Day 34 – to Marseille
June 30 (Mon) – new city day
- We had breakfast in our apartment and used that as a chance to clean out our remaining stash. We also did our last bit of packing and enjoyed the Air Con until our late checkout. We then began the dreaded walk to the front gate; we were “dead couple walking”.
- From there, we took an uber to the same cafe by the train for lunch. We ordered, but it was too hot and too close to our breakfast to eat much.
- Aside: When I moved in with him, his house had a whole-house exhaust fan. It would quickly dump out bad/hot air. Every space that gets over 25⁰C/77⁰F should have/use them. It’s 33⁰C/93⁰F while we wait for our train. We have seats inside with shade and fans, but it’s brutal.
- Our train was delayed and it was HOT. And then, when we finally did board, only 3 people got off but dozens needed on. So cue the young jackasses went half way into the car and then stopped. They then acted like I was rude because I asked if they were sitting. They were all “what did we do to you?” After everyone settled into individual seats all over the place, they moved on. So they were just standing in the aisle for no reason. Jackasses.
- The train was very full; more people got on than off at every stop. And then, near the end, we finally had a stop where more people got off than on.
- The AirCon was also very wacky in our train car. It would turn off when we stopped. Finally, we were in Marseille and a taxi to our hotel.
- From a map, I found dinner nearby at Un Mexicain a Marseille. I had a very good burrito and he had yummy tacos. Next door, I got a lemon slushie and he got another Coke.
- All the walking to dinner was uphill and quite steep, but we found a view of what I dubbed the “Sacre Coeur of Marseille”. It’s the Basilica de Marseille, the Bonne Mére, and Notre Dame de la Garde. It’s a crazy climb, so in this heat, I don’t know if we’ll even try.
- After less than an hour for our quick dinner and drinks, we found our hotel room very hot and very smelly….like mildew. So we got it switched, packed up, changed rooms to a slightly better AirCon, unpacked again (but lightly), and researched nearby hotels in case we had to give up altogether. When it seemed it was going to run without cutting off (or stirring a swamp), we settled in.
- What a very long day.
Day 35 – Soap Museum & Joker
July 1 (Tue) –
- For breakfast, we found an Italian cafe, so we had pasta, and then we ran a quick errand before wandering around a little. We found a very cool police station building, another government building, another view of the basilica and her scaffolds, fountains, cool graffiti, fun shops, and cafes.
- Next, we celebrated our daily heat-induced “siesta” of research, writing/editing, and his nap.
- We took a bus to the soap museum. It was very nice and everything was easy: payment (fast credit card at the door), navigating the route, all of it. We were early for our tour, so we popped down the way for a drink at yet another Irish Pub (that sucked, sadly).
- The little soap museum was lovely. For €11, we got a tour in both French and English. We left with 7+ self-stamped soaps. The space also had an artistic-rendered timeline of the history of soap, many pieces of antique equipment, some chemistry “lessons,” and some artwork. There was a series of paintings with magnifying bubbles. One had the bubble peeking under the skort of a tennis player.
- It was still quite hot when we got out. We were ready for dinner, too. So, we found a tapas place without tapas who had a DJ without a DJ. We just had drinks under a fan.
- Then, we found really good street pizza by the slice, but they didn’t have any salads for some reason. Finally, we found a Moroccan (and halal) burger joint that was very good!
- At a Joker (not Batman, Joker) themed bar, Joke’R! I had a Harley Quinn while he had a Coke. Among a lot of other paraphernalia, they had bobble heads of every version of the Joker. A customer brought them a Joker rubber duckie to add to their collection. They even have a small indoor halfpipe with a platform so they can convert it into a small stage. When ordering, I flubbed and said “por favor” instead of “sil vous plait”. The bartender complimented me, especially as an American, for trying. He didn’t even care that I got it wrong. This happens a lot, actually. If you make an effort, the French are quite kind. They help you along and teach you…and they do it without even the tiniest bit of condescension. Truly.
