Fabulous France

For those of you who read my blog about Malta, you know that I had a
pretty bad time. Luckily, France was amazing so this is a much more
positive blog than my last one :) I was really excited to be coming back
to France for the first time in about four years. I took French from 7th
grade till my freshman year in college and I have always wanted to
travel to more of France. For the record, my french skills are terrible,
I know enough to get by but not enough to really have conversations with
locals. The last time I was there was in 2009 and I only went to Paris
so to get to explore some of the south of France on this voyage was
something I was really looking forward to.

Our first day in France I was on a field program to a little town about
30 minutes away from our port Marseille called Aix-en-Provence. I've
found on this trip that I have really enjoyed when I get the opportunity
to go to little quaint villages/towns. Luckily for me, Aix-en-Provence
is just that, a quaint town with beautiful walkways, fountains,
balconies, and shopping. Our tour guide took us on a walking tour of the
town to begin with which was a really nice introduction to the area. We
got to see some of the different areas of the town, learn more about its
history, and visited a beautiful cathedral. You would think by now that
I would be sick of all the churches that we have visited, but I
absolutely love going into them and seeing how beautiful they are.
Churches for me are also a very peaceful place so its also nice to spend
some time reflecting when I visit different churches around Europe.
After the walking tour we were given about three hours of free time to
wander around. At first I was with a group of other staff members and a
few students but ended up breaking off from the group and wandering by
myself for about an hour and a half. There are really nice outdoor
markets in Aix-en-Provence so I spent some time walking through those,
shopping, and eating pretty much every single pastry I could get my
hands on. There was also a great tourist office where I was able to get
information and maps for the places I was planning to visit the rest of
my time in France. It was really nice to just stroll around, go down
random streets, and take in the sights of the town. There were also
several French men playing musical instruments such as accordions
throughout town which made it really feel as though you were in France.
After we got back in the late afternoon I spent the rest of my first day
relaxing on the ship since I was on duty. Luckily duty in Marseille was
not bad at all!

My second day I decided to travel to Avignon which is about an hour and
fifteen minutes by train north of Marseille. I was originally planning
to just go by myself, but a student was talking to me and mentioned how
they really wanted to go but didn't have anyone to go with. We decided
to go together and at first I was really worried about traveling with a
student but it ended up being an amazing day. The student and I are very
similar so I think that helped make the day really good. For those of
you who don't know, Avignon was the home to Roman Catholic Popes for
about 100 years when the French popes decided to move the holy seat out
of Rome. Avignon was also home to the two French popes who were elected
at the same time as Italian popes when there was a split in the church.
It has a really interesting history and the main site is the Papal
Palace. We started our morning there and took about two hours to walk
through the entire palace. It was a really interesting site and a great
start to the morning. Right next to the Papal Palace is a large
cathedral with nice gardens surrounding it. We went into the cathedral
and then spent time wandering around the gardens. There was a little
pond/lake in the middle of the gardens that had a cafe next to it so we
also decided to sit and relax for a little while enjoying the scenery
and the little ducklings that were swimming in the pond next to us. From
the gardens, we headed down to the second most famous sit in Avignon,
Pont d'Avignon which is the unfinished bridge that goes across most of
the Rhone river. I was really excited to visit the bridge because one of
the first songs I learned in French class back in middle school was Sur
le Pont d'Avignon. I felt as though Ms Harris would have been so proud
of me for going to Avignon. The entrance to the bridge included a free
audio guide so that was really nice to help learn more about Avignon,
the construction of the bridge, and other useful information. Our last
adventure of the day was taking a small shuttle boat from one side of
the Rhone river to the other and then walking throughout the island that
is surrounded by the river. After our off road adventure, we headed back
into Avignon found a coffee shop with wifi, got some dinner, and then
headed back to the train. It was a great day overall day :)

My last day was spent with a group of friends walking around Marseille.
We didn't really have a plan so we just wandered, spent most of our time
near the Vieux Port, ate lots of French bakery items, and enjoyed
several stops at little coffee shops. It was a nice ending to my time in
France, but I really wished I had more time so that I could have visited
Nice and other areas in the south of France. Last night we sailed from
Marseille to Barcelona and several of us had a very good night hanging
out, drinking wine, and playing fun games in the faculty/staff lounge. I
paid for our fun today in Barcelona, but already I really like the city
and can't wait to explore more. I'm on duty tonight and it looks like it
will be another rough night just based on how many students have left
the ship. Fingers crossed it goes well!