It was another short week at home for us! Ryan was still at the JROTC JCLC and would not return until Friday. Then, he’d leave again for the Civil Air Patrol encampment on Sunday. Thursday was a holiday, and Friday was my day off, so not wanting to sit at home in the heat, Brooklyn and I planned a weekend getaway.
Wednesday night after work, we made the long drive in rush-hour traffic to Strasburg airport, from where we would fly to Marseille. We were flying out of Strasburg airport to fly on Volotea, the French version of Ryanair. We’ve never flown from Strasbourg before and would compare it to the Karlsruhe Airport in Germany, but it is a little bit smaller and a bit nicer.
Our flight departed at 9:45 PM, and we landed just over an hour later at around 11. First, we had to pick up the rental car, where we had our first comedic adventure of the night. I booked a manual transmission, and the agent offered me an automatic. I declined unless it was free, but jokingly asked her if she could teach me how to drive a manual. She was completely shocked for a minute before I told her I was joking, and she burst into laughter a few seconds later. I picked up the rental car and missed the exit to the parking facility while trying to leave. I accidentally ended up in a tight place right in front of the huge glass front wall of the rental office. I needed to turn around, but couldn’t figure out how to put the car in reverse. Whenever I tried to shift it to go backward, the vehicle violently lunged forward, even stalling out once or twice. It was such a spectacle that a security guard came over, knocked on the window, and asked what I was doing. I told him the issue, and he showed me I needed to push down on the shifter to make the car go in reverse. All this time, the rental agent was watching me through the glass; I’m sure wondering about my real skill level and driving manual.
Eventually, we made it to Central Marseille and parked in the garage before swiftly walking to the hotel. Marseille is not known for being the safest, so it’s not a place you would want to be walking around at midnight. When we arrived at the hotel, the manager was busy assisting other guests. It took a second before he asked, “You aren’t checking in tonight, are you? We’re full!” I quickly checked my reservation, and sure enough, I had made it for the wrong night; a harsh realization to make at midnight. I quickly scanned the Internet and found an available hotel nearby. Before walking there, I called to ensure there was actually a room, and after confirming, we quickly walked down. All in all, the crisis only lasted about 20 minutes, but it is definitely something I’ll be checking and re-checking in the future
Thursday, we got up relatively early again and walked down to Marseille’s Vieux Port, or “Old Port.” We had booked a boat tour of the Calanques National Park. The port itself was only five minutes from the hotel, but I did not expect it to be so huge. There must have been more than 1000 boats in the harbor. Once we reached the port, we still had a 15-minute walk within the harbor to find our boat. Thank goodness we allowed for extra time!
Marseille’s Vieux Port originated as a natural harbor, which is what attracted Greek settlers in the 600s and led to the city’s establishment. It’s the oldest city in France and one of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.
The port area also has many restaurants, shops, theaters, an abbey, the town hall, and museums. Within the harbor, there are hundreds of docks and thousands of boats. There is even a ferry that will take you from one side to the other to avoid the 30-minute walk around the exterior. The entrance to the port is guarded by a massive medieval wall with a break in the center for boats to pass through. In medieval times, a large chain could be raised and lowered to prevent ships from entering.
Outside the wall is the Phare de Sainte Marie, a giant lighthouse, and the Palais du Pharo, a holiday home built by Napoleon for his wife, Eugenie. The boat took us past the Chateau d’If, a prison island similar to Alcatraz in San Francisco. It was one of the settings of Alexa Alexandra Dumas’ book, The Count of Monte Cristo.
The boat continued through the Riou Archipelago, which is made of several rocky limestone islands, and then into Calanques National Park. ‘Calanque’ is the French word for creek, and because of the limestone geology, the water is incredibly clear and bright turquoise. First, we visited a lagoon with a ‘Blue Grotto.’ The cave can only be entered by swimming through a small entrance, only big enough for your head to be above water, as long as there are no waves.
Inside the cave, the sun’s reflection on the water glowed bright blue. The water was really cold, so we only stayed a few minutes before exiting and spending the remainder of the time floating in the lagoon.
We continued our tour of the creeks on the coastline before the boat took us to a small lagoon on the Isle of Riou. The water was so clear and pretty, and we could see straight to the bottom of the 20-foot-deep water. Afterward, the boat captain gave everyone a glass of rosé before making the trip back to Vieux Port.
After we disembarked from the boat, we quickly changed at the hotel and jumped in the car to get on the road.
We were surprised, but we actually really liked Marseille. It doesn’t have the best reputation, so our expectations were low. It also definitely looks and feels a bit tougher and grittier than its neighbor, Nice, but it has some lovelier parts. The people were all kind, welcoming, and authentic, though, and everyone seemed unapologetically proud of their city. It really reminded me of Baltimore living in the shadow of its nearby neighbor, Washington. They both even have famous harbors. Marseille’s been added near the top of my list of places to return to, as I’d really like to explore more of the city and more of the Calanques.
