Last full day in Arles; Travel to Lyon, September 29 & 30

 September 29 - 

   Jerry left early today to spend the day at the  La Fetes des Associations in downtown Arles at a booth devoted to help for the families of those with mentally ill members.

After he left, and we had breakfast, Stephane tested positive for Covid. This necessitated cancelling our afternoon with Bruno and Juliette because they take care of their grandson. 

    Instead, Michael and Stephane took us by car to the bridge from Trinquetaille to Arles and we walked slowly to where Jerry was set up. It was festive with groups from Arles set up along the main street. They included dance groups (including Jerry's tango group), historical associations, re-enactors, music schools,  martial arts groups, environmental groups etc. There were performances also of dancers, drummers etc. In the morning, it included floats, but we were not there early enough to see those.

The tents stretched about a half a kilometer on both sides of the street. The day was perfect, so it was well attended. Jerry seemed to know an awful lot of people. We also saw Juliette on her bike and we had a conversation which was nice and we all expressed that it was too bad that we had to cancel the afternoon. 

      We wandered the streets up to the Roman Colosseum  and the Roman Theatre which we had seen at night for the African Dance Performance. We had a bit to eat (poke bowls) and visited the Cathedral dedicated to St. Trophime which has been designated a UNESCO Heritage Site.  It build between the 12th and the15th Century and is a classic example of the architecture of the early Middle Ages and Romanesque architecture. It is quite impressive- narrow and tall with huge buttresses. Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Emperor was crowned at St Trophime in 1178. 

   We wandered back to Jerry's booth and he drove us home and he went back to break down the exhibit with one of his colleagues.

Narrow nave, Saint Tromphime

St. Tromphime

Part of portal of St. Tromphime

He came home pretty tired, but happy.

September 30 Travel Day - Arles to Lyon

    We had a day where some things went wrong, but were rectified.

    First, the Uber that Jerry ordered did not arrive. Luckily, his neighbor took us to the station where we caught the train. We accidentally sat in the first car, not realizing it was first class, but the two conductors let us stay there, partly as the train was not very full. It was about a 3 1/2 hour trip.

     The station in Lyon was busy and confusing. We got a taxi to take us close to 52, Rue Merciere which is in a pedestrian area of the island between the Rhone and Saone rivers. The taxi was a beautiful Tesla and a man who was backing up slammed right into us and did quite a lot of damage. We were close to our destination, so we got out as clearly the issue was going to take time to resolve. We felt badly for our driver who was not at fault.

 

 We found the place, but had the dickens of a time getting in.

The directions gave us a code for a lock box which we thought was on the door outside the apartment, but it didn't work. We had to ask the restaurant below us to let us in the main door, so we knew that we had to find the keys because, once the restaurant closes, we couldn't get in the front door. Ugh. And, we are up two flights of a narrow, stone spiral staircase - again! We seem to have a knack for finding narrow spiral staircases.

   

 Mark and Jerry went to a nearby cafe to access wifi and see if they could contact the owner of the apartment. Barbara stayed on the landing with the bags. Time was ticking. Jerry came to get Barbara to take her to the cafe and possibly have something to eat while we tried to sort out the problem. But, Barbara pulled on the mailbox at the bottom of the stairs and we found another lock box! At first, it also did not open, but then, we re-read the emails and it said to pull the box downward. Lo and behold! Keys! Great sighs of relief abounded.

   The flat is funky large with a shower you access by going up another little flight of stone stairs.

    We were all hungry and went to Leon, the restaurant that let Mark sit there for an hour trying to figure it all out. We ate outside. Jerry and Barbara had two different dishes of moules (mussels) and Mark had fish tacos.

    During the meal, a frightening parade of thugs in masks and carrying flares went by banging drums and shouting fascist epithets. There were about 75 of them. People around us were scared and we were also alarmed. But, they marched by and things returned to normal.