Marseille and Cassis

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Monday, September 7, 2009

Marseille, France

I am attending L'Alliance Francaise Marseille - Provence for four weeks. I began French classes today. Well at least I thought that I would begin them. In preparing for this trip, I had neglected to send via FAX my placement test to the school here in Marseille. So when I arrived on Monday morning, they looked over my written placement test and decided that I would be in the class that is for beginners. This class is a Wednesday through Friday class from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. However, there seemed to be a miscommunication with the secretary and she whisked me away into a classroom and asked me to take a seat. It didn’t take long for me to realize that she had mistakenly added me to the very advanced class. There were about 11 people from all over the world in this class and from what I could tell, they all spoke French very, very well. The teacher had just finished having us all introduce ourselves, and while I was in the middle of trying to sputter out my name, occupation, how long I had been in France, how long I was going to stay, and why I want to learn French, my salvation came as a knock on the door. It was the director of the school and she informed the teacher that I was in the wrong class. So, I left the classroom and at this point was told that I would be in the beginners class from Wednesday to Friday. The secretary arranged via telephone for me to meet my landlady from whom I would be renting my apartment. I made my way there and met the lady. She is a very kind woman in her thirties or early forties. She has a three story house that from the best I can tell, has four bedrooms. On the ground floor (Floor 0 in France) is her kitchen, dining area/living room, an atrium/hallway, a little glass porch out back that opens into a little garden. I have been given the permission to use the garden to study or read etc. On the second floor (Floor 1) are her bedroom and another spare bedroom with a bathroom I am guessing, and a storage room where she has told me that I can hang my clothes to dry. The third floor has two bedrooms, mine is on the side with the street with two windows that open that also have shutters that open. These shutters appear to be the original ones from who-knows-when. My room is not too small. The room is decked out with furniture from IKEA and a couple of chairs and a desk that are not IKEA. I have a little dresser to unpack into and a little bathroom across the hallway. This bathroom has only a sink and bathtub. Next to this bathroom is the kitchen. The kitchen is furnished with everything one needs to make meals at home. On the side of the stair landing opposite me, there is another little apartment with its own bathroom. I share the kitchen area with a girl that rents this apartment. She is nice. She works for a international water project here in Marseille. Next to her apartment, is the sink for the kitchen (very odd layout of the kitchen), with the washing machine and a little bathroom only with a toilet. The landlady gave me my key and showed me how to operate the lock on the front door. I nearly laughed when she handed me the key as the key is longer than my fingers and not easily carried in your pants pocket. So this describes where I am making as home for this month. I will take some pictures and upload them in a subsequent blog entry. Two blocks away is the Metro stop that I take each morning to arrive at my language school. This area of Marseille is very busy and vibrant. It is called the Notre Dame du Mont area in the 6eme arrondissment and has many different types of restaurants. My first meal was in the Restaurant Mozaic. I tried the ouze. I believe this is spelled correctly. It was a Syrian dish since the chef is from Damascus, Syria. It was essentially a rice pilaf with chicken inside a crepe-like packet. It was seasoned with really nice spices and mint leaves. The owner of the restaurant was also the waiter this evening and was delighted to speak to me in English and to tell me that he had been to Houston and also had lived in Austin, Texas for a while.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Today was a day to take care of all the items that I need to do to set up house and get around. I had my photos taken for my school ID card and my Metro pass. At 3€ a trip on the bus or Metro, you can really burn through your assets quickly. The Metro pass for the month was 38€ I believe for the month. This is a real value and money-saver. This gives one access to all the Metro buses and the two subway lines. I have yet to take the blue line anywhere as my routine is all pretty much either walking distance or on the red line. I am also just two Metro stops away from the Gare St. Charles (SNCF train station) where I make my departures to other places in France. I also walked around town today and saw the old port of Marseille and the district along the waterfront here. I then bought a few groceries and bread to stock the little kitchenette.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Today I began classes, in what amounted to the baby class. :-) We started off with the A, B, C’s. Hmmm During the break, I spoke with the teacher and asked her if she had reviewed my placement exam and she told me that she had not. She reviewed it and told me that she thought that I should be in the class that is a little more advanced, but that I really fell somewhere between the two classes. So we decided that I would continue in this class for this week and in the following week I would move to the more advanced class that meets on Monday and Tuesday from 9 to 1. So this was a relief to know that I wouldn’t spend my month here learning the A, B, C’s and numbers by singing nursery rhymes in French about the numbers. :-)

Cassis, France

After class and lunch, I took the Metro up to the train station and bought a round-trip ticket to Cassis. This is a small port city about 20 kilometers from Marseille, just 25 minutes away by train. I packed up my beach towel, swim trunks, snorkel and mask, and sun block and boarded the train. Upon arriving in the train station in Cassis, you are actually about a mile from the city center and it is a nice walk down a hillside road to the city center. As you descend into the city, the views of vineyards heavy with grapes are on both sides of the road. As you get closer to the city center, you can see the Mediterranean Sea and the city center and the port. It is such a beautiful town. I went into a few shops and just looked. The natural perfume shop was really nice. Here they have all sorts of perfumes made from natural plants such as lavender. I am still trying to figure out how to bring some of this back for gifts. It may not be possible. I went to the beach and found a spot. The water is crystal clear and the views are stunning. From where I was on the beach, you can see the Cap Canaille (Cape Canaille). This is the highest seaside cliff in Europe. It was really amazing.

25 September 2009 - I am catching up on my blog as I zip along from Aix-en-Provence to Paris for the weekend. These high speed trains are amazing and comfy too. It’s just a 3 hour train ride from Marseille to Paris on the TGV. This is the train à grand vitesse (TGV = high speed train.) Barreling along at between 170 to 220 miles per hour is amazing.

Now, back to Cassis.... I snorkeled a bit and didn’t really see much. They were quite a few fish but not like what one sees in the Caribbean. The sea is not too salty here. I was surprised. I relaxed a bit and actually did some homework in my workbook while taking in the sun’s rays. Don’t worry, I am using plenty of sun block. After the sunset, which was truly amazing, I headed back to the port area of town to have dinner. I picked a restaurant right on the water front and had the fish soup as an appetizer with a white fish fillet smothered in an brown olive cream sauce with zucchini gratin. This was a really good meal. After dinner, I decided that I should start trying to find a taxi to take me up the hill to the train station. Unfortunately for me, there are no taxis in this city after 8 pm. It was close to 9 pm and I had an hour to hoof it up that hill to the train station. That mile seemed like 2 to 3 on this return trip to the train stations. Just in time to catch my train back into Marseille. With sore feet with blisters I rested well that night.

BE SURE TO SEE THE PHOTOS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE AND THE PAGE 2 PHOTOS

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Photos

Ma cle de mon appartement...
The key to my apartment in Marseille. :-)

My language school
L'Alliance Francaise Marseille - Provence

View from the window
The view from the library window in the language school

View from the window
The view from the window in the language school

Gare Cassis
The little train station in Cassis

So tempting...
to go grab a few grapes to try. :-)

The castle hotel on the hill above town
Apparently it has only five rooms and is very expensive.

Petanque
Men in the park playing this lawn bowling game

Petanque
Men in the park playing this lawn bowling game.