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French urban night time has changed a lot since the 1980’s. During this time, a new way of lighting urban spaces has come into being and consensus has now formed around two ideas: urban lighting must nowadays be more qualitative and also more globally designed. Within this framework, this presentation analyses the way light pollution is treated in urban contexts. The analysis, based on studies in Paris, Saint-Denis and Bordeaux, shows the confusions which surround this expression and the quasi-exclusively technicist means used to reduce it. The hypothesis developed is that the focus here is linked only to landscape considerations and therefore ignores other elements of the nocturnal environment. Other examples of special nocturnal management illustrate better control of light pollution.