- Next, we found an uber back to our neighborhood, some wine and a fanta for our room, and then showers and games/YouTube. We also found a third garage door by the same graffiti artist as the first two. We joked that the what3words location for our hotel should be ///lion.wolf.bear (but that’s not a location in the system).
Day 36 – Marseille
July 2 (Wed) – modern art
- We found brunch at Chez Diego. I had their enormous brunch of OJ, salad, egg/cheese on English muffin, sliver of brioche French toast, a pancake, and a brownie. He had a burger, potatoes, and ignored the salad that came with it.
- We haven’t needed much cash, but we are out of all our smaller bills. We tried to break money at a bank, but they said they can’t and suggested a currency exchange desk, which will know will take a percentage.
- He found us a museum to tour, Musée Cantini. It was all modern art and other weird things.
- We tried another bank for breaking money and still no luck. Among the bougie stores–Hermes, Tag Hauer, Louis Vouitton with the cutest window display ever, etc.–we saw a third “banc,” but it looked like the kind of place with a $500,000 minimum deposit.
- We downshifted and tried to get Cokes at a restaurant, but they won’t have any until next week. Then, we tried McDonald’s, but it was kiosks only and packed full of people.
- So, go with what you know: we found Cokes at our hotel lobby before doing our afternoon siesta (write/edit/game/etc.) from the heat
- For dinner, he found Ramen Go. It was amazing! And nearby, we got cool treats: mint chocolate gelato for him and strawberry sorbet for me. We also grabbed a couple of things from a grocery store. And the couple next to us was (watching a fútbol game and) chatting in sign language. I didn’t try eavesdrop, but there is no way I’d have understood it anyway. Each region (and verbal language) has it’s own. Even in the US, the word bullshit is signed in very different ways.
- Back at the hotel, we handled some tech stuff, edit/blog. I was a little behind my ideal and also have a monthly task. I started to catch up.
Day 37 – Marseille
July 3 (Thu) – more art, crazy heat
- We slept in and went to Shamil Restaurant Indien (French spelling?) place for lunch, and then went right back to the room to cool off and make plans.
- While he napped, I thought: some days, it feels like we aren’t doing “enough” to justify the expense of a hotel and such. But then I remember: we are doing this for months, not days. Down time is important and necessary. And, a long trip is far better for us than a few shorts ones. Maybe we rest too much to offset the cost of a flight, but the time crammed into the sardine can is minimized this way.
- When it was late enough to venture out, we took a bus–which attracted some crazies–to a museum area and shopping district.
- It was a mostly peaceful ride on a bus that picked us up about a block from our hotel and would drop us even closer to the museum. There were plenty of seats. The most annoying thing was some young woman doom scrolling on speaker and sitting with her feet up on the rail (you know, the one people touch). So, normal bus stuff. She got off a couple of stops later. Our bliss was short lived, because a couple of stops after that, a horde of 3-4 crazies got on. (One smart guy stayed behind.) They were yelling and screaming at the bus driver, at each other, and at anyone else in their path. It seemed that their crazy leader (CL) didn’t pay his fare. The driver stopped the bus and turned it off, but they wouldn’t leave. He had a schedule to keep, so he just went on. CL was sitting in one of the very front seats so he could yell at the driver more. By then, the Hero of our story started yelling at him. We don’t speak the language, but I’m pretty sure she told him “fuck you!” several times. It did seem that she was telling him it was a nice quiet day until he brought his crazy hoard on board. Her hand gestures indicated that she was already done with his shit (like all of the rest of us). The first weird part was some older woman from his horde defending CL; maybe she’s his Crazy Mommy. The other weird part was the women around our Hero trying to get CM to stop telling him off. No way! Our Hero was the only person on this bus with the balls to stand up to him. I heard “police” and started recording. We didn’t know what was happening but if we were about to be boarded and questioned, I wanted proof that we were far away and for the cops to have the full story at least from that point. Well, that angered Crazy Mommy and she honed on me like a yellow jacket. I heard someone say in English, “She wants you to stop recording.” I bet she did! Crazy always does when Crazy is being crazy; they hate proof. CM is probably already a TikTok star. She started yelling over him (aisle seat) and in my (window seat) face. I told her OK several times and lowered my phone, but did not stop recording so it would at least get the audio. She kept yelling in our faces despite us having no idea what else she wanted. We came to a stop, so we decided to get off The Bus From Hell. Y’all she blocked the door. So he pushed past her, and then as I did the same, she grabbed both my arm (hello? That’s assault*!) and my phone (theft attempt, also a legal thing). I used the paracord that was around my wrist to yank it back from her and screamed “NO!” at her a couple of times. The look on her face when we got away from her violent insanity was priceless. She’s an anger-fuelled narcissist and wasn’t used to anyone standing up to her. We walked to the next bus stop and got on the next bus.
