So today we pretty much just hung out in Marseilles all day. It was intended to be a rest day so that Dan and I could recoup a bit, and so that Ben could acclimate to the time change. If you'll recall we drank a lot last night.... shocking, I know! So we pretty much slept in like slobs till almost 11. When we tried going down for breakfast (which allegedly ran till noon), the lady running it scolded us for eating so late, making sure we knew that breakfast isn't a noontime kind of meal. We were like, thanks lady, just bring us our damn croissants and cafe. OK, we didn't say that... I actually stammered an apology in French and begged her to feed us anyways. Luckily she hooked us up.
We ended up not taking the cool French guy up on his offer to show us the city. By the time we were out and wandering it was already afternoon, and we were too blah to deal with the language barrier, even though he was the nicest guy ever. Instead we wandered around the city a bit... we saw the church near our hotel that we drank so much port in front of the last few days... we even paid to go down into its catacombs. Very cool! We also wandered the giant fort near us, as well as the grounds of the nearby chateau. Ben desperately wanted to find the Pharo, which is the district of town we were in (a pharo is a lighthouse). But despite all our searching we didn't find crap. =D Pharos have since been a running gag for us, but I'll save that hilarity for a future post.
Ben and I left Dan at the hotel and went up to Notre Dame de la Garde, which is a crazy-ass church built on the highest hill in town. We figured it'd be a hike up there, but we weren't really prepared for what we'd gotten ourselves into. We started climbing hills through town... and I'm talking San Francisco style hills. We climbed and we climbed, winding through neighborhoods, going up up up, sometimes down, sometimes the wrong direction... but after a good 20 minutes or so of climbing, we finally rounded a corner, and there it was! The beautiful church, up on top of yet more freaking hillage, at least another couple hundred feet up. I swear they moved the damn thing while we were wandering.
But it was worth it... a gorgeous view of the city, even if the church itself wasn't too thrilling. I mean, it was very pretty, but quite small. It did have a drawbridge, which seemed weird. They even raised it at one point, trapping Ben and I inside, though we obviously made it out eventually. =P
That night was our bouillabase dinner... it was something we had to do, though the soup itself left a bit to be desired. I don't like seafood, so I'm still not clear on why I ordered it. I do that sometimes... I make myself do things I know I won't like, then curse myself out for it the whole while I'm doing whatever heinous thing it was I forced myself into. I wonder if that's a certifiable disorder. I'll have to ask Tiffany.
We kept it pretty tame that night with the drinking... after all, we had mountains to bike the next day! Tomorrow we're supposed to go to Cassis, which everyone says is basically straight up the side of a mountain. I can't wait! Wheeeee!
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