Southern France

Finally! I have wanted to see Southern France since my first year living in France, and finally had a good chance to go there. H took one week off from his work and we planned a 6-day trip to see different towns. Travelling by train limited our options where to go to, so finally our destinations were set to Avignon and Marseille.

Old and one-colored town of Avignon

Avignon is a smaller town on the way from Paris to Marseille, about 100 km before it. From the very first views it seemed quite unique: pretty much all the houses had sand color walls with no extra paint on them and there was an old stone wall around the whole centre area of the town. In addition the old houses were left to look old without renovations made. That gave the town a lovely touch. We sat down for the best burger and tartar dishes we have ever had and then waited for the apartment hotel reception to open to get our luggage in our room. It was so hot to walk with the bags that we just found a place nearby the hotel with a shadow and sat down for an hour. After a shower and cooling down in the air-conditioned room it was much better to continue discovering the lovely town. It was so small that we almost walked around it already on the first evening.

On our only full day in Avignon we wanted to get inside the one huge building the small town has inside it: Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) that had all the towns tourists on its square. I was quite surprised that even during this pandemic time it had attracted so many people there. They offered free iPads the visitors could use to get information of each room and sometimes for them to see what the room looked like during the times when Popes stayed at Avignon.

Having a lunch right in front of the Palais des Papes was a completely different experience from our lunch on the previous day. We felt like the waiters had no plans who takes care of what area and we had to wait super long both for ordering and for waiting for the dishes. And additionally the food wasn't to our taste. Both the ceasar salad and the lasagna were quite tasteless even though they looked good. We also checked Pont d'Avignon, an bridge that had lost half of it within time, and a big ferris wheel right next to the river offering us nice view to every direction and to some of the towns illuminations that we saw more on our way back to the hotel.

The city of Marseille

On the following afternoon we took a train from Avignon to the sea, to Marseille. We used the remaining few hours of the day by cooling down at the hotel (it was over 30 degrees as it had been in Avignon, as well) and walking around the city, watching its beach and its harbor. The city was hillier than Paris and had its own atmosphere because of the sea but some streets reminded us a lot of Paris.

Hiking at Parc national des Calanques

On the next day we took a bus in the morning to go to the national park located 10 km South from the centre of Marseille. The bus was mostly filled by tourists wearing sports clothes in order to take the hiking rails in the mountainous park that we had planned to take. We walked for about 4 km, first uphills until we saw the ocean and then we took a path downhills to the most beautiful swimming place either of us had ever been to. The clear turquoise water between the light colored hills and green trees had attracted many other hikers there as well even though there was no proper beach there. The downsides of the place were the difficulty of descending to the water and the pebble bottom of the tiny beach and the water. Having no sand made sure the water was so unbelievably clear I could see my feet all the time. 

Also on our last full day we left towards South-East from the main Marseille. We traveled early in the morning to another coastal town called La Ciotat which offers lots of possibilities to rent a kayak, a sup-board or such. We rented kayaks for half a day and headed off to a small island nearby the main land. Luckily the kayak was quite stable so I didn't have to worry about it tilting over but I did worry for how my arms could do the whole way to the island and back and if my sea sickness would make it impossible. I really started to feel uncomfortable in the waves half way to our destination. The waves were not even big but the constant up and down movement surprised my stomach nevertheless.

Anyhow, we finally made it to the island and parked our kayaks on its shore. It felt so good to stand on a land and let my bad feeling to fade away. We climbed up the see the view from the top of the island and wondered the amazing-colored sea from the heights as we had done already on the kayaks. It was as wonderful as we had seen in Calanques on the previous day.

Kayaking back to the mainland took almost an hour and my bad feeling suddenly hit me half way again, this time up to the point I got the vomiting reflex. Luckily I had not eaten anything after breakfast (and it started to be hours since that), so nothing came up, and after three times I was sure I would get something up, my sea sickness disappeared. After a good lunch we wanted to enjoy our afternoon on the beach. Lying on the sandy beach would have been great if the temperature wasn't reaching over 30 degrees again. We had to take a swim constantly to cool our bodies down but even with that we gave up rather fast and took a bus back to Marseille.

Our vacation offered very nice experiences and was also a great variation to the city life. We realized that travelling small distances was much more tourist friendly and cheaper than in Paris. Paris only offers one-day tickets or until-the-next-Sunday tickets which costs over 20 euros. We were lucky to spend 3 days in Marseille because they offered 72-hour tickets for 10 euros and that covered also our way to Calaques and back. While traveling in the public transport though, we also paid attention to the people who didn't wear a mask or who left it under their chin if they happened to have one with them. That was more common in Marseille than in Paris even though it is mandatory everywhere in France now. Seemingly even having a risk of getting a fine of 135 euros doesn't get the ignorant people to follow the rules. And what it comes to following rules, we also noticed that some parts of Marseille were completely covered up in graffiti. H wondered out loud if it is because the city didn't seem to have much for the youngsters to do or proper places for them to hang around. It could be. If I could choose between living around Paris or around Marseille, I would need some time to think. They both have their own specific good sides. The best thing about Marseille would be being close to the sea and the nature more, but I think Paris offers better chances for going out for a culture or a restaurant (since I don't fancy sea food, haha).