Friday, August 19th, 2011
I never know quite how to start out my blog. I feel like if I was to go straight into a lively description of the day, it’s just too much to handle and well, it gets boring after a while! But, when I try to think of witty entrances, they always just sound lame. So excuse my intros, because I just never know where exactly to start out. Well, I guess when I wake up is good. Pascale and Eddy went out on another fishing trip today because yesterday they caught hardly anything. As they once again woke up at 4:30 AM, I kindly opted out of this excursion. I felt even worse denying them a second time, but they are always encouraging me to do what I want, and quite frankly I didn’t want to wake up early for another unsuccessful fishing day. So instead, I stayed on the sailboat and read. Once they got back, I learned that I might have been entertained quite well after all because they ended up catching about 40 kilos worth of mackerel. After they cleaned up the fish and stored them in the freezer, we headed out to visit Marseille as we had planned last night.
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| The Catch of the Day |
So after about a 25 minute drive, we arrived in France’s third largest city. It was waaaay bigger than I expected it to be, after seeing it on the sea and viewing it from far away. We first went the St. Vincent’s Basilica, which I guess has been there for a very long time. The city of Marseilles was built about 600 BC by the Greek (or Romans, one of the two) as a port city along the Mediterranean Sea. So, I imagine that that church was very old as well. Not quite as old, but old enough. It was a plain, but pretty old church. Unfortunately, it was being restored, so I don’t think that we got to see it in all of its glory, and the crypt was just plain sad because most of it was closed off.
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| The Basilica |
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| The Crypt |
After the Basilica, Eddy and I (Pascale, who was hurting from standing and fishing all day, stayed at the car with Goliath) walked the streets along the port and looked in all of the windows and saw the beautiful sites of the old Marseilles. It was nice, and Eddy even bought us some ice cream because it was about 33 degrees Celsius. So I think high 90s for us… Don’t get me wrong,I love heat, but it was just a bit much after being in the boat all day, with only a small fan to cool me down. But the ice cream we had, it was wonderful. Eddy told me that it was even homemade, and it definitely tasted like it! Pascale picked us up after our little walk, and we drove down the most famous street in the city. Unfortunately, I have forgotten what it was called, but oh well. It was very busy, and I decided that I would never want to drive in Europe because they really are crazy drivers. Everyone is parking everywhere, on the sidewalks and on the barriers in the middle of the road. There are also hundreds of people zipping around on their little Vespas or whatever those bikes are called, and the are zooming in and out of traffic to try and go even faster than the already speeding cars. And other than the very main roads, the others are just like little alleyways that are generally one way with cars parked on either side and even for small cars it is a tight squeeze. Luckily, even the people that have Hummers and trucks over here don’t have them nearly as large as they are in America. Or else, I don’t think they would be able to drive down any streets except for highways!
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| Marsielle, the 3rd Biggest City in France |
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| Southern France Buildings (I seem to have the obssession for different architecture!) |
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| Le Centre de Marsielle |
The final thing we did in Marseilles was to go the Notre Dame de la Garde. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was closing so we only had the chance to take a few quick pictures. But I think we may go back, if I want to see the actual inside of the church… But I didn’t really mind that the church was closed, because the view was simply amazing. The church lies at the very top of the city on a hill and it is probably the highest point for quite a long while. It’s height makes for astonishing photos of the entire city of Marseilles. But really, the city was so huge (actually much bigger than I thought) that I couldn’t even get it all into one camera view. But it was simply amazing to see the whole city just go on for miles and then out to the sea, which seems to just simply go on forever. I am really glad that I got to see it, and even more glad that I was able to take some beautiful pictures. Even though the city was completely crazy and I much prefer the more laid backed Martigues to it, the city was definitely something that I had to see before I left France. The only city that I now am dying to see in France is of course Paris. Then, I will have gone to the 1st and 3rd biggest cities in France, and driven through the second biggest (Lyon). Now, I think we will eat dinner in a bit and get prepared for Eddy and Pascale’s friends who are coming to visit tomorrow along with their Australian exchange student. I can’t wait to have someone to speak English to! Real English, not slowly and without having to explain myself at all! But then again, I heard that most Australians come in January due to their weird school year so I may feel even more inferior to all of the other beautifully French speaking people… But oh well, I will just have to get over it! Au revoir et bonne nuit!
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| Notre Dame de la Garde (no, not THE Notre Dame!) |
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| Marseille |
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| Ah, horrible tan lines. |
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| It was much bigger from way up there... Couldn't fit the whole city in one shot! |
***Well, I had such an interesting night that I just absolutely had to comment on it. So first, after getting back to the boat I discovered that we would not be eating a while, so I went and took a shower because I was all gross and hot from today. Then, as soon as I got out we left for a restaurant that Eddy said had a specialty in meat, I was, of course, happy with this choice and surprised that we were not joining to Les Pins, but they said that they wanted to save that tomorrow for when the others are here. But anyhow, so I am in a dress because I had noticed people around here, at least at the restaurants that I have been around so far, dress up quite a bit. And since I had just gotten out of the shower, on the way to the restaurant I am literally hanging my head out the car window trying to dry my wet hair because I really don’t know if it socially acceptable to go out with wet hair. And I couldn’t bring my hair dryer, because I knew they would have one in Belgium for me to use and that if I brought mine it would probably just blow up anyhow… But, back to the rest of the night as I wasn’t looking like a dog out the window… When we pull up to the restaurant, it is The Buffalo Grill. I find out, more or less, that they thought this was a restaurant that I had at home that I would quite enjoy as a change. Now, don’t get me wrong, I had a delightful dinner of ribs. But here I was, an American in France, who travelled halfway around the world to go to a barbeque place way overdressed. It made my day, not only because it was funny but because the ribs I ordered were just what I needed after trying so many new foods, even if the barbeque sauce tasted a bit off. Another funny thing is that they were boasting about being this All-American restaurant that I have never even heard of and under their “American desserts” they had pancakes. Although Pascale and Eddy knew what they were, I found it very funny that they would serve pancakes as a dessert. I mean, if they were REALLY American they would know that no one would ever have pancakes as a dessert. And lastly, we had a male waiter that had some extra weight in the just the right places that made him look severely pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, if was a very nice and good waiter, even talking to me in English about he tried to live in the U.S. once for photography but that it was entirely too expensive. But I couldn’t help looking and him and how the rest of his body was perfectly skinny, but there was his stomach, with what looked like a perfect little baby bump and hips. And I also am almost 100% he was fully male. Seriously, this is something that if I were back home I would have snuck a picture on my phone to show people. And now, that is finally all I have to say.***
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