Sept. 7: Traveling from Lyon to Bormes les Mimosas
My train was leaving Lyon at Part Dieu at 1:45 and I had nearly finished packing on Friday night, so I had lots of time to fool around with these photos and these musings on composition. At 9:30 I was considering going out to walk around Lyon one last time when I decided, for some reason I don’t understand (some angel looking out for me?) to check my train ticket. YIKES!!!! My train ARRIVED in Toulon at 1:45! It left Lyon at 11:06!!!! HURRY! I wolfed down my quiche and strawberries while I worked to shove and stuff all the last minute items into my already over-full bags. Take a bite of food, swallow it whole, pack something, take a bite of food, swallow it whole, pack something, take a bite of food, swallow it whole, pack something – surely a recipe for indigestion. HURRY! I lugged and bumped my bags down the stairs to the reception desk and paid my bill. Luckily, no problems. I practically ran (hard to do rolling that suitcase behind me and carrying a 20 ton pack on my back) to the Bellecour Metro, lugged and bumped down the stairs, purchased my ticket, took the train to Saxe Gambetta, changed trains and got off at Part Dieu Train Station. I huffed and puffed into the crazy confusion that seems to be in all train stations and looked for the kiosk to print my ticket (which I had paid for online). There were several kiosks in different colors with various signs, and I realized that I didn’t know the French word for “print.” I stopped a man who was walking past me – luckily, although he was French, he spoke very good English, and he was a really nice guy. He didn’t know how to do this, either, but he chose a kiosk and gave it a try. At first it failed – but he had put my first and last name and he decided to try just my last name before giving up. And, voila!, it worked!! I said merci bocou a million times and he went off on his merry way.
After all that hurrying and worrying, I now had 45 minutes to kill – typical of me. After 45 minutes they announced the platform and, after waiting for awhile, they announced that the train would be 10 minutes late (and I understood the announcement!).Ah well, c’est la vie.
The train was full, but I had a reserved seat and I amused myself by playing with my iPad mini camera. Take a look and see how I passed the time and where I traveled through on my trip from Lyon to Toulon.
When the train arrived at the Toulon station, I didn’t have much time to catch my bus, so I ran through the station, out the door, made my way through some major construction, and found the bus station and my bus. Again, I amused myself by taking photos. At a later stop, enough people got on to completely fill every seat on the bus and a youngish woman sat next to me. She said something to me in French and I replied, in French, that I don’t speak French. She replied back that I did speak it a little because I just did so. She and I proceeded to actually have a conversation in French – my first since arriving in this country! It was very basic, a bit confusing a times, and funny at other times – but she was so delightful, and I had a wonderful time. She got off the bus before my stop. As we neared Bormes les Mimosas, I watched for my stop – according to the website it was supposed to be La Verrerie. The bus stopped at a place where the sign said Bormes le Pin. I figured my stop would be next. I asked a woman – turned out she and her husband were British and I was happy they spoke English – and she said that the bus was now leaving Bormes and I must have missed my stop and I should walk up and tell the bus driver. Well, I was in the middle of the bus and had quite a way to go, and the driver was driving, so when I got there I felt terrible trying to talk to him while he was negotiating traffic. Then when he understood which stop I wanted he said, in English, “NOW you tell me!! Disaster!!! Go back to your seat and I will tell you which stop to get off and you need to get another bus to take you back there.” Well, I didn’t really understand what happened after that because the French was flying around too fast for me, but it seems that several others discovered that they, too, missed their stop and they were angry. A very young man near me said that there was often trouble with this bus driver because he drank too much! I got off at Le Lavandou and, instead of finding another bus, called Nicky’s phone number. Mick answered and said that Nicky was waiting for me at le Pin and didn’t have a phone with her. They only have one car and Nicky had it, so there was no way for Mick to get in touch with her. But he told me to just stay there – when I didn’t show up, Nicky would come back home and he would send her to Le Lavandou to pick me up. Well, that’s exactly what happened.
Before taking me to the apartment, Nicky brought me to a grocery store to pick up a few items – I didn’t get much, Cathy arrives tomorrow and we will go together to get what we need for the apartment. Once here in the apartment I just stayed and settled in – including washing some laundry, which I really needed to do. I’ve included photos of my new “home” for the next month. Now it’s almost 11 p.m. and I need to go to bed. I might now be skipping a day or two between blog posts – I’m just not sure how things are going to go here.
Bonne nuit.
Feet, coffee cup, and view from my hotel window of the Theatre des Celestins. An OK photo, but rather staid, don’t you think? What abstract artistic means makes it rather boring? The balance is too perfect, coffee cup in the middle, feet evenly placed on either side, mostly horizontal lines. Anything else?
