Bon Voyage: Marseille

Bonjour Tout le Monde,

Back in February my friend Meagan and I decided to check out the small seaport town of Marseille for a weekend, where it would be warm and sunny. As time went on, more and more of our group decided to tag along and by the weekend of March 23^rd there were 8 of us going. Because there was such a large group of us we decided to rent an apartment by the harbor, so that we would 1. Have a place to ourselves where we could leave our things safely 2. Not have to worry about the headache that hostels can sometimes be and 3. It was cheaper if we all split the cost. The day of, Peter (one of the guys in my group and the only male on this trip) left before the rest of us so when we got there he was patiently waiting on the platform to greet us. As we all piled out and walked towards him I said “hey dad!!” he then put his arms out and sarcastically said “Hey girls, how was camp?” :D

We walked down the road and found the apartment where we were staying at. It was absolutely gorgeous. With 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and a kitchen equipped with a bar, big dining and living room that were surrounded by floor to ceiling windows that looked out towards the sea. It was perfect. We set out to explore the apartment and claim where we were sleeping. We decided it would be cheapest to plan meals together and do big family meals, so we all set out to the local grocery store to pick up pasta, tons of bread, cheese, veggies and wine. By the time we got back it was time for dinner so we all divvied up the tasks and went to work. That night we had chili over rice, accompanied with bread, salad and wine, of course (doing how the French do).

The rest of the evening we spent sipping on wine and playing card games with jazz music playing in the background. Later on, one of the girls, Gabrielle desperately wanted to check out the Marseille night scene, so I went out with her. We walked into one dance club but nothing was going on yet, so we decided to walk the pier checking out bars to see if they were worth staying in. We got a drink at one and chit chatted amongst ourselves for a little while and then decided to go back to the club to see if it had gotten any busier. Luckily it had and we stayed to dance.

One thing I find so funny is that in every bar and club I’ve been to in France, they play American music (Little John, Beyonce, Alicia keys, David Guetta, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj etc.) but most of them don’t speak English and therefore have NO idea what they are saying, yet because they’ve heard it so much over the radio they sing along to it (or at least try to). The whole night Gabrielle and I were belting out these songs and smiling at each other when we heard French people awkwardly trying to sing along too.

The next day, Peter, Katie, Meagan and I decided to go explore the city. We took a bus down to the old part of the harbor, but it started raining just as we got there and so the market closed down. Luckily, we caught one of the merchants who was selling a famous Marseille treat (that I forget the name of :/ ). Essentially it was dough the size of a baguette deep fried with sugar on it (basically like a GIANT churro). Peter bought one thinking he was going to be able to eat it all himself, but as the merchant handed over the giant piece of deliciousness, he looked at me wide eyed and for the next ten minutes kept ripping off huge pieces and shoving it into my hands. It was heaven.

Because the area was pretty desolate, because of the rain we decided to venture up the quaint little streets to reach the top of the hill. Little did we know it was going to take us all afternoon. We had no direction, just kept walking higher and higher. We came across an old, tiny cathedral that was ringing its bells, we found very old French styled homes that were all different colors with wooden shutters and their ovens outside of the house, the kind of thing you might see in movies. Although the area was quaint and picturesque it was plain to see that these people still lived very simple lives, doing their laundry in their yards etc. We took a few pictures of the scenery at the top, and then quickly descended because at that point we were soaked. We headed back to our apartment and stopped by the main cathedral in Marseille, Notre Dame de la Garde which was ornately decorated and covered in marble on the inside. That night we divied up the tasks for dinner again and had pasta with alfredo sauce, bread, salad and wine. The rest of the night followed the same order. It felt so 1940's to just sit inside, have this smooth jazz ambiance while sipping on wine and playing card game after card game.

Sunday we had to be out of the apartment by 3 and our train back to Grenoble was at 6:45. Some of the group decided to go explore the city some more but Gabrielle, Caroline and I decided to walk down to Starbucks and have a hot cup of coffee since it was pouring outside (so much for sunny, warm weather right?). We spent a good couple hours having quality girl talk and then decided to head back to the apartment to play cards and have lunch. We all had lunch together and tried to eat any leftovers. When 3:00pm rolled around we headed out bringing our bottles of wine with us (because believe it or not, you can consume alcohol on the streets in France) and decided to slowly walk towards the train station stopping in any interesting stores we came across to pass the time. At 6:30 we boarded the train and headed back to Grenoble just in time to have dinner with our host families.