Welcome to Marseille!

June 24
Kevin
I'm in Marseille. Everybody's really helpful and nice. Having a problem opening the door, though, to leave the apartment (It's broken, and I forgot how he wanted me to use the tools.). 

45 minutes later:
Wow. That was scary.

I got to Damien's apartment at about 1:15 today, 15 minutes before he went to work. (He's a sailor.) So, he briefly showed me how to lock and unlock the ground-floor-apartment doors, but, when I tried to get out about an hour ago on my own, it didn't work (The door is broken, so the only way to get out would be by using pliers to pull something some way, and it was very hard.).

After calling him, where he couldn't really explain it via phone in English or French, I figured I'd just spend the day in his apartment, unsure of what my other options are. Then, there were three men, all with construction/plumbing/etc. equipment, and I asked them, without actually seeing any of the equipment, just that they were the only ones on the street (This was ALL in French!) to help me open the door from the outside. They struggled, and eventually asked for the keys. I was very hesitant (What a horrible thing to explain to Damien, if things went awry!!), but I gave them the keys. They proceeded to break apart the door handle, enter, and reassemble everything, fixing nearly everything on both sides. And, they waited for me to try opening and closing the door by myself two or three times before they left. I tried compensating them with money or chocolate biscuits I'd bought for the train ride, but they refused to accept anything. They just smiled, said "Bon courage," and went on with their day.

I love Marseille!

I think, now, after such a stressful hour or so, I'm going to head to the beach, relax, and pick up a nice, easy dinner, before returning to the apartment (which I can now open!).

Quite an afternoon.

(Also, just another thing: here, nearly everyone has warned me about pickpockets. That sounds like a bad thing, in theory, but a really comforting one in that EVERYONE is warning me. It's a nice place. Like southern Illinois. Or Ketchikan.)

About 8 hours later:

After that afternoon mishap (Damien has yet to arrive back from work, but I hope he's impressed with the new door handle!), I still had a relatively exciting--and comparatively MUCH less stressful--day. I took an hour or so to change, apply sunscreen, drink water, eat a snack, and relax before going to the beach, Plage des Catalans, literally 100 metres away. There, I waded in the water, spoke French to a few natives around my age, and read a little bit (I'm determined to finish my book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, by the time I arrive on the farm!). Upon my return at around 17h30/18h, I took a shower, changed into nicer clothes, and began my stroll to Le Vieux Port, where I eventually found a French/Italian restaurant selling everything at 20% off (I love Happy Hour!), making the meal SIGNIFICANTLY less expensive than the surrounding diners.

After my leisurely dinner, I found a few off-the-beaten-path hiking trails, including one leading me to the Palais du Pharo, the Marseille government building, which looks EXACTLY like the hotel from The Grand Budapest Hotel. I could watch the sunset over the harbor(s), and it was a really lovely spot! A great backdrop before my return here.

Damien's apartment is really nice--and large, given its prime location. On the bottom floor, I'm sleeping in the "living room," adjacent to the kitchen and the bathroom, while he's in the loft. I have more space here than in my last two hosts' apartments combined! (Reason 1 why I like Marseille SO MUCH MORE than Paris).

Marseille seems to be everything that Paris isn't:

While Paris is known for its pickpocketing, that's probably happened in Marseille only once; now, everyone warns everyone about it, just to be careful.

In Paris, the only natural water isn't even safe for birds to glide upon; in Marseille, I can literally wade anywhere, and if it weren't saltwater, I could probably drink it, too.

No one ever greets anyone else in Paris (You could sit right next to someone on the Metro for 10 minutes and not say a single word.), but in Marseille, everyone talks to everyone. On the bus ride to the apartment from Le Vieux Port, an elderly lady and a mother and daughter talked to me the entire way (in French), and after I got off, the lady walked with me the three blocks from the stop, just to make sure I found the place! Not to mention, strangers literally fixed the door handle for me and refused payment. During dinner, a mother encouraged her seven-year-old to talk to me in English, so he could better practice. Only on my sunset hike, where most people were organized in couples, and it seems to be a nationwide tradition to ALWAYS ignore couples and let them do LITERALLY WHATEVER THEY WANT (In the Luxembourg Garden in Paris, as I walked to the pond, there was a couple of teens making out; when I left, two hours later, they were still kissing!).

Tomorrow, I think I'll probably see a few museums, as well as, potentially, a comedy club. That will be the ultimate test of my French fluency.

(Oh, and the mussels I had the other night were excellent. Regardless of what the food is--even olives--if it's created in France, it's probably wonderful.)