This weekend I traveled to Marseille and it was, honestly, the best! Marseille is a city around the size of Lyon and it's location, next to the the Mediterranean, gives it Spanish and Italian influences. I took an incredible amount of photos.
I stayed in a rented room of an apartment for the weekend. Here's the view from the garden terrace of the apartment.
Our first stop was to go to Notre Dame de la Garde. It's a magnificent cathedral that's quite a hike to get to! You can see the cathedral on the hill in this photo.
There was even a drawbridge! It was amazing. I had my first view of the Mediterranean. 
And I snapped this photo of an old car passing by me at the top
Here's the inside
Next we wandered around not knowing our destination and we ended up at a grand fortress.
Following this, we visited the office of tourism and met a very nice French lady! Since the office was not very busy, we spent about an hour talking to her. She had lived in Florida and Britain for several years but now lives in France to be with her family. Her parents, who don't speak a word of English, visited her in the US and told her they wanted her to stay there just because of the way the people made them feel. Even though they couldn't understand English!
We spent a lot of time discussing the cultural differences between the US and France. For example, in the US people hold doors open for eachother, give another person a coupon they won't be using, or insist on someone going ahead of them in the grocery store line (if they have just one item or something). These little things don't happen in France, it is certainly a different culture. The French are more closed off or cold, but not because they aren't incredibly kind and wonderful people.
The director of the Lyon study abroad program explained to me that she has gone to the same boulangerie for 13 years and never said anything more than "hello, I would like_____" and "goodbye."It's a cultural difference to not extend so much energy to strangers, and to reserve this energy for the people more close to you in life. In other words, why tell your baker all about your children? The term for this is "garder le visage" or "keep your face." However, ironically enough, the same people who smile less in the street have no disdain for public displays of affection and nudity. Both systems are different, neither is better than the other. But I find these cultural differences fascinating.
As our friend at the office of tourism suggested, we went to the beaches on the coast nearby to us by bus and found a little creperie restaurant. We ate dinner by the water and the Ferris wheel.
of course we rode the Ferris wheel.
This was my first time getting in the Mediterranean!
The next day was what I was really looking forward to: a trip to the calanques! The calanques consist of carribean-like water next to cliffs. One has to hike over an hour and then descend down the cliffs to get to them. This was no gradual path! Here's some of the hike:
And here's the view once I was there
There's a side of the cliff going out to the Mediterranean and a side going down into the cove. We spent most of our day on the less crowded Mediterranean side.
But I also climbed down and back into the cove. We enjoyed pebble beaches here and crystal clear water.
I took so many photos because this was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
So happy!
Oh, and I probably should've mentioned that while hiking back a wild boar came out of the woods to charge the dog walking ahead of us.
Next, for Leah's birthday, we went to the restaurant our friend from the tourism office suggested: Chez Jeannot. It's located at a little port on the coastline. Once again, we enjoyed breathtaking views.
I spent some time watching the fishing boats move with the waves.
Sunday we went to Longchamp Gardens. I have never seen a more magnificent entrance, or more intricate sculptures.
Before the train home, I walked through the markets of Marseille next to Vieux Port and bought souvenirs and presents. Since Marseille is in the Provence region of France, there were hundreds of scents of handmade soaps and any product you can think of made with lavender.
Spices and teas
I really enjoyed the pottery!
Our final stop was to another fort at the entrance of the port. I tried to take photos here but the wind had other ideas.