How about a vertical orientation, would that help? Not much.
How about a change of foot position? A little more interesting, but not much. And look at all that green shrubbery on the left – that just isn’t interesting enough to have so much of it in the picture.
So, I turned the camera more to the right and included less greenery. Ah, this is much better! Look at the diagonal from the left foot, to the cup, to the right foot, to the blue banner, to the gray banner – adds a lot of interest to this photo. And the direction that the right toe is pointing in leads into the white building across the square with its blue banner, helping the eye take in all parts of this picture. Also, the two statues and the row of arches between them lead the eye from the gray banner back into the picture to the white building and smaller blue banner. The roof lines also add diagonal, zig zag sight lines. This one is definitely my favorite.
Although I really liked the one before this, I just had to test it: did that right foot pointing really matter? how about even less greenery? Nope. I don’t like this one at all. The one prior to this one is the winner in my book. What do YOU think? Some of you won’t care about this at all, but I’m hoping my students are paying attention!!
On the train to Toulon. There will be window reflections in all of these, and reflections of me taking the photos, but you can still get an idea of what I was seeing and experiencing.
On the move. Heading for my next adventure.
I had to wait for this woman to fall asleep before I could take a photo of the inside of the train car because she kept looking at me.
I played with taking photos of myself. Here I am, wondering what my next adventure will be like.
Which one do you think is more interesting? This one or the one before this? Any idea why you would prefer one over the other. Rather like the feet & coffee cup composition question. Or is it the look on my face? Is one more expressive than the other?
The first stop – not mine. Was it Arles? I was sure I’d remember, but I don’t.
Taking a picture while going through a tunnel. Everything here was a reflection on my blacked-out window.
Scenery between Arles and Toulon, taken through the train window while the train was moving. All these photos, except the ones at the stops, were taken while the train was moving – and this was a TGV, one of the high speed trains.
More scenery between Arles and Marseilles.
Great sky! Do the lines at the top and the reflections near the bottom ruin the photo? or add something interesting?
Playing around again. Were we going through a tunnel? What created this strange light and odd colors and graininess – sorry, can’t remember what the heck I was doing.
Stopping in Marseilles. Couldn’t see the city from the train station. Couldn’t even see the train station from the side of the train I was on and the place where my car was stopped – just the gritty workings of making the trains go.
Pulling out of Marseilles and heading for Toulon.
Scenery out my train window as we get closer to Toulon.
More scenery as we get closer to Toulon. Still through my train window while the train is moving.
View of the Toulon Bus Station from inside the bus. Time was tight, so after I got off the train, I ran through the train station, not taking any photos, went out of the train station and turned left, and encountered a confusing mess of construction. But I followed a few meager signs and several people with suitcases and found the bus station. There was a crush of people to get on the bus and a feeling of urgency and intensity – I think it was because if the bus filled up, people would have to wait for the next one. I’m always feeling tense when I travel like this because I am afraid I’m getting on the wrong bus – I usually ask a couple of different people, just to make sure.
As the bus pulled out I took this shot of the station.
And here’s the construction that I had to find my way through.
Inside the bus and view of Toulon through the window.
A street in Toulon through the bus window as we are driving through the city on our way to Bormes les Mimosas.
Palm trees in Toulon making me realize I am now in someplace different.
On our way out of Toulon.
Along the road between Toulon and Bormes les Mimosas – just like in the US, not everything is picturesque.
Just like at home – not everything is quaint and beautiful.
But we passed the picturesque, too. Still on the bus. The ride was a little over an hour.
This is where I ended up after I missed my stop – Le Lavandou.
While I waited for Nicky to find me, I stopped in here and bought a goat cheese and tomato sandwich and a bottle of water. This is what I said to the woman who waited on me,” J’ai soif. J’ai faim. Je suis fatique.” (“I’m thirsty. I’m hungry. I’m tired.) Nah, I didn’t – I was too thirsty, hungry, and tired to remember any French. But that is what I WISH I said.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: kitchen.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: living room.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: dining room. (with my stuff all over the place, already)
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: one side of the bedroom.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: the other side of the bedroom.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: one side of the bathroom.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: the other side of the bathroom.
Bormes les Mimosas apartment: the patio outside the front door, taken through the living room screen.
View through the kitchen window of the apartment.
Same view, more to the right.
Hi Debi – keep those photos and comments coming! I’ll be reading more tomorrow when I catch up on sleep and unpacking. I’m certainly living vicariously your excursions through France. Can relate to the lugging the luggage theme – I took far too much on our trip, and only did a little artwork and journaling, but have lots of ideas in my head and a nice empty book to start writing in. I love your critique of your own pictures, certainly teaches a lot about composition. Thanks for all your work on this.