A Weekend in Marseille

A few weeks ago, I started to worry about the fact that I have barely traveled outside of Paris since I have been here. I went on quite the booking spree and planned two trips for myself. One was to Marseille and the other is a story for a different time.

What I really wanted was a relaxing weekend on the beach. Marseille was perfect because it isn’t too far from Paris, only about three hours on the train, and it has direct access to the Mediterranean. I was lucky enough to find a hotel in Marseille where I could apply my Marriott discount and went ahead and bought train tickets. I did have to take an hour train out to a station east of Paris before I got to the train that would take me to Marseille, but it was cheaper and of course, that was my first priority.

Friday

I got up early, meaning 5:15, so that I would be able to get out to the first train station on time. I was immensely tired from the night before because I was with a friend who was leaving that weekend to fly home. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see her again before she left, so we watched When Harry Met Sally at her apartment until about 1:30. It was definitely worth spending time with her before she left, but I did start off the weekend with approximately 4 hours of sleep.

I took myself to a metro station nearby and got on the train that would take me to the station east of Paris. This part was easy. These trains are a lot like the Metro trains in Chicago that take you out to the suburbs. Once I got to the Chessy station, it was a totally different story.

I’m not kidding when I say that I have never seen so many adults full-on running than I did in the station. I couldn’t tell if everyone was late to their train or everyone was just really excited to get to where they were going. Either way, I was really annoyed with the amount of people bumping into me. Not to mention that the set up of the station was really inefficient and I basically walked in a huge circle before I got to where I needed to be.

I made it to my platform and only had to wait a few moments before the train pulled up. I found my car and headed up the stairs to find that someone was already sitting in my seat. I guess I could have asked him to move, but he was clearly sitting next to his friend and I convinced myself that everyone else would probably just find an open seat regardless of the one that they were assigned. So, I went and found a window seat only to be approached moments later by two women asking me to move out of their seats. I tried to explain that someone had taken mine, but they really didn’t seem like they cared. I don’t blame them.

So I got up and approached the two young guys and told them that they were in one of my seats. One guy got up to move rather quickly, which was nice, except that it was the other guy, the one in the window seat, who was actually sitting in my place. I chose to completely ignore it as I really didn’t feel like arguing in a foreign language at 7:00 in the morning. If he was cool with my head coming uncomfortably close to his shoulder while I slept the whole trip, so be it.

I did end up sleeping for the majority of the three hours which was perfect because I felt pretty rested once I got off in Marseille. Despite this, I did have this really strange realization once I heard everyone in the station speaking French. It’s like I was surprised. I don’t know what I expected, but I have noticed that happening to me before. It’s like a split second where I'm overwhelmed with the fact that I’m not fluent in the dominant language around me, but it comes and goes.

I stayed at the station for a while because I knew that it was too early to be able to check into my room. I got some food and ate outside so that I could enjoy the great view of the city. I contemplated how I should get to the hotel, Uber, walk, or take the Metro, and decided to test my navigation skills. It turns out it wasn’t that difficult to find on the map and the Metro took me about a block away from the hotel.

I walked in, they let me check in right away, and I had a great time pretending to be an adult in a hotel room all to myself. I changed into my swimsuit and took myself down to the beach.

It was a bit of a walk, nothing terrible, but it was just enough time for me to become self conscious about going to the beach alone in a city I’d never been to in a foreign country. Luckily, I saw the water and all my doubt disappeared. It was the clearest water I’ve ever seen and all I wanted to do was jump in. Once I got closer, I realized that the beach was covered in little pebbles instead of sand. I was a little disappointed at first, but it was so much easier to clean off than sand that I really didn’t mind it in the end.

I spent the next couple hours laying out, swimming, and continuously trying to reach that one spot on my back because I knew that it would be the only place I burned. After a couple hours, I collected my things, went across the street to a grocery store to grab dinner, and headed back to the hotel. I showered, drank a little too much wine, and ended up taking a nap until about 9 p.m.

When I woke up, I was battling with myself on whether I should leave and try to find a nice place to spend the evening, or I should just be a little lazy and go down to the hotel bar. I ended up convincing myself that I would find a nice place if I just walked down the street, so I headed out.

Turns out that I should have let myself be a little lazy. I walked for a good 45 minutes without finding any sort of inviting restaurant or bar. I’m sure I was just looking in the wrong areas, but after a while, I just wanted to sit down. I walked back to the hotel and decided to order a drink from the bar and call it a night; and that’s exactly what I did.

Saturday

I woke up around 10 a.m. and read a message from my friends, Brad and Taylor, that said they were getting on the train at Chessy. Brad and Taylor are both from DePaul too and we all came to Paris together on the same program. All three of us were tentatively planning to go to Marseille on the same weekend, so I told them that I would be able to get us a discounted room which worked out perfectly. I told them to meet me in the lobby and they showed up a little after 11:00.

We upgraded to a room that was big enough for all of us and checked in. Brad needed to buy swim trunks so we walked to the mall that was right down the street and he let us pick out a pair with a bunch of different birds on them. We were pretty hungry so we decided to eat at the restaurant in the mall. I’m really glad we did because it was delicious. It was called Factory and Co and I honestly wish that there was one in Chicago. The burgers were great and they had a ton of different desserts, including cheesecake. Needless to say, it was a great choice.

Once we were full, we got on the train and headed to a stop closer to a beach that we had chosen earlier. We had to walk a little, but the scenery was great. We saw the port that Marseille is famous for and a huge fort. The beach was fairly small, but it was beautiful and there weren’t too many people there. Once again, the water was so blue and there were islands, mountains, and boats all in the distance. When we finally got the courage to swim out into the cold water, I had this great moment of realization that I was just floating in the Mediterranean Sea. I felt so peaceful and just that moment made the entire trip worth it. We stayed for a couple hours just swimming, laying out, and napping.

By the time we left, we were hungry again so we found a little restaurant by the bay that had seafood. I ordered calamari with risotto and was a little intimidated by what they brought out to me. It looked like real squid and octopus which freaked me out just a little. I really hadn't ever had “real” seafood, but I knew it would be delicious. I sucked it up and I was right; it was great.

After dinner, we couldn’t get those cheesecakes out of our head, so we stopped at Factory and Co before we went back to the room. After we had all showered, we ate our desserts and watched Ratatouille in true French tradition.

Sunday

We woke up around 9 and couldn’t quite figure out what to do. We didn’t need to be at the station until about 2 so we decided that we wanted to get in the Mediterranean one last time. We packed up our stuff and left our bags in the lobby before we left for the beach. I took them to the beach that I went to on Friday because it was a lot closer and it was much less crowded than the other one would have been. We only stayed for about an hour, but it was good to get in the water again.

Once we got our stuff from the hotel, we couldn’t resist another lunch at Factory and Co. Unfortunately for us, it was the same lady at the cash register all three times that we were there and she made a point of mentioning that we had been there the day before. It was actually the worst nightmare of anyone who has ever frequented a restaurant too often, but the food was worth the embarrassment.

We took the Metro to the train, the train to the Metro outside of Paris, and the Metro inside Paris home. I made it back around 7:30 and still had time to finish up some homework.

Overall, it was a great trip. I got a nice weekend on the beach just like I wanted and I got just a little bit of a tan. While I was impressed with myself for making the trip there alone, I was really glad that Brad and Taylor came for Saturday and Sunday because I think I may have gotten a little bored by myself. Hopefully that feeling doesn't persist during my second voyage.

See you all in about three weeks!