Marseille

On Thursday, all the language assistants from our region had a welcome 'ceremony' at the University of Aix-Marseille, so Becca and I went down early Wednesday morning to explore the city- spend a day on the coast and try the legendary Bouillabaisse, the saffron and garlic fish soup that Marseille is famous for. Walking down to the Vieux Port through the side streets, I was beginning to question any city that I had previously thought rough. Marseille, 'city of graffiti' seemed to be a city of extreme juxtaposition; a melange of stunning architecture amidst desperate poverty, grit and pollution. The parts of the Rivera I know better- Cannes, Antibes and Nice, share very little in common with Marseille; their excessive glitz and glam seemed a million miles away from this struggling city. Still, Marseille is 2013 Capital of Culture, and we wanted culture. Having had SERIOUS wifi issues this week- not worth going into on this blog because one posts worth of ranting would not be sufficient for the rage I have against the accessibility* of french wifi- we headed to a restaurant on the front of the Vieux Port for mussels;

13 euros here, and so, so good

...and to use their wifi to catch up with the rest of the world. Sea food was checked off the list but sun and sea were still high priority, so we took a boat round to the east of the port, to see the famous calanques of Marseille- white limestone rocks, with deep valleys and colourful fishing villages. Though it felt like there was very little breeze in the enclosure of the Vieux Port, we were warned it would be a bumpy ride, but even writing about this trip two days later my stomach feels a little queasy. The wind was whipping up the spray and buffeting the boat to the point we were warned to stay sitting, and lines of people were slumped against the back bench, clutching plastic bags and looking more than a little peaky. But I pride myself on a stomach made of steel and good sea legs, so I was simply reveling in the fact I was in the Mediterranean sea, off the coast of the French Riviera in early October, catching the best of the midday sunshine.

Dinner was bouillabaisse, fish soup that is a Marseillais speciality, but très cher and a little overrated- or we didn't go to the right place. We spent the evening using the wifi as much as possible and the bath in the hotel room- a luxury! Then to bed for as many hours as possible before another early start.

the view from our hotel window of Le Gare Saint Charles at 6am

breakfast

The morning was spent at the Aix-Marseille University- going over administration, documents, social security, insurance; SUCH a lot of paperwork. But finally, I met some Erasmus friends, from all over the UK and it was really good to catch up over lunch with how they were finding their experience. Most of them were living in Avignon, which was a possibility to Becca and I but we would have to take a two hour bus ride to Apt each morning is not worth the hassle. They said I could go when I wanted, and stay overnight with them if we were going out etc so that was good to know, and any friends are like gold dust when you're feeling so far from home. We spent the afternoon sightseeing again in Marseille, as one girl has lived there for the past year, so she showed us an insider's Marseille- the restaurant on the Vieux Port where the scene in Love Actually where Colin Firth proposed to his Portuguese girlfriend was filmed,  and Les Panniers, the narrow streets where her family were filmed running through the streets to find the restaurant.

I met up with Becca in the evening, about 10 minutes before the train that would get us back before the last bus to Avignon, and we did a mad panicked rush back to the station. We arrived back for the 8pm bus and back in Apt for 10pm, at which point we both fell in to bed, with the combination of a lot of food, wine and sea air and also the prospect of another 5am start, making it VERY easy to sleep.

 *non accessibility