Relaxing in the South of France

As I mentioned in my last entry, I have moved my French base of operations to Marseille. For those of you who are Google-mapping Marseille right now, I'll save you a little trouble: it's in the South of France, further west than Nice or Saint Tropez.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful; I went grocery shopping (noted that I could buy several varieties of escargot), did some laundry, and spent the afternoon unsuccessfully searching for an international bookstore. (I had the address of one but it might not exist.) However, my search meant that I got to explore a lot around town. It's quite a lively city, with lots of open air markets.

This morning, I decided to go hiking in the Calanques between Marseille and Cassis. (A "calanque" is like a fjord, except in the Mediterranean.) It was a good communication day for me - I managed to go to the tourist office, say "Je voudrais aller a Calanques," and then understand that I had to catch bus 23. Then I FOUND bus 23, confirmed with the driver that it was the correct bus, and got off at the correct stop. This may not seem like a big deal to most people who are normal, functioning adults, but since my recent life has been full of missed buses, wrong buses, and incorrect stops, I was proud. I don't think I've been this proud of my ability to ride a bus since kindergarten.

My hike was BEAUTIFUL! It couldn't have been more different than my last seaside walk. There was a light breeze, and the temperature was right at the spot where I kept taking my jacket off and then putting it back on. Literally, the sun was shining and birds were singing.

Early on, I walked through this meadow, perfect for frolicking through:

I climbed up and up and up, and the view was totally worth it at the top of the cliffs:

My camera struggled with the blazing light reflecting off the Mediterranean - so mostly, the above picture looks like Heaven.

If you look verrrry carefully in this picture, there is a yacht in the harbor:

Someday I will live on that yacht.

I wrestled with my camera a little bit regarding the sunlight issue, and eventually produced this picture:

As I hiked back towards town, there were lots of meadows like this one:

I wish there had been goats, because that would seem fitting.

There were a lot of purple flowers - different types of flowers, but all of them purple. Here's one:

The walk from the bus stop back to my hostel was lengthy because I decided to walk along the coast. It was a really beautiful walk, and the sea was a beautiful shade of blue.

Here is my future house, overlooking the sea:

Here is a sailboat picture, since I know more than one person who likes sailboats:

I really like it here and am trying to stay for a couple extra nights but apparently this hostel is really full this weekend, so I may have to continue on my way on Saturday.