The Cox Women Take Marseille

Thursday

 

France finally! I was excited about this port because I've studied French for a couple years in high school and one traumatic semester in college (the professor just was not ready for our class) and I love the language so I was ready for some real practice. 

We slept in. You never know how much you value being able to sleep in until you can't. After a day like Wednesday, mom and I decided to strike out on our own for the day and see what France had for us. At least I could communicate so we wouldn't be entirely lost or anything. We skipped breakfast for once because I was starting to come back to reality about the amount of food I'd consumed on this trip and took a shuttle to the city. We also decided to go out solo because the excursion the group was supposed to go on got cancelled and we'd heard of no backup plan. From the shuttle to the actual city on the water, we hopped on a little sight-seeing tram and drove up to the Notre Dame de la Garde which is different than the Notre Dame you're thinking of. I realized this as we got there and was a little sad I wasn't seeing the one from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The port from the tram

Was not please about that shade blocking the shot. RUDE

Marseille!

 We drove up, saw the Basilica and the crypt and walked through the museum too. The only thing that sucked about the drive were the amount of interesting places we passed that I wanted to explore but we couldn't. The Basilica, crypt and museum were all in French and I can understand it more than I can read it so that was an interesting challenge. I see what people  mean when they say it's better to go through with a guide but sometimes you just want to explore unrestrained.

A miniature of the building we were actually in

You better get on that vaulted ceiling tip

And also the all gold tip

After all that, we went back down by the water and my French reading skills were put to the test again as we searched for a place to eat. Since Marseille is on the water so everything had or was made of or included fish or meat or both. My mom is a part-time vegan full-time vegetarian. I'm a full-time vegetarian too. You can imagine the struggle. After a while I spotted "poisson" thrice on a menu and immediately just kept walking. Poisson is "fish" in French. Finally, mom's cries for nourishment, preferably crepes, especially since we hadn't had breakfast and it was now close to 2PM took over me and we settled for this little creperie by the docks.

Crepe citron and cafe créme

It was good and all but I was hungry for something savory, not something sweet. The coffee hit the spot though. Would you believe that once that was over, as we were walking up the street to begin what turned out to be a marvelously successful shopping trip, we passed by multiple creperies that had sweet and savory crepes (sugar vs mushroom for example) and food we could eat galore. Oh well. 

 

We stopped in a couple souvenir shops before turning a corner and walking into one of the cutest boutiques I've ever seen with excellent music playing to boot. A longline bomber jacket, a structured skirt (both of which I had absolutely no room in my suitcase for) and a new pair of sunglasses later, we happily left. Mom could the cutest pair of red, blue and white sneakers and was all smiles. The man who processed our transactions heard me speaking French here and there asked me, in French, if I spoke French. I said a little and he told me I did well. That alone, besides the purchases, made my  whole entire day.

 

Yeeeee Coxes waddup

This was actually a hotel but I really liked how it looked

France agrees with me

Gelato=happy Neen

 

 

For the majority of the day, with each purchase or transaction or interaction, I tried to practice the French I studied for so long in school. It was not for naught. Of course, we went on a search for gelato after shopping, found some, and sat by the water to eat it. As we ate, I realized, I most definitely want, and fully intend, to move to France for a minimum of 1 year of my life. After grad school. It'll be the perfect time, while I'm still young and wild and free, with no attachments, etc. In heading back to the ship we ran into some familiar faces, the Crew and some parents, which was nice too. On the way to actually boarding the ship, there were quite a few vendors set up who had quality wares so, in effort to get rid of some more euros, I purchased more gifts, mostly for other people but a couple for myself too. 

 

Glow up

 

 

Dinner was an interesting affair because we had to figure out how much we were going to tip our waiter who had become like an extended Crew member almost. Hugs went all around before we said goodbye and headed out on another adventure. We stayed up all night again because duh it was the last night of the cruise, what else are we going to do? We hit up the Havana Bar for the last time before floating over to the Liquid Lounge in hopes that it would be as popping as the Crew said it had been the night before, ironically one of the few nights I wasn't with them, go figure...

Unfortunately for us but true to character, the DJ was just as bad as ever and even started calling out people on the meagerly filled dance floor and well, you can just imagine how the rest of the night went. What a cruise, what a cruise. 

 

xx