Trip to Marseille

I'm back with my expensive pieces of paper for the wedding.

My mom is also on top of requesting a copy of my Birth Abroad certificate in the event we get married in Toulouse instead of B's parents' village and they don't accept my German plurilangue birth certificate. My mom is paying extra for them to FedEx it back to her as well, and knowing how things go, it'll probably all be for nothing.

But Marseille.

First reaction: Mmmouais? Generic French city. There didn't seem to be a unifying characteristic of the city. The buildings were all just kind of big, kind of 1870's, mostly pale.

Marseille is trying to win the title of European Culture Capital ofr 2013 like Toulouse (and Lyon and Bordeaux), and I really hope Toulouse doesn't lose to Marseille. The streets were too dirty and there were too many closed store fronts for them to win. Bazaar type stores were on major streets juxtaposed with a bank or major chain clothing stores.

I was often reminded of Italy because there were more beggars than in Toulouse, and African immigrants were selling sunglasses and other trinkets on cardboard boxes on the sidewalk. Toulouse has a few poster sellers and street musicians, but no sunglasses sold on the street. It was interesting how the rhythm and atmosphere in Marseille were distinctly different from Toulouse.

My opinion of Marseille is a bit prejudiced, since B warned me that the downtown was really dangerous and that it was a terrible city in general. But I tried to keep an open mind and just kind of see what it was like. Maybe someone who lives there could show me what is great about it.

View of the city from the train station

Other direction

Zoom on church in distance on hill

Cathedral I passed on my way towards the downtown and the Tourist office

Pedestrain shopping street

The Vieux Port; it was packed with yachts

Remains of a fort on my way up to a park that overlooked the port

Park where I ate my sandwhich and orangina purchased at Monoprix (nice budget lunch)

Looking back towards the city

Notre Dame de something-or-other? I just had a good view from the park


This one gives a good perspective of the whole port back towards the city

Statue behind me while I was taking the previous picture

Cruise ship coming in

The Mediterranean

After my lunch in the park, I headed back towards the downtown and the American consulate. I decided to take a different route than the one I'd taken to get to the park, so I headed back along some major boulevards.

Marseille has the same bike rental system as Toulouse, but I didn't see any bike lanes. One point for Toulouse for having bike lanes! (even if they aren't everywhere)

Marseille has a metro system (which I didn't take in order to visit the city a bit) and they also have tramways, as you can see by this web of electrical wiring above the intersection.

This statue was by the entrance to a park, but I didn't check it out because it was higher up on the hill and I didn't feel like climbing the hill. Minus one point for Marseille because it's so hilly.

This is the Prefecture, with the American Consulate more or less at my back. I was going to take a picture of the Consulate, but I figured the security guard would come out and confiscate my camera or force me to delete the picture, so I didn't try. The building wasn't that special, just a large house on the street with a grate that separated the garden.

You can't take electronics (phone, DS, PSP) into the Consulate and they had me sip my water to make sure it wasn't poison, but I had to laugh that they didn't catch the pocketknife in my purse. Okay, it's too dull to cut saucisse, but still, they missed it.

Lastly, a shopping street on my way back to the train.

I had allotted enough time after my appointment to catch my train as for the French Consulate in LA, but since there was no line and I got there really early, I was out of the Consulate by about 3:20 (my original appointment being 3pm). My train wasn't until 5:49 and I wasn't scheduled to get back to Toulouse unil 11pm because there was a 2 hour wait in Avignon, so I quickly got in line once I was at the train station. With a stroke of luck, there were still seats available on the direct train at 4:19, and for 5 euros more, I got home at 7:45 instead of 11pm. As I was sitting on the train, I wondered to myself why positive traveling experiences like that don't seem to outweigh all the negative missed connections, delays, and unreserved seats. I took tons of reading material with me, but in the end I basically snoozed during both train rides. It didn't help that I'd gone to bed at 1:30am after stressing about getting my stuff together for the trip, and then woke up at 6:30am to catch my 8am train.

Now back to my regularly scheduled events: tutoring, dishes, laundry, drivers Ed....