On to Marseille

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 2012

The day did not start out so awesome.  Turns out our laundry fiasco from the night before continued to rear its ugly head when we woke up and most of my laundry was still wet.  I was kinda hysterical about it.  I did not want to pack my suitcase back up with wet clothes.  Zack was awesome as always and ran my clothes to the laundromat across the street.  Except it turns out that it was not a laundromat at all, but a dry cleaner. So Zack had to convey what he wanted to this lady who didn't speak English, and then come back later to pay an exorbitant amount just to have my clothes dried.  All this happened early in the morning to boot.  All this just to make me happy.  What a guy.

Before our trip to France, we were eyeing how close Avignon is to Marseille and we were toying with making our way down to Marseille while we were in the area, but we just couldn't really figure how to squeeze it in.  Then we came up with the idea to split with Zack's parents and Sam and go down to Marseille for a couple of days ourselves while they headed to explore some of Sam's other mission areas.  As soon as we came up with the ida, we knew it was totally meant to be.  Prior to this plan, we were going to have to spend another 10+ hours crammed way too tightly in that rental vehicle.  Clara still hated the car at that time too.  Additionally, we did not feel very comfortable imposing on all the people that Sam wanted to visit by lugging ourselves and our baby along.  So prior to leaving for France, we booked ourselves some train tickets down to Marseille and a hotel room for a couple of nights.

The cab ride to the train station was adventurous.  We had a very colorful cab driver who pitched a fit when some lady tried to wash his windows at a stoplight.  He turned out to be Spanish, so Zack could communicate with him.  We made it to the station in plenty of time and caught our train.  The ride to Marseille was just a little over an hour on the high speed train.

We took this picture on the train because we weren't quite sure what it meant.  Apparently it's telling you to silence your cell phone.

Marseille is a gorgeous city right on the Mediterranean.  We arrived on a beautiful, warm afternoon.

Bourse (cool building) on the Canabiere (kinda like the Champs de Elysees in Paris)

We got an awesome deal on a hotel right on the Vieux Port (Old Port).  Turns out the area was all ripped up and under construction.  Maybe that's why our hotel was so cheap.  But the location was still killer.  After checking into our hotel and resting for a bit, then finding some food, we took a tourist train tour of some of the city.

From tourist train, with Vieux Port and Notre Dame de la Garde in the background

A church on the Vieux port.  You can see some of the fences around the construction

Vieux Port

Abbey of St. Victor, a really old abbey, built between the 3rd and 9th centuries

We drove along this road right along the Mediterranean Sea.  It was so gorgeous.  I just kept snapping pictures and then looking at them and being sad because they did not even begin to capture how cool looking it was.

Headed toward Notre Dame de la Garde.  Such great weather that day.

tourist train

At the top of the hill where Notre Dame de la Garde stands, we were allowed to hop off the train for a little bit and go in the church and take in the view.  Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris, but it still surprised my how large it is.

Notre Dame de la Garde

Looking out toward the Mediterranean

the tower

Inside the church, there was a service going on, so we did not linger very long.  It actually was quite small inside compared to many of the churches we had seen on our time in France, but still very pretty.

The building in the center of this picture and just below where the Mediterranean ends is the Palais de Pharo.  It was built in the 1850s, but never actually used as a palace.  Below that, you can see a fort that was built to guard the entrance to the Vieux Port.

Cute little boo boo

Random old looking stuff interspersed among modern houses

It was a very nice overview of a great city.  We spent the evening relaxing and watching the Olympics, and enjoying not being in the Avignon hotel room anymore.  Hee hee.