French city where two rivers crossed, indeed the case of Lyon. Jarre defied the Nostradamus gloomy prediction and the concert was a huge success despite the massive security surrounding the Holy Father.