Marseilles, Train ride with wierd French guys

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This morning we had to wake up early and get to the Gare de Lyon by 8:30 to figure out the train station and catch the train. It was pretty easy, except we had so much stuff. We wrote on the train. Every now and then I’d look out the window and see the amazing, green French countryside.

We stopped in Marseilles for lunch. We didn’t want to pay for a locker to put all our stuff for 4 hours during our stop, so we carried it 1.5 miles down to the marina area. It was so hot and our stuff was so heavy, we decided that we would get a locker next time. Lunch was nice, we ate outside in the sea breeze. Then we had to walk all the way back (uphill!) to the station. We realized that it was not necessary to bring so much stuff.
Marseilles was interesting: so radically different from Paris because there was such a variety of ethnities, dress, buildings, atmosphere, city layout, climate, etc. It actually didn’t live up to my expectations; it was a little dirty. There was a cool view from the train station because it’s a little higher up, but that was probably all I needed.

We grabbed a vestibule on the train to Cannes. It was like the Hogwarts Express with the little seats and the doors. Then these 2 French guys wanted to sit with us… pour quoi pas?... They didn’t speak any English, so we had a run for our money. Except they wouldn’t stop talking about sex and then they pulled out some weed and started rolling joints. The look Mary gave me was priceless… marde. But it was ok, we had a good time practicing French. At one point they asked us where we were going, we said Cannes, and they told us we were on a train to Lyon, which is north. We freaked out! They had us going for 5 minutes. So gullible.

When we exited the train station, I immediately saw our hotel across the street. Thank god we didn’t have to lug our bags around the city. We showered and walked around to find dinner. We stopped at a burger place (yes, we just needed a burger) and the waiter actually had spent 2 years studying in New York and was so friendly. We asked him about rules about drinking in public and used his wine opener for the bottle we bought at the Monop’. Il s’appelle Julian and his wife moved with him here to Cannes just a month ago.

We stopped at the Monop’ to get 2 euro wine, grabbed our burgers to go and got to the beach just in time for sunset. Burgers = amazing. Wine we picked = not so good. Played passa boula until it was gone and roamed the bord de la mer. There were so many young people. We went back to get another bottle to drink on the beach and we joined a large group. Today was the best day to practice French! We spoke so much and learned so much! Such some: bourree = drunk, je suis contente de te connaitre = nice to meet you. We saw some fireworks on the harbor and returned to the hotel around 2am. It really is true: Europe doesn’t go to bed until the wee hours of the morning.

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Photos

Marseilles
Interesting place.... but this was a beautiful view. Note how much we had to carry and the misery we are trying to hide