Here are some more pictures from the past few days. I went to a Roman festival in an ancient amphitheater, so several photos are from that event.
A poster for a general protest held in the main city square, posted in the teacher’s lounge of my school. “For low salaries, disappearing jobs, continued lies, and the disdain.” I can’t imagine something like this being allowed or left up in a school in the U.S.
“On the 18th of February, 1812, the Rhône river rose up to the line marked here.” That’s about waist height. Glad I’m on the fifth floor in case that happens again.
You know those little lending libraries you sometimes see on street corners? There’s one in my neighborhood, but people put all sorts of things there. I got this chair from the old furniture pile.
The French idea of a hot dog which I got at the Roman festival. Yes, that is a baguette. The “American” hot dog had fries as a topping.
This was a warm-up duel to get the crowd interested. Later on the emperor showed up with his wife and an entourage of soldiers. He asked us the audience if the loser should die; we let him live.
These guys are Romans mostly in name; they have the gear and the blessing of the Empire, but retain signatures of their local ethnicity — for instance, the tall feathers in their helmets. Rome conquered the Gauls, but as was their usual way of things, allowed them to keep many of their customs and gods.
These guys were just sorta walking around the festival. Later I watched them bash each other with shields and blunt swords.
The same spectacle, the same place, thousands of years apart.
A couple old marble heads they found when dredging up the river a while back.
Flan in France 