Loudun Calling: Southward bound

It's still holidays in France, so guess what? I went on another holiday! This time to the South of France - specifically, Florac and Marseille.

Passed the Massif Central (mountains in the centre of France) on
the drive down - my ears were popping because of the altitude!

It took 7 and a half hours driving to get to Florac, although more than an hour of that was just getting into the town because of the winding mountain roads... I thought we were going to die more than a few times! But it's all good.

Mountain/caravan scenery

We stayed in Florac for 3 nights, because Jade's other brother Sylvain lives/works there, and an uncle and some cousins - so lots of people to see! We ate at Sylvain's restaurant (he's a chef at a cool little burger bar) and it was SOOO GOOD to eat a bit of meat! I even ate a sausage a couple of days ago, which was exciting. Still, am enjoying the challenge of people vegetarian in this family. I'm even thinking about making it permanent when I come home! Except for kangaroo steaks, I could never give them up.

We went and swam at the river (Le Tarn) just out of Florac, which was COLD but still amazing - the first time I'd swum since I arrived in France!

A mini Tour de France through Florac! Well no, just a bike race.

The river ran through the town centre so there are water features and fountains all over the place, which was cool.

Our day usually started at 4pm because no one wanted to leave the house anytime before then because it was 38 degrees! But I saw the town and went swimming and met the family and saw a band play on top of a mountain - and I just generally had a great time.

Trying to get on to the autoroute in holiday season... SO BUSY!

After 3 nights in Florac, we were off to Marseille to stay with my other host sister Angelina, who's studying there. We left the car with a friend who lives in a town near Marseille, because of the city's SKYHIGH CRIME RATE (not really, we were in a good/safe arrondissement) and got the train in.

Outside la gare at Marseille - there are heaps of statues all around the city

It was boiling hot when we got there (of course, we're in the SUNNY SOUTH now!), trudging through the city to find Gina's apartment... but we got to have a good look around our part of the city.
We went out for dinner at a cool Italian restaurant that night, because it was Gina's 21st birthday the day before (I know what you're thinking - A MASSIVE 21ST? Nope. In France, they celebrate 21st birthdays... when you turn 20.) and that was partly the reason for going down South, as well as Jade being able to see her family after being away on her exchange all year. And for me too, so I could cover pretty all of France during one holiday!

La Place Castellane

La Place Castellane is a pretty well-known landmark in Marseille with a humungous statue in the middle of the roundabout, and conveniently right next to the apartment!

Helpful advice from the restaurant (that last one says "God is Marseillais" - as in, God comes from Marseille)

The next day was tourist day - the three of us (me, Jade and Marie-Anne) covered some Marseillais ground and discovered some landmarks. Le vieux-port (the old port), le fort de Saint Nicolas (like the nice Santa Saint Nick, but more bloodthirsty) and

Le Vieux-Port (the old port)

Le fort de Saint Nicolas

The view of le vieux-port from on top of the hill in front of the fort

Palais du Pharo

The view from Palais du Pharo

After walking up the enormous hill (I feel like French holidays involve more walking than most, maybe that's just me being lazy), we dipped our toes into the super warm waters of the Mediterranean! The beach was the Catalans beach, named after (don't ask why) Catalonia, the North-East region of Spain which INCIDENTALLY was the region I went to on the bus trip in February (the capital is Barcelona).

Catalans beach - white sand, clear water; almost like a real beach!

In the Mediterranean for the first time! Didn't swim, we were on a tourist mission remember?!

Next stop, Notre Dame de la Garde! Now THIS is a landmark of Marseille. It's this huge church on top of a hill overlooking the sea. And there's an incredible view once you've struggled up all 700 flights of stairs.

The view from the Notre Dame de la Garde

Notre Dame de la Garde

Inside the church - ceilings are so amazing

Because we were dog-tired from climbing up hills all day, we went back to the apartment. Then Gina came home from work (yeah, she wasn't on holidays like the rest of us! Poor thing) and we all went to the beach!
La plage de Prado (Prado beach) was less... idyllic, let's say, than Catalans! The water was really dirty for one thing - I'm not trying to be critical! Also there are lots of rocks in the sand. But everyone does go on and on about how amazing the South coast of France is. Either way, it was perfect to go for a swim after a long, 39 degree day...!

Prado beach

Recognise him? Marseille loves statues! I thought it was the real thing, because how can you make a replica so perfect? He's just there in the middle of the Prado roundaboat. As you do. Love it!

David! By Michaelangelo. A copy of him, anyway.

The next day turned out to be walking day - we found some info in a guidebook about La Calanque de Marseille - it's a tiny tropical-looking (but without sand) bay surrounded by cliffs/mountains. It took us an more than an hour (felt like FIVE, but I have to start exercising the cheese off sometime, you know) to walk from the main road through the mountains and down the cliff to get to the water's edge.

Walking to the bottom of a mountain

When the sun was out, it was a pretty beautiful place, but because we didn't go during the heat of the day and only got there as the sun was going down, the water was a bit cold - but on the upside, lots of people left so we got the place a bit to ourselves!

La belle calanque!

But there were HEAPS of people there. Only a tiny section was beach (rocks, not sand) and it was chockablock full of calanque-goers. We were on the rocks on the other side where there was actually room to sit!

It wasn't exactly ideal to swim right near the shore, because the water was only half a metre deep and full of rocks, which were apparently covered in DEADLY SEA URCHINS. So we swam out a bit further where the jumping-off rock was, and some tourist boats came in for a look at the bay every so often.

Then it was time to walk ALLLLLL the way back up the cliff, through the mountains, to the main road, to the bus, then to the apartment. And I thought holidays weren't meant to be exhausting...?

A statue found while shopping

Luckily, the next day was much better - SHOPPING DAY! We walked around the streets all day, but because it was a public holiday not much was open (so mostly window-shopping, better for the wallet but not for mental health).

Golden unicorn in the Marseille soap shop

Marseille is known for its soap (le savon de Marseille) - the original! Or something. This golden unicorn was in the famous soap shop of Marseille.

I couldn't NOT take a photo of this.

On the last day we did some last ditch shopping (it wasn't a public holiday!) and left Marseille. It's a really cool (and the biggest, size-wise, in France) city and I'd love to go back again some day and see some more of it.