Travels with Maman Pt.2: Marseille

The second leg of Mom and my trip was Marseille, the second-largest city in France (or third if you ask people in Lyon).

We arrived in Marseille in the same evening we were in Cassis: more train time. We got into our hotel and then took a stroll around the Vieux Port, watching the sun set on the water. It was magnificent. Finally restaurants began to open (not until 7:30 or 8 pm in France often!). We chose a place called Au Bout du Quai (At the end of the quai) that the two ladies from New Orleans mentioned to us (they were staying in Marseille). We had a delicious dinner of risotto, asparagus, and scallops for me and linguine with large shrimp for Mom, lots of bread and white wine. As our meal was winding down, lo and behold, our friends from New Orleans walked in to have dinner as well! What a coincidence! So we sat down and enjoyed coffee with them while they ate, and just had a lovely evening, walking back to what happened to also be the same exact hotel! It's so nice to find friends in unexpected places.

Vieux Port at sunset

shoes

"Is there anyone who wants to fall in love with me?"

There's the church we saw!

My dinner!

Mom's dinner

The next day Mom and I got up and set off to see Marseille before moving onto Aix-en-Provence that evening. We first took a bus up to one of the biggest landmarks: Notre Dame de la Garde, a huge church on a hill that overlooks all of Marseille. We spent an hour or so wandering through the church and around it.

Closest Starbucks to Toulon is in Marseille!

View from the church!

Notre Dame de la Garde

Mom! 

All the prayers

Inside the basilica

Mom and I with the amazing view

Next we took a boat ride out to Château d'If which sits on an island out in the bay around Marseille. It was this island (and the prison upon its grounds) that The Count of Monte Cristo was based on. We had a delicious chocolate lava cake while looking upon Marseille and explored the castle.

On the way out to the boat (a famous palace turned into offices)

Mom and I on a boat

Château d'If

View while we ate our chocolate cake :) 

Through the little holes where they put the cannons to guard the island, I think

Steps up to the Château

How beautiful!

Inside the Château (where Protestants and rebels were imprisoned at various times)

Mom and I are in the dungeon!

We are on the top of the château!

Bye bye Château d'If

Our next stop was Palais Longchamp. Honestly, I didn't know what it was when we went, just that it was beautiful. Butt, now as I look it up, I learn that it was commissioned by the Duc of Orléans in 1839 to celebrate the opening of the Canal of Marseille. It officially opened in 1869 and now it houses the Musée de Beaux-Arts and Museum of Natural History.

Mom and I in a mirror above us along the Port

Optical illusion from the mirrored ceiling on the port

Always smelling the roses

Palais Longchamp

View from the top of the Palais

Finally, we grabbed some food on the way out. I had my first fromage blanc since I have been back and it was so yummy! For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a type of fresh cheese that tastes like yogurt but thicker and tarter. Normally, you eat it with sugar on top or mixed in.

That's all for now! Addie has arrived and we are enjoying being reunited :) so more on that soon hopefully!

Travels with Maman Pt. 2: Cassis

Salut!

Finally, I am back after the struggle that is internet and wifi in France. I won't go into that again, but good news: wifi in our apartment exists!! Hurrah! Oy with the poodles already! Sorry I miss home, my family and Gilmore Girls. Also, I have a French phone, bank account, bus pass, and nail polish remover, so all the living in a foreign country essentials are checked off the list. And I am so tired. These past two and a half weeks have been traveling a lot, trying to alternate between French and English and failing, searching for face wash and finally finding it on the bottom shelf as if Carrefour was hiding it from us all and doesn't want us to wash our faces, and walking upwards of 5 miles a day (I have an average of 6.33 miles/day on my iPhone, actually). So I am exhausted. But, now I can update this blog, so here we go.

After Emma and I found our place, Mom and I set out to travel for a few days because my first day "on the job" was October 1st. So Sunday, the 27th, we took the train to Cassis. I went to Cassis almost exactly a year ago with Sara and posted all about it on this blog so check out "Cassis: Sunshine Amidst a Storm." But, basically, Mom and I did almost the same things and it was equally as delightful as it was that day.

View from the train

Passing through other cities

I got in trouble for having my foot on the seat: Don't do it! 

The train only took about 40 minutes, so we were in Cassis early. We took the bus down to the water from the station with, I swear, the exact same bus driver, taking turns too fast but getting us there safely and being quite gregarious. Once, we stumbled around, we found our hotel, a Best Western La Râde (which I discovered means "harbor" in French). It had an insane view of the bay of Cassis and the mountain Cap Canaille, all from a deck with a pool and hot tub. Highly recommend. It was probably the best hotel we stayed at throughout our travels.