The heat is making everyone nuts; we have to stop killing our planet.
It was like the early scenes of The Stand up in Marseille Metro 81.
*deliberate use of physical force against another person / deliberate inflicting of fear, apprehension, or terror
- It was a mostly peaceful ride on a bus that picked us up about a block from our hotel and would drop us even closer to the museum. There were plenty of seats. The most annoying thing was some young woman doom scrolling on speaker and sitting with her feet up on the rail (you know, the one people touch). So, normal bus stuff. She got off a couple of stops later. Our bliss was short lived, because a couple of stops after that, a horde of 3-4 crazies got on. (One smart guy stayed behind.) They were yelling and screaming at the bus driver, at each other, and at anyone else in their path. It seemed that their crazy leader (CL) didn’t pay his fare. The driver stopped the bus and turned it off, but they wouldn’t leave. He had a schedule to keep, so he just went on. CL was sitting in one of the very front seats so he could yell at the driver more. By then, the Hero of our story started yelling at him. We don’t speak the language, but I’m pretty sure she told him “fuck you!” several times. It did seem that she was telling him it was a nice quiet day until he brought his crazy hoard on board. Her hand gestures indicated that she was already done with his shit (like all of the rest of us). The first weird part was some older woman from his horde defending CL; maybe she’s his Crazy Mommy. The other weird part was the women around our Hero trying to get CM to stop telling him off. No way! Our Hero was the only person on this bus with the balls to stand up to him. I heard “police” and started recording. We didn’t know what was happening but if we were about to be boarded and questioned, I wanted proof that we were far away and for the cops to have the full story at least from that point. Well, that angered Crazy Mommy and she honed on me like a yellow jacket. I heard someone say in English, “She wants you to stop recording.” I bet she did! Crazy always does when Crazy is being crazy; they hate proof. CM is probably already a TikTok star. She started yelling over him (aisle seat) and in my (window seat) face. I told her OK several times and lowered my phone, but did not stop recording so it would at least get the audio. She kept yelling in our faces despite us having no idea what else she wanted. We came to a stop, so we decided to get off The Bus From Hell. Y’all she blocked the door. So he pushed past her, and then as I did the same, she grabbed both my arm (hello? That’s assault*!) and my phone (theft attempt, also a legal thing). I used the paracord that was around my wrist to yank it back from her and screamed “NO!” at her a couple of times. The look on her face when we got away from her violent insanity was priceless. She’s an anger-fuelled narcissist and wasn’t used to anyone standing up to her. We walked to the next bus stop and got on the next bus.
- We visited the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de la Ville de Marseille and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille. There was no aircon but they had very nice large fans.
- Across the street, we stopped for drinks (at Comptoir Longchamp) and watched the Gram Girls pose and strut (complete with the fake–“oh, hi. I didn’t see you there.” looks into the camera–in front of the gorgeous building. We had run out of what I call little money and have been carrying some larger bills. This cash-preferred place was the perfect spot to break a 50€ bill.
- We popped into a small store for some snacks for our early morning to come and took a bus–a very normal bus–back to our hotel.
- For dinner, we found a two-culture restaurant, Au Viet-Thai. I had a lovely Vietnamese dish of duck, mushrooms, and bamboo. He had a Caramel Chicken filled with caramelized onions. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at O Taco so he could have a second supper.
