Linda in Marseille

This is a story about my time in Marseille.

I went with Joy and Diane from the island, AMI. 

Sunday – August 24, 2014

As I awake from a beautiful sound sleep in Bill’s arms, I realized today is the day I had been looking forward to for a long time. But it is also a sad day for me. I am leaving Bill for 10 days. He is going to be alone in Soest while I am traveling with my girlfriends to Marseille. In one hour after bathroom duties, Joy, Diane, and I are off. Joy’s car is very nice. It is a Seat.  (pronounced;  see-ah-t).  

I am the navigator. The iPhone took us straight to A27 via E324 towards Utrecht.  Well, Bill and I take this route all the time so I wasn’t paying real close attention. Oops, missed E324.  I’m wondering why we just passed the palace! That’s not right! Turn around. Okay now, here is E324, Nice - feeling good. Here comes A27. Joy takes the outside of the circle. Bill always takes the inside when the outside is better. Hello! Not this time we are heading north, up to Hilversum to turn around. I’m guessing that the running around has only put us 15 minutes behind schedule. Now we’re on the right road driving south.  Guess I was not in a hurry to leave my Bill.

The rest of the trip to Dijon was uneventful. A few roadside stops for a quick wee, then some lunch, which was also uneventful.  Diane had beef broth with legumes and Joy and I had tuna salad on top of a peach half, odd; a chicken leg, slice of pâté, not bad, cauliflower, green beans, shredded carrots, and a cup of tea/coffee. The coffee was very good. 

We drove into Dijon to the Ibis budget hotel around 7 PM - very interesting hotel. The girl at the front desk took care of Joy, speaking French, with a nice smile and then turned to me, and in English continued to smile, even though I totally forgot my manners. I forgot to say, ‘ Bonjour’. It is very important in France to greet people . Everyone says ‘bonjour’ to everyone.

Our rooms had beds enough for three people, a double bed and a single bunk bed overhead. There wasn’t much space for anything else.  A TV in one corner over a small shelf desk, a sink in another corner near the shower, and a toilet room. It was clean and adequate.

After we got settled, we decided to drive into Dijon for dinner. What a lovely town! The old town has been cleaned up and turned into a shopping district. Tours around the palace and Notre Dame cathedral can be taken. There was a mustard store–Dijon mustard, of course.  

Since it is Sunday, we missed out on the special tours. We did have a lovely dinner at the Resto Mucho behind the church. Since we are in a burgundy country we thought it only proper to drink Burgundy wine with Beef Bourgogne. Excellent!!

Walking around the church gave me the feeling I would see Liza Doolittle selling flowers in the morning. Everything was very old, no flowers or green anything in that square. The buildings were a dirty yellow.  They all have a special warm feeling about them. Very nice.

Called Claude when we got back to our room, to let her know we were on our way. Next stop - Gordes, France. 

August 25

I turned off my lights around 11:30 PM. Slept through the first alarm at 7 AM.  Touched to snooze two more times and still went downstairs before nine o’clock. Joy was having breakfast and Diane was just getting up. She’s having a hard time getting on our time zone.  Diane kept apologizing for sleeping in.  I told her we did not have a bus to catch.  We are on vacation! 

Getting out onto the highway went much better than getting out of Soest. On the A7 South we are on our way. Traffic was very heavy from the start, lots of trucks! Turns out, the trucks do not run on the weekends. So Monday look out! They are everywhere.

We stopped for lunch at an ‘ auto strata’. Girls had salad and I had a chicken leg, peas, and ratatouille.  Very nice.  The European highway stops have really good food.

When we came out to continue our trip, the ramp to get back on the highway was backed up. Nobody was going anywhere, no cars, no trucks, nobody! We crawled for at least half an hour to an hour, then we stopped. We were chatting and trying to solve the world’s problems - fun. We forgot about the time. When we finally passed the accident we saw a tractor-trailer had jumped the middle barrier but didn’t make it all the way across. It was a really bad accident. They brought in a crane to pick up the truck and take it off the center piling. Traffic on the other side of the road was backed up for over 50 miles. Very sad.

Gordes - our next stop. We went straight to Claude and Pierre’s house.  They were sitting on the front porch waiting for us with big smiles on their faces. They were very happy to see us.

Pierre took Joy and Diane into town even though the stores were closed. I stayed with Claude to chat.  Claude made us a wonderful dinner, but of course! Wine, and nuts, cherry tomatoes and olives to get started. First course: bamboo shoots puréed with shrimp.  Main entrée: tart with fennel, onions, topped with salmon. Next course; cheese and bread. Dessert: poached cantaloupe with the core and strawberry sherbet. YUM!!  

