Located in the heart of France’s Cantal region, the small city of Aurillac is the stuff of postcards, its surrounding landscape featuring the smoothed peaks of the extinct Massif Central volcanoes.

Sylvain Bigot jokes, “I’m the bridge lighting designer.” Bigot, principal of Neo Light, a firm in Joué Lès Tours, France, has illuminated the Saint Satur Viaduct and the Pont de Montrichard, for which he was awarded first prize in the 2004 Light Competition, which is overseen by the French Ministry of Culture.

Blunt, thickset, elemental––these are your first impressions, having turned through the close neighborhood streets of Firminy and come upon the Eglise Saint-Pierre Firminy-Vert in the widening expanse of its suburban setting.