04 July 2016

The Moons of Marseille : France

Monday Afternoon I arrived in Marseille and met a friend of my dear friends Marouane and Julie, Xavier, with whom I would be staying. I visited Marseille by chance for a weekend while studying abroad in Lyon in 2014 and loved it enough that it was the only place (other than Paris) I felt drawn to be re-visiting to spend more time there on this trip.
 Xavier was kind enough to host me with no notice at all; this was another last-minute setup because all of my AirBnB and couch surfing options kept falling through. On the train back from Switzerland to France, I sent Julie a message saying "what was the name of that friend you said I could stay with-everywhere's taken because of the Eurocup going on in Marseille!" She sent me his contact information, and he happily offered to host me.
He told me he'd be waiting for me to arrive in the Marseille Saint Charles train station.

We went to the market near his apartment and made appetizers and wine for a picnic during the sunset by the small port named Vallon des Auffes.
We had forgotten a wine bottle opener, so what did Xavier do? He opened it for us with his shoe, of course. Like a true Frenchman.
Shoe Wine
Our view
 
having a blast
Le coucher du soleil
The sun was setting and I was so glad to be back in beautiful Marseille.
Vallon des Auffes
Xavier was an excellent French tutor. He was more than patient with any mistakes I made. He is a PHD student in Physics in Marseille, and currently working on a project to create an algorithm that will be a less-invasive and time consuming means to detect dementia. We enjoyed talking about the similarities among both of our fields of work and realized that we had more in common than we'd thought. We shared music and cooked together. We talked about our love of sports, rock climbing, our career goals, our camping trips, and our close friends.
The next morning I ran along the coast. Without my usual running tracker, I didn't know how far I had gone. Because I was exploring and easily distracted by the scenic views, I ended up running at least 9 or 10 miles. I lost track of how far I went. 

Afterwards Xavier sent me a message from his work to go explore Cours Julien, an artistic and street-art rich quartier of Marseille.
He told me to go try out his favorite ice cream shop, "The Pink Elephant with White Spots."

I walked through the markets of Vieux Port and explored le Panier, the site that was first settled by the Greeks in the area when the city was named Massilia. 
Xavier and I met for a beer after he was done with work, and since he had plans for that night I was on my own for dinner. I went to eat at a crêperie to watch the matches of the Eurocup.

Just a week before my arrival, the Russian fans had been violent in the streets of Marseille following their match with England, causing them to be thrown out of the Eurocup. The gendarmerie of Marseille were patrolling the streets with weapons, tear gas, and shields. They were ready for any sort of trouble caused by fans. My plan was to head on home early following this match in Marseille, but of course my travel never goes according to plan ...
At dinner, also watching some of the match, was a table of a polish-american, and Italian-american, and a British guy. They shared a bottle of wine with me, we became friends, and I decided to go see the Polish fans celebrating their win from earlier that day with this group.

People were drinking and singing the Polish national anthem. Men started to play soccer in the streets, shirts vs. skins. 

We went to the upper level of a fancy hotel bar and drank Old Fashioneds. 


The next morning I returned to one of my favorite places of all time, the Calanques of Marseille. 
I got off the bus along with about 6 other travelers who  would be hiking to the Calanques. 
There were four Australian and American guys who were each traveling solo, but had started talking and became friends on the bus, and a German couple.
Gabe opened a bottle of Rosé and we took sips as we hiked.
 
We reached the calanques and had an amazing time....we went cliff jumping.
 

There were touring boats that circled near the beaches of the calanques with 150+ people taking photos of the coast, and of us.
The guys and I decided the best solution would be to moon a cruise ship, all in a line at the top of a cliff.
One of the guys in the group needed to head back quickly for his ferry to Corsica, and I needed to head back to the city to rock climb with Xavier. 
We then hiked back up from the calanques in the ~90 degree heat and direct sun. We arrived at the bus stop considerably more sweaty. The guys were not very happy (and several of them were stung by jellyfish )....
They called it the "trail of tears"
I headed across town to a metro station to meet Xavier and his friend Simon to go rock climbing.the French rock climbing gym was magnificent... It was 2 stories with a huge 50 foot wall and multiple inclines. I learned how to self-lead belay, which is basically normal top-rope climbing but you clip in your rope supporting you to the wall as you go, while you hold on tight!
Xavier taught me climbing terms in french.
He's in blue
Then we went out for dinner and drinks at Cours Julien, but didn't get there until about 11:00 after climbing. I was considerably starving after my day of hiking in the sun and 3+ hours climbing. 
After dinner we headed home, but first did some more climbing...of the fences into the Longchamp gardens and then free climbed the lion statue within...
spot me!
Xavier made us great drinks back at his apartment and we shared music. I had my first gin fizz and some sort of flaming drink.

Thursday I explored the Mucem (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, built within a 17th century fort at the entrance to the port of Marseille) and once again hiked to the top of Nôtre Dame de la Garde. I wanted to see the view from the church of Nôtre Dame de la Garde again, the place where I first saw the Mediterranean Sea years ago while studying abroad and visiting this city.

Notre Dame de la Garde on the hill
At the top of Notre Dame de la Garde
Afterwards, Xavier and I went on a 10k run along the sea. I learned that having to translate everything I'm saying to French while running is actually a great distraction.
When we finished, we made another quick stop at Xavier's favorite ice cream place to celebrate.In order to ride the metro there, I had brought my metro card for the week. While running in the Mediterranean heat it became a crumpled and unidentifiable piece of paper and Xavier had to intervene with le controle for the metro so I could get home.
That night, he made us a great dinner and we shared some wine before we went out for Fête de la Musique.
 The Fête de la Musique occurs on the summer solstice each year throughout all of France, and musicians play in the streets with city-wide festivals. This year, it was postponed to the 23rd due to the Eurocup. We stayed out until around 3 AM dancing in the streets and enjoying the festival. 
"Un Vrai Ange" This is one of my favorite photos.
the streets were packed
 I loved seeing all the people as they were enjoying the music and this unique holiday.










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