The next stop was Aix-en-Provence, just a thirty-minute drive from Marseille. Aix is a pretty, pastel spa town famous for being the birthplace of the impressionist painter Cezanne and the setting of the book ‘A Year in Provence.’ It’s been on my travel list since I saw it on a travel show almost twenty years ago. We almost made it here in 2017, but our plans were derailed by a broken-down car, so I was so happy to finally be able to visit.
We parked and then made a huge loop around Aix’s pedestrian shopping center, dipping in and out of several stores, if not to shop, then to enjoy a few minutes of air conditioning.
It was now mid-afternoon, and we were starving when we remembered that we were in France, so that meant we could eat at Pitaya, a French-Thai food chain! We just about ran to the restaurant and devoured our lunches—so good!
Then it was back to the car. Our final destination was where we would stay the rest of the weekend: Moustiers Sainte Marie, deep in the Provençal countryside. Our drive would take about two hours, and when we were about 30 minutes away, we drove through Valensole, where we found the lavender bushes in full bloom! The lavender doesn’t usually bloom until early July, and since that was still two weeks away, we were lucky even to catch a single blossom.
We took lots of pictures in the field before continuing on to Moustiers Sainte Marie, where we rented an apartment. There, we met the sweet little grandmère who would be taking care of us over the weekend, unpacked, and then headed into the town center to find dinner.
We ate at Chez Benoit’s, where I had a Provençal pizza and Brooklyn had a shrimp risotto. We finished off the meal with tiramisu and crème brûlée. It was so good! Then we returned to the apartment for a movie and some card games.
Friday morning, we let ourselves sleep in a little before heading out on that day’s adventure: the Verdon Gorge. The drive only took about 10 minutes, and we quickly reached the Pont Galeta, a famous viewpoint of the Gorge. The bright sun reflected off the limestone, making the water a bright turquoise.
We parked the car and rented a paddle boat at a dock just by the bridge.
We paddled all the way until we reached the point where it was blocked off because it was too shallow. We turned around to head back but found ourselves paddling into the wind. As we approached the dock to return the boat, it was really coming down to the minute before we were charged a fee for being late. We peddled our asses off and made it without a second to spare, but we wore out our legs!
After our boat trip, we walked up the shore of Lac du Saint Croix and found a shady area where we could lay out our towels and swim. I won’t call it a beach because it was too pebbly for that, but it was a “less rocky area than others.” Thank goodness we brought water shoes with us!
We alternated between swimming in the chilly water and lying on our towels with books before heading back to the apartment and lying by the pool for a few hours. When it was dinner time, we headed back into Moustiers and walked around the town before grabbing dinner in a cute corner restaurant with only a few tables. I had a burger, Brooklyn had pesto, and then we shared a crème brûlée.
When we left the restaurant, it was about 8 p.m., and there was still over an hour until sunset. We decided to drive back to Valensole and take sunset pictures in the lavender fields. Once we got there, we still had to wait a while for the actual sunset, so we got a lot of great pictures with the golden hour lighting.
A storm had blown through earlier in the evening, and the clouds that remained made for a beautiful sunset.
Once it got dark, we ripped ourselves away from the fields and returned to the apartment for more movies and card games.
Saturday was our last full day, and after two busy days, we decided to take it easy. We slept in and then drove east to the Route de Cretes, a high mountain pass that looks down into the Verdon Gorge.
The drive is a loop with about 20 different stopping points to get out and take in the views. It starts from La Palud sur Verdon and takes a little over an hour to complete, depending on how long you stop for pictures. While we liked the drive and the views, it was a little boring once we had done the first few stops. I was also driving a manual transmission car, so the stopping and going got old quickly. Thank goodness we had a really good audiobook to listen to!
When we finished the Route de Cretes, we drove an hour north to Sisteron, another medieval city, with a huge citadel built into a mountainside.
We were starving when we arrived, so we immediately found lunch at a pizzeria. We had the sweetest waitress who only let us stumble along in French for a few minutes before she revealed she spoke English, and did so without any kind of accent. After lunch, we drove up to the citadel and then to the viewpoint to get the iconic picture of the city.
We drove back to the apartment and laid by the pool for the rest of the day. Since we still had leftovers from lunch, we continued our movie marathon before bed.
On Sunday, we packed up and said goodbye to our sweet host, Janine. On the way back to Marseille, we drove through the lavender fields one more time and stopped in Aix to eat at Pitaya again (sorry, Ryan!).
Matt spent the time we were away working and riding his new bike all around our town. Ryan came home from JCLC on Friday, and he and Matt had a “do nothing day” on Saturday. They left early to take Ryan to Ramstein for the Civil Air Patrol Encampment on Sunday. We won’t see him until next week, and we can’t wait!
Gilcrests Abroad 