french fries in marseillaise


Having spent almost a week visiting agences, putting up petites annonces, and searching the newspapers, universities, telegraph poles and the internet for colocataires (sharemates), we decided to spend Sunday somewhere else. Besides, everything was closed anyway, and it was a really beautiful day. So, we went to Marseille.

It’s a little bit really different to Aix.






It’s huge.
It’s also on the water. This is the vieux port, the first city in France, founded by the Greeks. Around the corner is a huge modern port, but here it’s all pleasure yachts, fishing boats, and restaurants serving couscous.









We walked all the way down one side of the port, admiring the yachts,
















and the huge cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde, with a giant golden statue of Mary on the tallest tower.
















It was such a hot day that there were heaps of people sitting by the water, some cooling their feet, and others dodging the boats.
















Which Sam thought was a great idea.















There was a couple sitting on the rocks, and every now and then the woman would go for a little swim. But the man didn’t seem to think it was very safe. Anyway, Sam dove in and survived, and after a while the man started asking if it was safe, if it wasn’t too cold, how was he going to get out… Eventually he jumped in too, and they both made it out alive, upon which the man totally confused us with bursts of jovial Marseille-ese. I think we’ll have to spend another year in Marseille once we finish in Aix to learn the language.

We finished off the day with a visit to the local palais and headed back to Aix, which is only 20 minutes away, but has a completely different attraction.