A Year in Grenoble: beach

Hello again! Sorry for lack of blogging but I was busy basking in the sun in Cannes. Vivien and I left Friday afternoon, and because we failed to take into account the sun setting at 6:30, it took about 6 hours to get there from Grenoble. It is a very rare occasion when I get car sick, but by the time we arrived I felt really badly. The road consisted almost entirely of hairpin turns and it was worse in the dark, so all in all I was relieved to finally get out of the car.

We stayed with Viviane's parents in their very small apartment. There was a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen, which was the size of a closet. Vivien and I slept in the two beds and Mami and Papi slept on a pull-out couch in the living room. Their apartment was right across from a major highway so I slept very little thanks to the numerous sports cars that went past late at night.

That night, we were so stuffed after eating all the food that Mami forced down our throats that we decided to take a walk along the waterfront. I have never seen so many steamliner-sized boats in my life. The entier pier was filled with enormous yachts, some of which were decked out with helipads and underwater lighting.

The next day we walked around town and gawked at the prices in the windows of Chanel, Rolex, Versace, and many others. Just a few of the cars that we saw included Porsche, Ferari, Bentley, and Rolls Royce. We didn't see anyone famous, but it was the off-season and not very many tourists were there; however we walked past the place where the film festival takes place, and it looked very ordinary without the red carpet that it usually there. The market in Cannes was also really exotic; there was a bunch of seafood I hadn't heard of before and a type of salad called musclin that we ate a lot while we were there.

Saturday was Halloween, obviously, which I was excited to see French style. In short, it's not very widespread. I saw of couple of kids dressed up, quite a few broken eggs, and a lot of drunk 20 somethings at the bar we were at.

Sunday was the 23rd birthday of a family member, the primary reason we were there, and it was great to the sister of Viviane and her children. The birthday girl celebrated with lots of food and drink. The apero at the house was champagne, followed by some wine. We proceded to eat at a chic restaurant where I had tons of seafood and an ile flotante (I think it was egg whites on vanilla sauce but whatever it was, it was delicious). Of course the meal was accompanied by several bottles of red and white wine. When we finally rolled ourselves out at 3:00 in the afternoon (we started at 12), we had glasses of cidre and then three hours later, we had dinner with more wine.

I need to add that there was about four hours between lunch and dinner, some of which was spent at a casino. We each bet 10 euros which was gone in approximately five minutes. Definitely not my cup of tea; I don't feel like handing over my hard-earned money, and on top of that, the casino was full of senior citizens who looked like they hadn't left the slot machines in 20 years.

Side note: this day was really difficult for me because, although I enjoyed the company of all the family, it's obviously not the same as my own family back home. Everyone has included me into their family, but there are certain things that it's impossible to be included in.

Bref, the next day we slept in really late and then headed out to the beach because it was the first nice day. I decided that I had to see how cold the Mediterranean was, and if you could see my expression in the pic, it was fairly brisk. When we left two hours later, my shoes were full of sand and my pants were soaking, but it was so worth it.

The next day we headed out at 11 and got back to the house at 5:30 or so which isn't bad considering we stopped for a long lunch and a cafe along the route. On the way back, it was very lightly snowing in Grenoble. Beach and blizzard in the same day...only in France.

Sorry for my long absence, but the past week has been crazy. On Saturday at 6:30 am I left for Marseille for what was supposed to be a day trip with 7 other people. I was nervous to see what the city was like because it seems like everyone thinks there are sleazy people waiting to grope and rob you in the streets. This was definitely not the case; in fact, I liked it so much that my friend and I decided to stay another day.

So...what did we do? The first thing we did when we got off the train was to go to the old port, which is probably the most famous part of the city. The daily fish market was going on and the port was bustling with tourists and natives. I have to say, the seafood was as fresh as you could possibly get; there were some fish that were still alive in the crates so the fishmongers whacked their heads agianst the side of the table a couple of times and they were good to go. Also featured were starfish, mussels, rays, eels, and squid (I can't figure out how one would cook a starfish or a ray). We tried to get tickets to visit Chateau D'If (the setting for The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask)at the port but the jail was closed, sadly.

Instead, someone suggested that we visit the cathedral just outside the city. In the attempt to save money, we decided to walk there...bad, bad decision. Walking at a brisk pace it took over an hour and a half to get there. I estimated it was about 3 and a half miles uphill, not including the never-ending staircase of hell one had to climb to get to the top of the mount. The cathedral wasn't really worth three hours of our precious time, but it was pretty (see pics below).

After all that physical exersion, we decided to head to the beach. Best decision of the day! The weather was probably 80-85 degrees without a cloud in sight. It would have been perfect if it had not been for the wind. Ten minutes in I already had a thick layer of sand all over my clothes, body and hair and I'm still getting sand out of my ears today.

By this point the others had to head back to G-Town so my friend and I set out in search of a room. I was in favor of a hostel, but she thought that it was too dangerous so we settled on a reasonably priced hotel near the old port. It was on the fifth floor, which was great because we could see all the way to the Mediteranean. After checking out the room, we looked for some authentic Southern French cookin', but it was more difficult then we expected because we'd find a building and it would be a bar, walk another 50 feet-bar, another 50 feet-bar...you get the picture. This went on for about half an hour before we finally found someplace serving something other than beer that was not over 50 dollars a meal. I had salmon (see pic below) which was excellent and my friend had a seafood pasta which she liked as well; however, the seafood did not like her because she threw it all up that night.

We headed back to the hotel at 10:00 because we were so exausted from the walking. I had literally nothing with me for staying overnight: no makeup, no pajamas, no toothbrush. My friend, however, brought stuff with her because she had anticipated staying an extra day; she very sweetly offered her toothbrush, but I draw the line in terms of sharing.

The next day we woke up at 9 or so and headed out to find the bus for Cassis, a village near Marseille. We asked for directions at the concierge desk and were told that the bus stop was on a certain street by the newspaper booth, flower shop, and telephone booth. When we got to that street there were no less than five of each of those, so we asked five passerbyers for directions and got five different answers. We looked for 45 minutes before I walked up to a woman selling flowers, and without me saying anything she said, "You're looking for the bus to Cassis, aren't you?" I said that I was and she pointed across the street and explained that it was between the garbage can and the phone booth. There was no sign saying that that was the bus stop and no time table, so if you didn't know specifically were the bus stopped, you would've never found it. After an hour and a half wait, we finally got on the bus. The view on the way was gorgeous and the town itself was spectacular. The big draw to Cassis, besides the beaches, are the calanques. I'm not exactly sure what that translates to, but they were huge cliffs that dropped straight into the sea. We hiked out to them, but it was best to have hiking boots (I was wearing Converse and my friend was wearing flipflops) and our tummies were grumbling, so we headed back into town. We ate at a cute little cafe right alongside the harbor (see salad pic) and then happened across a pottery show where I bought four handmade coasters. There was also a store which sold 100% concentrate perfumes from Provence. I got lavander as a gift and, wow, it is strong; you only need a squirt to smell like an entire field of flowers.

Th next activity of the day was to go on a boat tour of the calanques. It was amazing to see them from the water because you can see things that you can't from land, like the naked sunbathers which we wouldn't have had the opportunity to see otherwise. Anyway, I went a little crazy with the pictures because it was so picturesque.

We took the bus back to Marseille and then walked to the train station. I ended up at the house at 11:30 pm on Sunday. Total miles walked=at least 15. Yeah, my feet are not happy with me, but it was worth it. How many places have 85 degree days in mid-October? I would so go back again, but for a longer period because there is so much to see.