Oui - France

We went to France!

To Marseille, (pronounced “Mar-say”) in the south of France – to have access to a beach on the Mediterranean, to have sunshine and warmth, and of course, to eat French food.

And because we could.

What we learned after the fact is that even though Marseilles is the second largest city in France (behind Paris), it has not long been a nice, tourist city. It seems that until about 5 years ago, it was overrun with Mafia and drugs. 

Someone decided to clean it all up. It seems they did a pretty good job. We had tourist guides telling us of the many structural changes that have been made in the last 5 years and what a nice city it is now.  (If we had known all of this prior to our trip, it may have caused me to consider someplace else – like Nice.)

We stayed in a flat we found on AirBnB – and chose it because of its location and reviews – and for the view. It had this wonderful view of the Basilica Notre Dame (not to be confused with the Cathedral of Notre Dame), which is nicely lit at night. 

Now, Notre Dame was a surprise to us (because we first thought it was the Cathedral, but later found out it was the Basilica, which was still pretty impressive in its own rights). We did not know it was there until after we booked. (In fact, I will admit that we didn’t know anything about Marseille, other than it was on the Med) (you can see where our priorities are)

The apartment was kind of an experience. Yes, we saw pictures of it before booking, but it’s really funny how something can be conveyed through a picture and then be so very different in person. I actually went back to the AirBnB site to see if they showed me accurate pictures. 

Firstly, it was exactly 99 steps to the front door. Ugh!

If you can zoom the picture, you will see Mike at the bottom of the stairwell. 

Secondly, the single bedroom was actually in a loft with a low, angled ceiling, which meant we had to walk leaning over and had to be very careful if we stood upright. However, it did have a skylight, which was nice to let in the fresh air breeze, and for letting in the sounds of the neighborhood below.

Speaking of the neighborhood….we definitely stayed in the non-touristy part of town – and were right, smack in the middle of a very culturally-diverse neighborhood. 

It seemed a little sketchy at first, but it did not take long for us to warm up to it.  

Instead of there being a street between the two rows of buildings, there was a giant, cement park with playground equipment for the young kids, an open area for kicking around a soccer ball, a  large water fountain and all of it surrounded by tiny grocery stores and restaurants with seating outside under canopies. 

And everyone was outside.

The sounds of the people outside wafted through the air late into the night. It made the air buzz. 

All the walls of the buildings were ‘decorated.’ Not just the ones around this park area, but through the whole, larger neighborhood. Some was graffiti, yes, but a lot of it was just art – and wonderfully done.  

There was such a buzz of life happening out there. There was one man who seemed to really enjoy sharing the music from his boombox with everyone there (every day), but honestly, it wasn’t bad.  In fact, the whole thing was quite enjoyable. It was lovely and warm – perfect weather for being outside. I think we ate every meal outside.

Such a very French thing to do.  

see the near-miss on the table? It actually got my hand!

Speaking of food….the first thing we ate was a crepe (which, because we were eating outside under a tree, just barely missed getting hit by a bird’s droppings!)  After that, we made sure to sit under some kind of covering! 

We actually ate pizza twice, at two different places (I know, pizza does not sound very French…) and they were the best pizzas we have eaten in the last year. Yes, even better than the ones we ate in Italy, I am surprised to say.

Moulles seemed to be the BIG thing to eat in Marseilles. They were pretty inexpensive (like 13 euro) and were served a very large bucket – and always with fries. Mike had it once. I’m not crazy about mussels. I will eat a few, but not a whole bucket.

The markets. I told you we were staying in a very culturally-diverse neighborhood - so that also meant there was a lot of culturally-diverse foods.  And different ways of displaying and selling food. 

We walked through their markets a couple of times - all kinds of baked goods, spices, and interesting animal body parts surrounded us, along with the smells and sounds that go along with them. It was really interesting and there were so many foods I would have liked to taste. 

On our last night, we ate in one of these local places and ordered the roasted chicken that was cooking on a spit at the front of the restaurant. First, we were the only people there because we were eating at 6:30 instead of 7:30, which is when people start arriving to eat, and second, they spoke no English. But we succeeded in getting absolutely delicious food. 

the spices..stored in canvas bags -
just like in that movie, "The Hundred Step Journey"

I tried to find out what the spices were on the chicken (it was better than the roasted Costco chickens!). There was a lot of demonstrative motions when trying to communicate, but we managed to get the name of the spice on the chicken.  

I wrote down the name of that spice and then went directly to the local neighborhood spice store to find it. 

Just now as I looked for that piece of paper, I realize that it was probably thrown away. Not only cannot I tell you, in case you wanted to run right out and try it on your own chicken, but now I will not know. It looks a lot like turmeric. 

One of our best meals was at an outside restaurant off the main downtown area.  We decided we absolutely had to try the crème brulee….because it’s French, right?   I had to see if it is better than what I make at home… (it wasn’t).   

