So far so good. Football trip to London and Cambridge a resounding success. Flights remained uncancelled and six goals cheered to the rafters by the faithful at the home of good football. Which was slightly unusual, given that the score was 5-1. Never before have I seen an opposition goal greeted with such delight. Eduaarrdo!
I found the Cambridge crew in good form, le grand chef and ms beaucoup providing their usual convivial and generous welcome, and professor margarita and the caipirinha kid providing the customary entertainment in the pub on Monday evening.
And so, on a frosty Wednesday morning, I made my way back to strife-torn Lyon. There was a moment when I feared the worst: after everybody was checked through the departure gate at Stansted we stood going nowhere for over twenty minutes and, when we finally did move, it was to get onto a bus rather than the plane. Uh-oh, I thought, flight abruptly cancelled, Lyon ablaze, back to the terminal we go. But no, it was merely to take us round to another plane at another gate. Even the pilot was in the dark about the reason for the last minute change.
So in the end we arrived home less than half an hour late. At the airport it was my chance to sample, for the second time, the new tram link to the city centre, which has replaced the old shuttle bus at a 50% greater cost. Excuse for the higher ticket price is that it's quicker, which is true - 'guaranteed' less than 30 minutes, as opposed to the 35-40 minute bus trip. For me though, the total travel time is longer, because the tram terminus in Lyon is the other side of Part Dieu station, an extra 10 minute walk, and at the airport it's another 10 minute walk. Grumble, grumble.
Part two of a footballing week yesterday evening, and another surprisingly comfortable victory for the home team, made easier by a sending off for les lisboètes, whose large travelling support was comparable to that of a British club even if a large proportion were French residents. That makes it four wins out of four now, with a trip to the new Ligue 1 whipping boys, Arles-Avignon (1 point from 9 games) coming up. Strangely I didn't hear any "Puel, demisssion!" chants last night.
La bienheureuse was also spared any travel chaos in her business odyssey from Lyon to Brussels and back via Vienna and Paris. So far, at least. Final leg by rail this afternoon. And meanwhile we both missed the worst of the fun in central Lyon on Tuesday - burning cars and rubbish bins, running battles with police, shop windows smashed, water cannons and clouds of tear gas in Place Bellecour. Yesterday there were fewer incidents by dint of the authorities flooding the centre with police (including the elite GIPN, usually used for hostage rescue and the like) and closing down public transport in the Presqu'Île. Similar story today, though latest reports describe Place Bellecour as a 'battlefield'. Fuel shortages all over the country, rubbish piling up in the streets of Marseille, school students leading from the front: the protests show no sign of faltering and still retain the backing of the majority of the public, though with the school holidays starting on Saturday, things may soon start to change…
