France: Marseille and Nice

After many delays and difficulties, we finally arrived in Marseille at around 1ish. This seems to be an unfortunate habit. Luckily, our hotel was very close to the train station, so we were able to get there quickly and go to bed.



We got up the next morning, intent on taking a ferry out to Chateau d'If. Apparently, the dungeon was where Alexandre Dumas had Edmond Dantes held as prisoner in his Count of Monte Cristo (which is a book I need to read again...). You know, where he befriended an old guy who was trying to dig his way out, but died, so Dantes hid in the body-bag when they chucked it into the sea so he could escape? It's a good story. Unfortunately, the ferry is closed on Mondays, so we couldn't get there. We did go to a fort--I'm not sure which one--, the Abbaye St-Victor, and the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde. That was quite the impressive church. It was done in stripes of white and peach, with gold mosaics covering the ceiling and a little nook filled with paintings of ships and shipwrecks. On our way back, we had to walk through a bad part of town. At one point, some guy started shouting at us in French. I didn't even really realize he was shouting at us until he started following us, still shouting. We quickly walked back to our hotel (fortunately we didn't get lost!) and eventually lost him. It was really scary.



Anyway. That experience somewhat tainted our opinions of Marseille (although for the most part, it was pretty nice. It wasn't very touristy at all though, which is still kind of out of my comfort zone in non-English speaking countries. It makes me feel guilty). Then, we hopped on a train and went to Nice. Catie spoke with a French woman on the train, who was doing a graduate degree in Paris but was originally from around Nice, I think. I wasn't really paying attention, but I caught parts of their conversation. It was very interesting, and she was very nice.



We got in, talked to the Tourist Information office about church services, and checked into our hotel. There were a few other people staying there: John from Ohio and Michelle and Anna from Ontario. By some stroke of luck, I believe we all got in on about the same day and all left on the same day. It was great to have one place to stay for four days and have the same people the whole time--none of this moving around stuff. Anyway, we ran out and went to a grocery store (Monoprix, our second home while in Nice), then came back, changed, and went to church. We went to Mass at a strange little (relatively) church where they didn't dim the lights at all (and the interior was blindingly white) and they had people come up and put roses and carnations in the mesh seas of some giant map. Basically, even though I know how a church service is run and I had some clue what was going on, I was completely lost. It is quite possibly the most surreal experience of my life: to simultaneously know what's happening and have no clue what's going on. Also, the priest gave a very involved, very dramatic sermon that had him shouting and gesticulating as if Jesus was returning then and there. I was really interested by his actions, but I didn't know what he was saying. I had a hard time not giggling through the service. Fortunately, we escaped afterwards without having to talk to anyone. That would have been awkward.

Christmas day, we woke up late, sat around, went down to the beach, and hunted down free Internet. The sky was cloudy, meaning the sea was also grey. It was absolutely haunting. You could barely tell where the horizon was. We sat there for a long time, just listening to the waves. I loved it. That night, we watched some TV. The next day, I went to the Musee Matisse (featuring the works of, you guessed it, Henri Matisse) while Catie went to another museum (I forget which--contemporary art, I think, so not really my tastes. At all). Here again I had to suffer cat-calls on my way up the giant hill. It was a really long walk. In the rain. The museum was pretty cool, though, and it had some really interesting pieces. I didn't realize that he had designed a chapel (though now that I think back, that's more because of stupidity on my part than lack of information), and there were more Roman ruins nearby. I met Catie back at the hotel and we went back down to the beach with Anna and Michelle. See, Catie and Anna had a genius plan: they were going to go swimming! So we all went down--I took pictures and served as a general witness. They said it was cold, but not too cold (I mean, it was 50-60 degrees out. It can't be that bad) and really salty. I sat on the beach (again) and picked up rocks. I also devised my own theory as to universal human traits: laughing at babies who eat lemons and uncontrolable urges to throw rocks into bodies of water. Everyone does this. Anyway, I carried around a bunch of rocks for the rest of my trip. And I wondered what made my bag so heavy!

The third day we were in Nice, we climbed up Le Chateau, the ruins of an old fortress/palace made into a park. That's 400 steps up, people. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. The park was lovely, and I got some great pictures. There are all these yucca-ish plants all over the Mediterranean coast, and people have carved their initials and other phrases and symbols into them. This makes me unspeakably angry. The plant didn't do anything to you! It was just sitting there! It's really cruel, I think, to carve things into a living being that can't defend itself (if it could, I bet you'd quit real fast, now wouldn't you?). Anyway. We went back down and ran back to the room, where I promptly took a 3 hour nap. Yeah. Nice was great. Then we watched more TV. Okay, I know it sounds really pathetic, all the time we spent hanging out in the room, watching TV, sleeping, reading, and so on, but it was really nice to take a break and just take things slow. I loved it.

The next day, we took a train to Monaco. We didn't do much except wander around and take pictures and marvel at how much money people have. It was fun, and really interesting. They have public escalators everywhere so you don't have to climb the hills. We went back to Nice to grab our bags and headed off to Genoa.

Pictures are giving me issues today, and I don't really want to work through why. Sorry! I have to get some homework done--my dear friend Liz is coming up from London to visit for the weekend, and I won't have any time to get little things done. Have a great weekend!