Le Rhône
We frequently found ourselves walking along the Rhone at the end of the day. By evening, the dark waters reflected the colorful street lights. And during the day, you could see the steady flow of the waters toward the Camargue delta, sprinkled with gulls and cormorants.
We were a bit surprised not to see more activity on the river, but I suppose December and January are not the busiest times of the year. Most of the large boats we saw were cruise ships, picking people up for overnight dinner cruises or longer trips to Lyon and beyond.
Arles
lions by the river Rhone
In the northern sector of the river, where the Rhone begins to bend, are these tremendous columns bearing lions (2 on either side of the river). According to the web, these are remnants of a railroad bridge built in 1868 to link Arles to Lunel cross the river, which is already quite wide at this point. The bridge was bombed in August 1944, during World War II.
But these columns remind me of the original Roman bridge in "Arelate," which was not fixed but consisted of a pontoon bridge built over floating boats, with towers and drawbridges at each end. The boats were secured in place by anchors and were tethered to twin towers built just upstream (see Arles at Wikipedia.org).