Time for bed.

August 26

A good night, Diane and I slept well.   Pierre went to Gordes, like he does every day, to get the paper, and fresh bread for breakfast. It was sad to leave. They missed seeing Bill. I missed seeing Bill. Pierre kept saying, ‘next year we bring Bill’! Pierre said it over and over again.

On my way out of Gordes, we drove through a few of the little hillside villages, Roussillon, Goult, and Cavaillon (where they grow wonderful cantaloupes).   I went on painting trips to these villages several years ago and it brought back lovely memories. 

The countryside is so warm, the villages high on the mountainside are amazing. I just can’t figure how the people built these villages so high on the hills, and mountains.

It was lunchtime before we reached Joy’s cabin.   There’s a restaurant halfway up the mountainside and it has Wi-Fi. So we decided that would be our lunch destination. This was our last chance to be connected to the outside world before we got to the cabin. 

There is no Wi-Fi or electricity at the cabin. Joy has eaten at this restaurant before.   Their specialty was sausage. I don’t remember what I ate but I do remember I shared it with Joy. Her sausage was awful! Maybe I should just say it wasn’t the best food in town. But the espresso was very good.

I guess we sat playing with our I’s (phones/pads) for quite a while, stop for food to cook for dinner and up the mountain we went.

In her little hideaway, (“away from all the fuss that bothers us, we hide away, we 3”).- that’s a song from a musical entitled ‘Mr. President’, in the 60s.   It was playing at the National Theatre in Washington DC. It was my first musical. I loved it!

Up a long gravel road with lots of rocks and valleys for the car to navigate, very slow going. 

Then pops up an adorable little house with Scott blue shutters, a covered porch that leads to the kitchen (A “one butt” kitchen).   

The other side of the porch takes you to a stone patio that looks over the mountains to the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful, God knew what he was doing when he created that scene.  There really are no words to describe the beauty and peaceful feeling that comes over you when you look across the mountains to the sea.  

We went straight to work to make this hideaway livable. Open all doors and windows. 


Hook every one of them to keep the wind from closing them again.  Diane and I made our bed while Joy went to work in the kitchen. 





She turned on the gas for the hot water heater and cleaned up around the fridge, which is very small - maybe 4 feet high. The light for the hot water tank did not cooperate. Last week the hot water tank lit first try. After winning that battle, it was time to take the solar panels out and lay them in the grass behind the house. This provides enough electricity for a little light above the stove in the kitchen. Okay, now we go upstairs to hang  camping solar panels out the window. 

They face the Mediterranean and provide enough electricity to charge our iPad. The plug to the solar panels is like a car lighter. Diane and Joy have a couple of these plugs so we are not totally ‘in the woods.’ 

August 27

I plugged my iPhone in last night. This morning, eight hours later, my phone is almost dead.  Hum!??

The sun is up, the sky is blue, a little wind, might be 76°F.  (My coconut oil is soft.)   I can see the Mediterranean. God contained beautiful pictures!

Today was market day in a Sanary.   It took us about an hour to get to this beautiful beach town at the south end of the Riviera. Winding down the mountain could stir up your stomach. We were not bothered, there was too much scenery to see.   The market was the biggest I’ve ever seen. 

There were lots of the same clothes but also very different kiosks.   One was giving cheese and sausage samples from Corsica. The sausage was half pig and half boar, quite a strong flavor. I liked it, Joy did not. We found a nice French sausage down the street. We stopped at a restaurant near the Marina so we could see the boats in the water. Our waiter was very entertaining. I think he enjoyed showing off his language skills. We bought a few items at the market and then took off up the mountain from where we came.

We stopped in Cuges les Pins to say ‘hello’ to Jean Claude and Marie - very good friends of Joy’s. Jean-Claude takes care of the cabin for Joy when she is not in town.  Jean-Claude took care of the cabin for Joy’s father who had it built some 40 years ago. The cabin has a cistern so there is a full bath with running water and running water in the kitchen. Joy and Robert bought a solar panel five years ago which supplies enough electricity for a light in the kitchen and enough to recharge your computer. You just have to be patient. Reading by candlelight can be relaxing. When the sun goes down it is best to just sit under the stars and gaze.

August 28

Today we drive to Port Frejus to visit an old friend from Washington DC. 

Chantal lived in our building at Riverside for many years.   A very lovely little French lady who worked as a French guide for the State Department after she retired from “Voice of America”. Chantal has had a very interesting life. She took us to lunch at a lovely restaurant right on the beach.  Sorry Chantal, I can't remember the name of it.

Joy and I did not have any trouble finding our way back to the highway A8 and home. We stopped to buy food for dinner, salmon for Diane and chicken livers for Joy and I. This woman can cook!

