Marsaille

Saturday moring we packed our bags and headed to the train station to go to France. We were worried that we might miss the train, but it ended up being 30 minutes late, so we were fine. Good thing we had an hour and half wait at our next connection.

The last leg of our trip from Nice to Marsaille left on time but arrived at the final destination about 2 hours late. There was some sort of accident on the track, and we sat in the middle of no-where for a while before continuing on. We never did find out exactly what happened, because all of the explanations were in French. But we finally did make it. But I did decide that I like the trains in Switzerland much better. They are exactly where they say they are going to be, when they say they are going to be there.

Keith and Patty Moore met us at the station. They are friends of Tim's from Mission to the World, where he works. They have graciously allowed us to stay with them while we visit the area.

The next day, Sunday, we got up and went to the church that they attend. The service was all in French, but a lot of the songs were the same as ones we sing in the States. It was neat to sing songs in French, that I knew in English.
After church we took a drive to Cassis, a little touristy village by the sea. We had a lunch of moules (mussels) at a sidewalk cafe. They were delicious.

Then we took a beautiful drive up to the cliffs surrounding Cassis. It was magnificent. The cool thing was there weren't any houses or developments of any kind on the mountain. The government has protected this land to maintain the natural beauty. It was amazing. The view of the Mediterranean Sea was spectacular.

Cassis as seen from the cliffs.

Then we drove back down to the city and had an appertif. The French find any reason to eat or drink. Patty introduced me to a Tango which is beer with a shot of grenadine. It was sweet and didn't really taste like beer at all. Which is good, because I don't like beer.

On Monday, Tim and I explored Marsaille. We went up to the Notre Dame de la Garde. It is up on a huge hill and gives you an amazing view of Marsaille. The church was orginally built to be a fortress of some kind. This makes sense in light of the fact that there is a draw brigde at the entrance, which is quite odd for a church.

Notre Dame de la Garde

View of the city from the church.

Then we wandered down to the Jardin de Pharo, where we sat and watched the boats in the port. It was nice and relaxing.