Since we were surprised by the pizza, we decided we should compare the tiramisu as well. (Italy’s was better) 

And the crepes- (we actually had them twice) – I will say were just ok as well. My Emily makes really great crepes and I would just as soon eat a dozen of hers in her kitchen (for pennies) as opposed to eating just one in France for 5 euro.

But it was France and we had to do what we had to do.

The food was good, but it was really the
atmosphere. 

Part of why this night was so nice was that it rained while we ate. If you know me well, you know I love the sound of rain. 

see the street between the restaurant kitchen and
the tables?  And see that car going past on the street?

So, we were sitting outside under very large umbrellas, among 50 or so people who were all speaking a different language, watching the waiters trying not to get hit by fast cars and they walked back and forth across the street from the tiny kitchen to the tables outside. The rain came down. The sky got dark. The waiters even brought out light blankets for the ladies to wrap around themselves. And we just sat and listened and enjoyed.

And then we rode bikes in the warm rain back to our apartment.

We rented the bikes, which seemed to be a very popular and easy thing to do. 

Except that it wasn’t. 

It took Mike 2 days and a lot of frustration (I can’t believe he tried as many times as he did!) before he got it figured out, but once he did, we rented the bikes several times and enjoyed getting around town that way. It was also much easier on the feet, especially when we had to end each day with climbing those 99 steps to our apartment.  

The really great thing about the bikes was that you could pick them up at one place and leave them at another. You didn’t have to return them to the same place you picked them up.  Sort of like the Red Box movie rentals in Washington.

We rode the bikes to the beach. It was lovely to sit in the warm sand and get a little color back on this pasty skin. It seemed to be where the young families go, which made it a pleasant place to be. 

Originally, we thought we would spend several afternoons there, but we only managed an hour on Sunday morning.

view from Notre Dame

Unlike most of the other places we have been – Germany, Belgium, Canary Islands, and Italy – France -or at least Marseilles, did not seem to have English as a second language. Everywhere else we had been, directions and signs and such were in at least two languages, and almost everyone spoke English. 

View from Notre Dame

But not in Marseilles. We were hard-pressed to find people who spoke English.

 And the reason renting the bikes was so frustrating was that even though the rental board gave the option of receiving directions in English, it really was just a tease, because the next screen went back to French!  Mike even went online to register, but the email response came in French as well, and he was unable to translate it.  

So, when it came to ordering food, we found it easier to just to point and hope for the best. There was definitely no success in trying to communicate that we wanted meat on a pizza when it seemed that meat did not come on the pizza.

on the wine tour - overlooking Cassis

Also about language – we took an Uber cab from the airport (and returned to the airport with the same driver – mostly because we tried to imagine calling the taxi service and trying to communicate with a French person who did not speak English about times and locations. 

And you know how anxious you can get about time when you are going to the airport. We definitely did not want any confusion.) Our driver spoke a little English. But it was so funny because I think he was trying to teach us French in our 30 minutes with him in the car. And when he picked us up to go back to the airport, he quizzed us and tried to teach us some more. LOL!  

A vineyard in Provence

I am a little sad to say that French did not seem to come easily to me. Italian, more so. But I am a little embarrassed to say that I think we really only learned about 4 words – merci (thank you), bon jour (hello), bon journey (have a good day), au revoir (goodbye). I think there may have been 1 more, but I cannot think of it and Mike is not here to ask.

Sadly, I think Marseilles was our last out-of-country trip. We took advantage of the bank holiday here, and Mike even took 2 extra days on the front end to extend our time there.

The next bank holiday (in August) will be spent here in Scotland with Mike’s two sisters and BIL, who will visit for 10+ days.

Then, it seems we will be headed home in September.

PS. This is amazing – there was a young man on our walking tour in Marseilles who was on our walking tour in Brussels at Christmas time!  Seriously!  He is a young American man from Minnesota who is currently living in Lyon, France. He went to Brussels at Christmas time, where we interacted with him. This weekend, his friend from the US was visiting, and on a whim, they went to Marseilles for the weekend. And because walking tours are usually good things to do in a new city, they joined one. And HE recognized Mike!!  (maybe it was the Patriot’s hat)  What are the odds of that???

But also, speaking of the Patriot’s hat. If you know Mike, then you know he is not ever far away from a Patriot’s hat. But somehow, we managed to leave the house without one. So, at the airport in Amsterdam (on the terribly long 4 ½ hour layover in Amsterdam), Mike looked for a hat to take to France. And would you believe that there – among all the possible hats in the AMSTERDAM AIRPORT!! – was a New England Patriot’s hat!  Seriously! 

And he so needed another one!

I don't think I can close this until I post a couple of funny pictures. 

A toilet, of course. This one was in our apartment. 

Yes, it is electric. 

And you had to push a small button on the side to flush. And when you pushed it, nothing seemed to happen....until about 5 seconds later. Then, whoooosh!

And parking. 

Yes, those are sidewalks.