I went to Marseille with my host mother last week. We went down on the train on a Wednesday for four hours in first class because my host mother only travels first class. She was going down for work and so I was given money every morning to take a taxi around Marseille and enjoy the town as I saw fit during the day.
I absolutely loved Marseille. It was all white and gorgeous and the little idyllic beach town you have imagined just on a grand scale with industry also. I did get called a beautiful goddess in Italian too, but I’m pretty sure that the vendor was saying that to get me to stop and buy his fish. Marseille stinks of fish around the port.
On the first day I decided to walk to the centre ville and find the tourism office. I have a good sense of orientation through my memory. I can remember landmarks, or routes on a map. So I had seen a map and had an inclination of which direction to go in from my hotel. So I followed the road on the right side of my hotel and after going down several roads I found the centre ville. I was so proud that I had managed to find it and my way back. I was going on about how amazing I was and I was so talented. I had come back to my hotel at 6 to deposit my shopping because my arms were hurting. My host mother was meeting me at eight so I decided to go walking on the left side of my hotel to see what I could for a while. So off I went and just down the road was the centre ville. I couldn’t believe it. I had walked so far in the morning. I was so cranky and laughing so hard. I had had several coffees that day so that was also a factor.
When I was in a resturant for dinner there was a couple behind me speaking English. I was just half listening because they obviously thought that they were ok to speak English and not be understood, but I just knew their accents. So I said to my host mum ‘I’m positive that they are Australian.’ The man spoke with the same accent as you grandad. They were Australian and their daughter apparently lives in Townsville. Small world. They were doing their over 60s tour of Europe. Bet their daughter didn’t get them the over 40s Europe tour book for Christmas and so they had to wait another 20 years.
I bought awesome shoes in Marseille. I was having a competition with Alana and sending back and forth photos of the shoes we had bought. Stop buying shoes Lana. I’ll post the shoes tomorrow mum. WIth all of the ones I’ve bought.
View of the Marseille port.
View of Marseille centre ville and main street and boutiques.
View of Marseille
Not too sure if this is the Marseille soccer team but felt I needed a picture of someone playing soccer in Marseille.
The inside of the Notre-Dame-De-La-Garde. It is all gold mosiac and illuminated.
It was in Marseille that I saw my first poppy. They were everywhere just growning out of the rocks. It was raining the whole time I was in Marseille. My new shoes were ruined. That was a different pair to the ones I bought in Marseille though.
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oh wow! the cathedral is just stunning. The colour of the poppy is a significant contrast with every other photo.
the town looks so crowded. its like a house on a house. i spose they dont have as much land as us lol. owell. it looks so quaint and pretty anyway i so want to go there.
Ashy, you are so lucky. Your host families have been so good to you .I am sure it is because they recognise that you are exceptional. Experience it all, sweetheart.
I remember driving to get to our hotel in Spain once – we got to a particular place and weren’t allowed to drive any further because the road was closed. We were only 200m from our hotel (although we didn’t know it at the time). It took us another 2 hours to find the hotel from another direction. We were very very mad although, amazingly enough, remained a married couple. Those European towns built way way before the motor car – their streets just wind and wind. Its beautiful and very frustrating at the same time.
How many pairs of shoes have we bought so far? Also did you know that if you change the letters of paris around you get “pairs”. Pairs of shoes, pairs of pants, pairs of sunglasses etc etc….
SOooooo interesting Peta. If you change eb quite, you get be quiet!