Before the sun had even risen, I was awake, and getting ready to go out for a long run. My plan for today was to run around ten kilometres to a large intact section of the Gier Roman Aqueduct in Chaponost, and to then run back. I knew it was going to have a few hills from when I’d plotted the route for my watch last night. I had no idea just how steep they might actually be though.
I set off at 06:30, and followed some of the same route as yesterday. However, where we turned right at the railway bridge, I turned left, and gradually worked my way south-west until I crossed onto what is like an island at the Musée Des Confluences. There’s then another bridge almost immediately after that which crosses the Saône, but then there are some stairs to climb. I looked up and figured it wouldn’t take too long to walk up them, even though they were very steep. At the top of them there’s then a bend in the road and it goes further up hill, for longer, and is even steeper too for good measure. I walked all of that, then got going again on what was still an undulating route.
I ran past a couple of athletics grounds on my way, and thought it would have been nice to do a lap on their running tracks, but I didn’t really have time for that. I was giving myself two hours to do a run that at an easy pace would normally be around 1hr40. This I thought would take into account the hills, and stopping to take photographs.
Eventually I got down into another valley where there was a river flowing through with a wooden statue of fish. Somewhere in the distance I could see a single arch of the viaduct as well, but this was not the bit I was after. On the other side of the road was the start of an even steeper hill. I did run some of it, but it was hard work, and this took me along country roads with no pavement, and on unpaved roads as well. At one point I thought of the hills in Guernsey, and thought if I compared this to them, Carmen might not believe me.
As I got to the top of an unpaved private road I could see an old rundown house, but in front of that was an arch of the viaduct. At an hour into the run I’d reached it. Hopefully for the return journey I’d be able to make up some time where the bigger hills would now be downhill. I walked around and photographed sections of the viaduct, and where it bends towards Lyon. I could see in the distance, atop the hill, the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière and the metal tower of Fourvière. Somewhere just below them was that remnant of the viaduct we’d seen yesterday. It seemed so very far away, and I needed to run beyond them to get back.
The 75 kilometre long aqueduct had been built during the reign of Hadrian to supply water to the city of Lugundum. I thought it impressive how many of the arches had survived, and how far the Romans had managed to transport water.
I’d lost maybe ten or more minutes before I’d started heading back, but I was able to run most of the way back down into the valley before frequently walking on the way back out of it. It certainly seemed quicker on the way back though. I thought it a shame Carmen hadn’t joined me for this run, but I also knew that even at an easy pace I was slowed so much by the hills, that together it would have taken maybe thirty or more minutes longer and would have severely impacted her dancing today. When I reached the stairs I decided they were too narrow and steep to run down, so walked down those, and then got running again with very little walking before making it back to the AirBNB. The point where I started my watch was exactly 13.11 miles when I ran passed it on my return.
After a shower, Carmen then joined me for breakfast at Clef Dorée. This time, I had a pain au raisin along with the normal cup of Earl Grey tea. As it could be my last chance to do so, we then headed over the road to the murals we’d seen each day so I could photograph them. We’d then got a little time to relax before heading out to the Petit Palais de Sports for Carmen’s second day of dancing: her ballroom competition.
When we got there, it wasn’t long before I was asked to take photographs. It wasn’t really something I wanted to do, nor did I really know what to do as it’s not a sport I know anything about, so wouldn’t know what to look out for, or what they expect from photographs. I didn’t exactly have the right lens for the job either. I’d already been volunteered to do it though, and as the local organisers had pulled out at the last minute I figured I should at least try.
I photographed the presentations for the morning session, and then the group dances. In noticing the number of ‘interesting’ shots I could get from each group dance, I was surpassingly able to accurately predict the exact order of the results. Carmen never got to see any of this though as she’d been having her hair and make-up professionally done again for the competition.
By the afternoon session they’d acquired an official photographer, so I was able to step down and concentrate on trying to get some photographs of Carmen competing. It was lucky she’d gotten ready early as they decided to start the competition thirty minutes early. After the first look, and classification, she was put into D class, and remained there for the second classification. Some of the other classes had more than six couples, so those then had a semi-final before Carmen’s final could take place.
I had no idea what was going on most of the time, and couldn’t really see any difference between anyone. Whenever Carmen performed I was then quick with her wet towel, and water so that she could cool off quickly between performances - it’d gotten quite humid inside after a short burst of rain, so didn’t want her overheating.
When the presentations took place, Carmen won gold! The presentations for the other classes, and the men’s latin classes took until 19:25, at which point they announced they had to be out of the hall: chairs, tables, everything, by 20:00. It seemed a very unrealistic turnaround but from the sounds of it, it’s what the competitors had come to expect from these organisers.
Once Carmen had changed, and removed most of her make-up, we headed back to the AirBNB and got there a little after 20:00. We normally see what we both feel like eating, and then find somewhere suitable, but as Carmen had won gold today I insisted that it should be her sole decision of where we go to eat. It took a while to find somewhere, but the place we chose also seemed to do deliveries. I installed the Deliveroo app, and started the order process. After I’d signed up, I was forced into the silver account subscription (that I later cancelled for free), but then it said that they don’t deliver to where we were, even though they were less than a mile away.
It was almost 21:00 now, so we headed out to look for somewhere else. We reached Times Square, a burger place, and decided we’d eat there. They used machines similar to McDonalds and Burger King, but do things like naan instead of burger buns, and also do smash burgers. They also seem to make the burgers on demand, so they seem to be better than most fast food places. In fact, they’re not fast at all. I’d missed the chance to print the receipt for our order when trying to translate what the screen said, so had to wait and watch out for what looked like our order. This cost €25.40 for two meal deals with fries and a drink - it didn’t seem too bad.
When we got back, we packed ready for tomorrow. I was tired after the busy weekend so went bed around 23:30. I know Carmen went bed a little after midnight, just as Roswitha was getting in from an evening out celebrating with her dance friends.