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.

Avignon

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012
Bear with me guys.  We are going to get through this France trip and move on to other things soon, I promise.
Let me just preface this by saying that Avignon is a really, really cool city, and we only had 1 day there, so we squeezed a lot in a took a ton of pictures.  This post will be long and picture filled for that reason.
Although the city now spills outside the walls, the medieval ramparts of Avignon still exist all the way around the old city.

We did not take the time to explore any of the museums in the city due to time constraints, but we did think this building was pretty.

The courtyard of a church

Avignon has also preserved its central square.  Many of the sites we saw were in that area.

Hotel De Ville (City Hall)

The inside of Hotel de Ville

Theatre

Just a quick and superficial history lesson... Avignon is sometimes called the City of the Popes because the papacy was centered there instead of Rome from 1309 to 1377.  During the period from 1378 to 1415, there were actually 2 popes at the same time.  This period was known as the Great Schism.  Until 1403, the antipopes were in Avignon, while the popes were in Rome.  The Avignon popes built (or had someone else build, more accurately) and lived in the building you can see on the right in the picture below, the Palais des Papes, or Palace of the Popes.  This acted as a palace as well as a fortification.  It is built on a hill and has 17-18 foot thick walls.  The building was altered many times during the Avignon papacy.  After the French Revolution, it was used as a barracks and prison.  Today, it is open for tours.  Although much of the beauty and grandeur of papal times is gone, it is still such a great thing to see.  Loved it.  Check out some highlights below.

Outside the Palais des Papes

Baby had to eat before we went in

Cool ceilings, and the remains of some frescoes

Courtyard

No stroller allowed here, so this was a sling/carry the baby kind of tour.  The audio tour was very well done.

Sam already did this tour when we was a missionary here.  Maybe he was bored?

Looking out on the city

Taking a little rest while listening to the tour.  

This was a grand hall, where banquets and such would be held.

That's a big fireplace.

A chimney

Some tiles that were preserved

If I remember right, this area was used as a chapel.

Sleepy baby

Stained glass shards

A model of the palace.  You can see that it is kind of chaotic in its construction, a result of one pope after another demolishing parts of it, and adding to it.

A view of Notre Dame des Doms, the cathedral

Stretching out, and giving mom's arms a rest

Following our tour, we lunched in the center square.

I came across this thing.  It was really big, and grossed me out big time.

Sam wanted to hit up a bookstore, but Zack and I weren't as interested, so we headed up the rocky hill near Notre Dame des Doms to check out the views.

From there, we could see the Pont de Avignon, or Pont St. Benezet, a bridge which no longer goes all the way across the Rhone river.

We could see this fortress/abbey situated on the hill across the river.

When Zack's family rejoined us, we decided to check out the inside of Notre Dame de Doms.

A couple of the Avignon popes were laid to rest here.

One of the popes' marker was destroyed when the church was sacked during the French Revolution.  I don't even begin to understand French, but Sam said this sign said something about how they just replaced his marker with someone else's, I think.

After touring the church, we took one of those tourist trains around the city. The ride was a little less than comfortable because they crammed this old man with very sharp elbows into the row with Zack and the car seat and I, even though there were other seats available.  It was still great though.

A view of the Pont de Avignon from outside the ramparts on the tourist train

Tourist train

Tourist train

I just love the look of streets like this

Someday, babycakes will probably be mad that she was in Avignon and she can't even remember

Then we took a tour of the Pont de Avignon.  It had an audio tour telling about the origins of the bridge, as well as its deterioration over the centuries.

Looking back toward the palace and cathedral

There was a chapel on the bridge

Chapel

CHapel

The bridge had an upper and lower level in some places

Looking down off the edge of the bridge

Last of all, we wandered the city a bit, picking up souvenirs and all that.  We saw lots of statues of the Virgin around the city.  Apparently, Virgin adoration or worship or whatever the best term for that would be was a big deal in Avignon for a time.

Bubble beard baby

That night, we needed to do some laundry.  We had planned on doing it at a nearby laundromat, but it was already closed by the time we returned to the hotel.  Kindly, the hotel allowed us to use their washing machine, which is not usually for hotel guests.  Unfortunately, they did not have a dryer.  So we had wet clothes hanging all over our tiny hotel room and outside the room also.  I was exhausted and found the whole laundry thing to be very stressful.  All in all, a fantastic day, with laundry being a tiny little blip that seemed so much bigger than it was at the time.  I think that after traveling for so long with a baby, I was overly worn out and overly emotional.  Seems silly now.  But I want to remember, so I am noting it.
Just a few more posts guys.