After dinner, actually also before dinner, we drank wine and sang camp songs. When we ran out of camp songs we sang Christmas songs. Between the three of us we knew most of the words.  After a 9 PM dinner we continued the singing. At one point Diane lost her glass of wine. 

We turned to that into an opera” where did Diane’s wine go?” Fun, fun, fun, everyone participated.

August 29

Joy has planned a party. Her friends from Riboux and Cuges les Pins are coming to meet her American friends or is it for her American friends to meet her French friends? Either way it should be very interesting. Most of them do not speak English. 

This morning we went to the library to juice our i’s. Maybe I should have confirmed my airline ticket. (That is Bill’s job. Oh, he isn’t here!) We stopped at Jean-Claude’s and Marie’s to fill our water jugs. I’m not sure why she feels this is necessary. There is running water in the house. They are very nice people. You can tell nice people even though you don’t speak their language.

Then to the supermarket: Carrefour, for party groceries. We buy cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil leaves, (these will be put on a toothpick). We will have sausages cut into bite-size pieces, veggies and dip.  Let the party begin.

I light candles later, lots of candles. We are planning on 15 people, maybe five will speak English.

Great party! Everyone came. They brought Joy birthday presents. One lady brought a necklace and someone else gave her a bracelet. It turned out to be a matched set. What a coincidence, NOT! The universe works in our lives all the time.

August 30

As usual we had a very leisurely morning. Wake up, look at the sky, think about a cup of coffee, look at the sea, 

okay, I’ll make a pot of coffee, read and or write about the day. Joy gets us moving - she decides to cook our breakfast.

When we arrived at the cabin , Diane and I announced we do not eat much, especially breakfast. Well, that was before we found out what breakfast entailed.

When Joy cooks, everyone eats! Yum! Diane and I washed the dishes and we are on our way by 10 o’clock.

As I sit here and write, listening to the guns and dogs in the distance, (it is wild boar season) looking through the large window of my second story bedroom through the wonderful pine trees that holds the misty Mediterranean Sea in its branches.

I think how wonderful our world is. I hope I can carry the peace of this mountainside with me at all times. These words don’t seem to be strong enough to describe the peace and contentment I am feeling in these mountains.

There is a sweet story about a peach tree that grows in front of Joy’s bedroom window. Her father planted the peach tree almost 50 years ago.  A few years back Joy and Robert bought a large armoire.  They had to put the armoire through the bedroom window.  The problem was the peach tree. They had to cut it down. It made Joy very sad. She went back to the United States for two years. When she returned the peach tree had started to grow again. 
TADA!

This made Joy happy! Joy loved her father very much.

After breakfast: a zucchini and onion omelette with tomatoes and avocado salad, we were off to Marseille.  

It was another beautiful day. We spent some time in the new museum,

we walked to the ‘old’ section of town for lunch and then we took a trolley ride to the top of the hill to see the Notre Dame de la Garde. 

Mary and ‘the boy’, are 10 m tall. They stand at the very top of the mountain.

Home for party leftovers and pasties’. 

Night. Night.

August 31

Off to La Sainte Baume – the secret cave that it is said that Mary Magdelaine lived in for 30 years. 

We are hiking up to the secret cave. Its on the other side of the mountain from the cabin.

It took us an hour to drive around to the other side of the mountain. Mary Magdalena is supposed to be buried there in the cave. I don’t really believe it but I must say the peaceful feeling was immense.

 I just wanted to sit inside the cave and absorb the atmosphere.

We did a lot of huffing and puffing to get to the top, that also took an hour, plus.   When we thought we were at the top we looked up to see 150 more steps. I counted them. There were another 10 steps to actually go into the cave. The chapel built beside the cave opening was built in 1295.

Going down the hill was much easier and faster. We did take a different path.  

Joy said we could have walked from Riboux but she was not sure of the path and we did not want to get lost.

I keep talking about this cabin.   It really isn’t a cabin, it’s a small house, it’s white stucco with the blue shutters. 

There’s a large patio with the banister across the end lavender plants in front of the banister. There is a one bedroom, a full bath, fireplace in the living room, a full kitchen and the bedroom upstairs in the attic. The kitchen has a gas stove, running water, cold running water. The hot water is reserved for the bathtub.

September 1

The Mistral arrived yesterday! High winds that come from the African desert or the alps and can last for a day to maybe 20 days. Ah, we are lucky. It is a one-day Mistral. It went away as we slept. I am so glad I left my window open. I had to put a brick in front of it so the Mistral would not close it. 

