Journal entry from Wednesday, February 12th:
Today was our first official full day in France! It's crazy how much time is lost when you travel from west to east. We traveled 9 hours into the future, so even though we left our house at 4am on Monday, we didn't arrive at our Airbnb in Marseille until nearly 6pm on Tuesday night.
We took it exceptionally easy this morning and let the kids sleep in till 11am local time. That's 2am our time, though, so it was still hard to wake Amber up even though she slept for 14 hours straight! Jay and Rose got up before 11am, but Rose went back to bed and slept till I woke her and Amber up at 11. I slept fitfully, but better than expected, so that was nice. I was still wide awake by 6:30am, though, so I ate breakfast and said goodnight to Jeff, who was going back to bed at 7:30am since he had been awake for 3 hours. I attempted to go back to sleep, but after that failed, I went on a run. First I ran to Vieux Port (old port), and then ran along the Mediterranean coast for a while before turning into the maze of narrow streets and navigating my way up to Basilique de Notre Dame de la Garde, the basilica perched atop the highest hill in town. It was quite the climb, but the view was beautiful! When I arrived back at the Airbnb, Jeff went on his run. Then we all embarked on our first adventure of the day: lunch.
We ate lunch at a very tasty kabob restaurant that had a cute French cafe vibe (unusual for a kabob place--usually they are bare bones or kind of meh inside). Yum, those kabobs were delicious. Jeff had Jay and Rose each order their own kebab in French from the patient lady. I ordered mine too, but we ordered for Amber. The biggest surprise was that Amber liked her kebab! She didn't like the sauce blanche that they put on it, but she liked the meat and the bread. So she won't live entirely off of baguettes and fries on this trip. Whew! The kebabs we got for lunch were some of the best Jeff and I have ever had.
From the kebab shop we walked to the ferry terminal to take a ferry out to Chateau D'If. The lady at the counter informed us that no ferries were stopping at Chateau D'If today due to high waves. So we pivoted and went for a walk around Vieux Port instead. We walked on the north side of the bay and saw what the plaque claimed was the world's largest teddy bear sculpture (bright orange and 20 feet tall). On our way back to the Airbnb, we walked through some of the graffiti quarter, Quartier des Createurs and Les Escaliers du Rue Julien. It felt a bit sketchy, and the graffiti seemed less artistic and more angry than when Jeff and I saw it 6 years ago, but it was definitely still interesting seeing all that graffiti.
After that 3 mile walk, we took a 90 minute siesta at home before embarking on yet another walk, this time up to Notre Dame de la Garde. When I ran up there this morning, I didn't think we'd have time to go there as a family, but since our plans changed due to ferries, we ended up having time, so I got to do all of those stairs and hills twice in one day. It was so cool! Jeff and I saw the outside 6 years ago, but we didn't get to go inside until today. This church was built centuries ago to watch over sailors. The ceiling was beautifully painted in gold and blue with intricate patterns and designs. The sailing/sea theme was everywhere we looked. The more we searched for it, the more we saw it: dozens of sea-themed paintings hung on the walls in the cloisters, life preserver rings hung on the wall, a ship was painted front and center above the altar, and my favorite--thin chains with model ships hanging from them were strung around the whole basilica. It was such a neat themed church! I always feel very reverent whenever I enter an old church building because the history of faith just fills the whole space and touches my heart. I loved it. We sat quietly in a tiny rickety old wooden pew for a while admiring everything before hiking back down the many many steps. The basilica was only 1 mile from our Airbnb, but it was a steep mile.
On our way home, we stopped at a patisserie for some baguettes and pastries, and a Carrefour City for some dinner groceries. Once again, Jeff had Jay and Rose order their own pastries (I do my own ordering too). Jeff and Amber waited outside the grocery store holding the pastries while Jay, Rose, and I went in to get dinner cheese and veggies. It is so cute how timid Jay and Rose are in French language situations! I totally feel their pain because I have the same tendencies. I try to do some transactions in French each day, but since Jeff is so much better and more confident with French, I usually let him do the verbal heavy lifting. But I can do groceries and food orders! We spent about 100 euros on food today for the 5 of us. Not too shabby, with on-the-go restaurants and city groceries! We aren't trying to scrimp either; we are totally eating what we want to and enjoying it!
We were back at our Airbnb by 6pm today for a dinner of baguettes, cheese, saucisse (sausage), cherry tomatoes, Oasis (heavenly tropical beverage), and pastries. Another surprise: Amber tried both of the French cheeses we had and liked them!
My legs are sore and dead.
[end journal entry]
PICTURES:
Morning Run:
Vieux Port (Old Port) harbor had endless rows of boats. It was scenic and satisfying.
Looking back at Marseille from the edge of the water. That road straight ahead is Le Canebière, the historic hemp fishing net tying street whose names just seems to have transitioned into these modern marijuana times so well, haha. Jeff took Zyrtec two times per day during this trip to guard against any marijuana allergy attacks.
Running along the Mediterranean coast towards an old fort.
Running along the sea was so refreshing! I wore shorts!
Viewpoint
That gorgeous white limestone of the calanques was all along the coast.
Turning in to the narrow crowded city roads didn't make for the clearest running path, and I might have blackened a lung from all of the secondhand smoke I unintentionally inhaled while passing smokers, but it was a fun challenge to wend my way through the streets up to the basilica.
The hill was no joke for my jet-lagged body and plane seat-dead legs. Over just one mile, the hill gains 500 feet of elevation!
View of Marseille almost at the top of the hill, with a random French guy jumping rope on the landing. He had French music playing while he did his jump rope workout.
Just a few more stairs to the top, haha.
Marseille!
Hot mess hilltop selfie before heading back down.
Chateau d'If is on that tiny island out there!
Down, down, down the hill.
Walk #1: kebabs and Vieux Port
YUM, kebabs.
This mirror pavilion down by the water was awesome! I got the biggest kick out of being able to see myself when I looked up! It was a total optical illusion. That's our reflection on the ceiling!
Looking up for a picture.
Strolling along the harbor.
Notre Dame de la Garde way up in the distance overlooking the harbor.
Rose liked this massive Catedrale La Major. We didn't go all the way inside it, but it loomed massively on the horizon.
The world's largest sculpture of a teddy bear--or so the plaque said. Randomly located in Marseille.
Amber loved it.
Jeff read the plaque which explained the artist's artistry at giving the bear two faces. It looked like a giant plastic gummy bear to me...I guess I struggle to find symbolism in cartoon art.
Graffiti!
It was super messy and scribbly but with a nifty effect.
Entering our apartment building.
Whew, those 3 long flights of stairs got harder and harder every time we went back to the Airbnb.
Walk #2: Notre Dame de la Garde
Back up that 500 foot high hill!
View kiss!
Due to construction, visitors had to enter the main church through the crypt. So, more stairs.
The design gave me Iberian mosque vibes. Can you spot the vertical chains with model ships hanging from them? It was hard getting pictures of them, but this picture has at least four chains of ships in it.
The gilded ship over the altar.
Amber liked the gold ceiling.
Another attempt at photographing the dangling ships.
Dangling ships in the foreground, life preservers and nautical art on the wall. I had to lighten this picture with my phone's photo editing program to get everything visible.
Ships hanging.
Dinner: Oasis in wine glasses, baguette, cheese, tomatoes, and sausage.
Dessert: pastries!
My tarte framboise was a delectable finale to our first full day in France.
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