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France, Italy and Switzerland, August 2002
Day
5
On Tuesday, the 20th of August, the day after her family left, we got up very early and caught the super fast TGV train to Marseille. Right before we were to go into the alley of the prostitutes your mother kicked the curb and broke the strap on her Monoprix flip-flops. As she changed into her tennis shoes, we were accosted by a drunk, who fled after several stern words from Emily. On n'as rein pour vous. Lessez-nous tranquille! Our timing was perfect as we arrived at the station just as the ticket windows opened.
The
train had very few people but arranged so that it was difficult to get
cozy and sleep. The TGV, by the way, is an amazing train. We
traveled essentially from the top of France to the bottom in three hours
and 16 minutes for 68 euros each, a distance of over 650 kilometers or
380 miles. In Marseille we used our 1.5-hour layover to go explore
and get some food, which turned out to be a whole pizza for 6.90 euros!
The pizza was a 'Royale' and had boeuf hache, cheese, olives, mushrooms
and peppers. The fellow who made it was yelled at because it was
only supposed to have ham, mushrooms and cheese. Before we found
the pizza place we ran into more Cordon Bleu graduates, these three were
spotted through a window eating at McDonalds. We carried our pizza
uphill towards a church but ended up eating in a park across the street
in the shade. I didn't think we would, but we polished off the
whole pizza hidden by baby-braided fichus while laughing at our good
fortune and the other student's uninspired choice in hunting down a late
breakfast/early lunch. I thought that was
a great coup for us! After finishing the pizza we headed back to the train station and caught an old and rickety but fast train to Cassis. The ride only took 21 minutes and cost... actually, the ticket from Paris to Cassis cost 68 euros so I am not sure of the breakdown. But it doesn't matter; for once we arrived we promptly caught a taxi for 10 euros into town choosing to forgo the 3-kilometer walk. Thanks to your mom's wonderful memory, we quickly found the delightful studio, which turned out to be right in the center of town, as promised.
After
settling in, we went exploring and had a quite a time locating the
tourist office. For almost an hour we kept following signs in
circles, all the while wondering what was wrong with us.
Eventually your mom realized that the tourist office was out on the
jetty and not in the area of town we kept looking in, hee hee. We
literally went around the same two-block radius about six times... It
was in the tourist office that we first learned of the calenques.
They are harbors of emerald green and turquoise blue water, carved from
limestone with 1000-foot tall cliffs. We decided to hike to them
the next day and instead went for a swim at the beach right downtown.
The water was warm by California standards but still very refreshing,
clear and salty (I hadn't realized that the Med was so salty);
I'm glad they had a shower to rinse off at. That night we had a superb four course meal at Chez Gilbert. Our initial plan was to eat at the establishment recommended by Sofia but it was totally reserved. The hostess suggest we go to Chez Gilbert were I think we had the best meal of the trip. The waiter blatantly flirted and played games with your mother and we left totally stuffed. If memory serves, I had nougat glace for the first time and we listened to the music of a father and stunning daughter musical team (the girl was absolutely stunning, and probably 13 or 14 years old, if that). As we strolled back towards the studio, along the water, between the boats and other diners in the warm night sky, we came upon cat show that we watched for several minutes before retiring for the night.
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