Determined to be out today, and with a need to visit Bouygues Telecom to check on a message I had received, it was easy to accept a suggestion that we go into town, ie, inside the walls.

Soraya (my host) needed to go to her bank and being Monday, the local branch wasn’t open. The only Bouygues branch in the area was in town, near another branch of her bank, so that settled it.

After doing business – the bank was open, Bouygues was closed – we went to get an ice cream. Not just an icecream, but one of the best I have ever had. Taste and texture – great, and presentation out of this world.

A little more expensive than ‘tourist’ ice-creams but wow.

After that I struck out my own, crossing the Pont d’Europe to find it didn’t go where I expected it would, walking besides the Rhône where the big cruise barges tie up, and eventually to the Pont d’Avignon (no singing, please … ) and up the countless steps to the Rocher des Doms.

There’s a lake up there, not a big one but enough to attract ducks and swans. I watched the swans, they watched me.

I had two beers …

I’d earned them.