View from the hotel: It was a little cloudy in the morning.

Coincidentally, Joe and his friend Megan were visiting Cassis the same day so we grabbed lunch with them and chatted, until we parted ways to experience the calanques of Cassis in different ways. Mom and I went to Plage de Bestouan first. We swam in the Mediterranean Sea and laid on the rocky beach. It was so cold, but a nice lady told us to swim out on our backs and it would be easier to get accustomed to the water. She was right! Then we took the same boat tour that Sara and I took a year ago, while Joe and Megan hiked to the first calanque and then went kayaking. The calanques are little inlets that only exist in the Mediterranean. They are very picturesque and you can hike all along the tops of them (for the avid hikers among you). In one of the calanques, our boat driver drove us into the narrowest little inlet, we nearly scraped the sides of the boat. Then he proceeded to back up into it just so we wouldn't be jealous if we were in the back!

Lighthouse and view of the castle on the hill above Cassis

Plage de Bestouan (the beaches are often rocky!)

The other side of the beach

Crêpes at the Grand Marnier house (as much Grand Marnier as you want on top!)

Waiting for the tour to start

We are leaving the Bay of Cassis

The small calanque that he backed us into

The most photographed calanque: En Vau 

Another calanque

Mom looking cute with the houses in the background!

Pretty boats!

Recreating an old picture

Beautiful momma! 

Finally, Joe, Megan, Mom and I met up for dinner at the same place Sara and I adored, La Défonce. The dinner was delightful, as delicious as I remembered. Luckily, everyone agreed. After, it was time for some gelato and off to bed!

The next day Mom and I woke up in Cassis and we decided to just wander. We got coffee and wrote postcards. We ate sandwiches on the beach, shopped a little, got another crêpe, got gelato, and met two really nice ladies who were from New Orleans! We chatted with them for about a half hour to an hour, but the story doesn't end there…. :) you must read on next time I post to read about the rest of our trip. I'm tired of blogging for the day. haha!

Cat sleeping in the street

Shutters near the church

Purple doors!

Cutest streets!

Bisous xoxoxo

Home Sweet Home

Hello friends,

I have been struggling to have wifi (this is literally always a problem in France). Perhaps French people just are more immersed in real life instead of their virtual ones. Which is probably a good thing but super frustrating when you still don't have a French phone and your internet is going to take anywhere from 1 week-3 weeks to "be activated." I'm not sure why there are "hundreds" of steps to activate internet here when it takes like two days in California but apparently it does. I should stop my French internet rant before it really gets rolling. Sooo, that is the reason it has taken me so long to post about my new home!

I will be living in Toulon, a city about the size of Berkeley, population-wise, I believe. The main attractions are the port, where tons of yachts dock, and the naval base. I haven't seen too much yet because I have been so busy finding my place and doing all the necessary life things. But, there's the port, the naval base, a student area (restaurants and bars), small beaches, and a mountain with a zoo at the top that you can go up in a little gondola suspended on cables. If that makes any sense.

Mom and I arrived about a week or so ago. We stayed our first three nights in a hotel whose staff was absolutely lovely but whose facilities lacked much to be desired. Our first room had bad water damage, the bathroom door knob came off in my hand and one of the towels was soaked through. We moved to another room which was better but the shower area had no door and was directly connected to the room and the window popped off, falling on Mom's head. It was a very Grizwold family vacation kind of place. The best thing was that they let us leave 3 days early after we found a place for me (we had originally booked for 7 days).

My friend Emma (another American assistant) and I looked at three places and ended up with this lovely apartment that I am very happy with! We moved in and the next few days were spent opening a French bank account, choosing an internet service, unpacking, making lots and lots of copies and searching for internet.

The Opera House in Toulon

Wall Mural near the Opera

View from our hotel

Another from our hotel with Mount Faron in the back!

Moules-frites (Mussels and fries) and risotto with Noix de St. Jacques (basically scallops)

Le bistrot des artistes: Mom and her huge plate of food

Art exposition in Toulon: 

More art

Port of Toulon

Mom at the port!

Place de la Liberté

A few days ago Mom and I left for a vacation before I start work October 1st! So more exciting days to come, once I get back I will write all about them!

Bisous mes amis xoxo