Passage of the ISS with Thomas Pesquet in solstice day on Wednesday, December 21, 2016. The sea of clouds was present above Annecy Lake on the first day of winter. It was the ISS's last nocturnal passage of the year. I had chosen to climb the platform of the former Veyrier ski lift in order to capture the ISS, which was supposed to pass beneath the planet Venus. The view when I arrived was magnificent. A pure, deep blue sky was underlined by the red band of the horizon at twilight. The sea of clouds, a bit more than one hundred meters thick, diffused and softened the lights of Annecy and the communities at the edge of the lake, including those of Veyrier, 900m below. The dark shape of the lake could be seen in the Annecian cluse, while the ISS emerged from the horizon at 18:00, before tracing a curve to disappear behind the mountains of the Bauges.