We decided to call ourselves the ‘Grandmateers’, after the three musketeers, You know the candy bar.  We had a very pleasant day, the Grandmateers.

As usual – a  slow morning, With a drive down the mountain to the shopping mall. Joy’s cell phone wasn’t working, so she had to take it back to the store. While she did that, Diane and I went to a big grocery store, A Casdo.   We found a deal! Provence tea towels for 2.50 euros.  What a great price! Diane bought 14. I think we will be seeing a lot of Provence tea towels on the island.
After our little shopping spree, Joy says there is plenty of time for a walk and a picnic.  She is great at getting things together for picnics.  She makes it look so simple and easy. OK, we're ready, here Linda you carry this, Diane you carry this and I'll take this.  Hum, Diane and I look at each other and wonder how far do we have to carry this stuff?

I must say a walk in the mountains is an  calming experience every time we went out.  Even when Joy gives us bags to lug along.  We found out that it was well worth it!

The food was excellent!  But, of course! And we were back by nightfall.  The boars had not come out yet.  Diane was glad of that. And we had enough energy to do our foot thing before bed.

September 2

Up early, we said goodbye to Joy’s carbano (cabin) on the mountain side. Got down the mountain onto the highway and through the tunnel under Marseille, which takes four minutes.   There is little to no traffic so we get to the airport early enough to have breakfast. Then it was time for Joy and Diane to check-in and head for Vienna.

My flight was not scheduled to leave for 6 more hours. What am I to do?  I would people watch. But I decided to ask one of the attendants at the airport, ‘what would they do if they had six hours before their plane was to leave’? I was told, ‘take a taxi to the city of Marseille or Aix du Provence’.  To do this by myself would be difficult. But I decided six hours was just too long to sit and do nothing. So I got out of my 'box', went outside with my pink suitcase,  and found a bus going to Aix.  First, I had to ask a guard where my gate would be when I came back. The guard spoke excellent English. I had absolutely no trouble understanding him. I decided to ask him where he was from, where did you learn your English? Guess what, he is from San Diego California! He said he really didn’t like living there.  I didn’t ask him why he was living there but he was not happy. He didn’t tell me when I went to Aix that I should not eat French food, it’s terrible! And certainly, do not order Mexican food, they don’t know how to cook it in France. I don’t understand how he could not like living on the Riviera except for their Mexican restaurants, there are not many.  I’m on the bus on my way to Aix.

 I’m really on my own here, out of my box! I don’t speak French and I’m alone! My little pink suitcase and me go marching off looking for signs that will tell me which bus to get on.  I start talking to the people also waiting for a bus. The first man I talked to doesn’t really understand my question. There is a lady and a little girl listening. They decided to help me, they put the little pink suitcase in the bus while I was talking to a man who told me where the bus would put me off and the time to come back. It was a very nice bus ride. The weather is gorgeous and I’m feeling pretty good. When I get there I ask where is a bus that says it’s going to the airport. I decided I needed to talk to the driver to make sure he would be there at 3:10 p.m. While I was talking to the bus driver the lady and the little girl got my little pink suitcase out of the bus and brought it to me.   I don’t think they spoke much English, they just smiled I said thank you and smiled back.

Got off the bus and started walking up the hill. I knew I was in the right place. 

People everywhere! Cars everywhere! Bicycles everywhere! Restaurants lined the streets up one side and down the other. Oh goody! It’s market day.

 I don’t think I’ve ever seen a market day this big!! I think it’s bigger than the market at Sanary on the Riviera.   All the markets have food, fresh and cooked meats, fresh and cooked veggies, all kinds of clothes, anything you want is there. If I only had more room in my suitcase!

I bought a couple pair of pants/dresses in wild colors. You pull them on like pants, and you can pull them to your waist or up to your armpits. They look like a dress.  ? There’s an opening in the middle of the pants that looks like a dress, that I call a pee hole.  LOL!   They are very comfortable to wear.

After a lovely lunch on the main street, doing a lot of people watching, it was time to start back to the bus.  I was a little nervous about getting back to the airport with enough time.  Silly me, hurry and wait, like always.  Oh well, I was there and knew I would not miss my flight home, Soest.  We have done our house swap with Kees and Joke for 4 years now.  Soest is our summer home.  It is a wonderful place and the people could not be more welcoming. 

Soest garden.

It was good to be home. 

My wonderful husband was waiting for me at the gate.  He had a big smile on his face and a rose to welcome me home.  We had only 4 days before we had to get back on the plane and come to our home in Florida. 

Kees and Joke were here in Bradenton to welcome us back to our Florida home.

Stay tuned for our continuing odyssey.

San Francisco here we come to celebrate our 50^th anniversary. Don't know how much of this we will share.