Travelogue Sans Photos (Revised 8/17/24)
Since I last wrote we’ve been in Marseille, Nice, Lyon, and Dijon.
We were in Marseille and Nice one week each. I was so in my happy place being near water and sun. Marseille is the same latitude as upper Michigan and has palm trees and bougainvillea! Nice is slightly further north.
From the marina in Marseille you can see a church looming over the city: Cathedrale Notre Dame de la Garde. We decided to go up to it. We took a bus part way up the hill and then climbed stairs the rest of the way. It was worth it. Beautiful views of the city.
We also managed to take part in the Olympics excitement by going to a men’s soccer match - US v. New Zealand. US won. I was happy that, as I said to Chris, “It wasn’t a zoo.”
I did not miss a chance to go to the beach in Marseille. The water was cold but refreshing. It was so easy to get to! It was even easier to get to the beach in Nice - and the water was warmer. Below is a video I took of the beach in Nice, thinking I was taking a picture.
The last full day, we went to Palais Longchamp, with an impressive fountain and waterfall. It is now a lovely park, but was the city waterworks at one time. If I’ve understood the French correctly, the structure is a celebration of the arrival of running water to the city - hence the aquaduct. The palais houses two museums, one of fine arts and the other natural history.
After a week in Marseille, we took a train to Nice. It was an uncomfortable 3-hour trip without air conditioning. Even so, traveling by train has been a joy. So much better than flying. Our apartment in Nice had A/C in the bedroom, which was a blessing.
We sought out museums in Nice, partly because of the heat, but also because the air quality wasn’t great. We saw a special exhibit of Matisse and Joan Miro - their friendship and influence on each other. There’s also a Chagall museum, which we liked even better. We’d hoped to visit one of the chapels designed by the artists, respectively, but we lost a day because of air quality issues. But honestly, visiting museums is exhausting! Here are two representations of Miro and Matisse, respectively, to show how they influenced each other:
Finally, we climbed the hill to La Colline du Chateau - the castle on the hill. Despite the name, it was actually a military fortress that was fought over throughout the centuries until France finally won it over. We saw it from the waterfront and I took a Google camera shot of it and found out what it was. It also has an impressive fountain and waterfall; however, I was unable to get a decent picture. This time I took the elevator up the hill and walked down.
These are ruins from a church that was part of the fortress.
Thursday we made our way to Lyon, on the Rhone River. Actually the Saone River and the Rhone converge in Lyon. Lyon had a lovely waterfront.
All of these cities have old sections and we’ve been enjoying exploring them. We climbed up to yet another church on a hill in Lyons - 800 steps to the Basilica de Notre Dame de Fourviere.
Lyon has tunnels called traboules that were used by silk merchants as shortcuts from their workshops to the merchants. During the Nazi resistance, the taboules were used for secret meetings.
Sunday we took the train to Dijon, the last city on our sojourn of France. Yesterday we ran some errands that actually involved taking the tram and the bus, giving us a taste of the city.
We are in the old part of the city, which is nice but noisy. We’re woken every morning by construction work and go to bed with people yelling. Also, we have not had air conditioning in either Lyon or Dijon and it's quite hot. But we're surviving. I've learned from the French to close shutters and windows during the worst of the heat.
The symbol of the city of Dijon is the owl. There are bronze plaques with owls all over the city. You can follow them and do a nice walking tour of the city. The second picture is "ground zero" for the owl walk. On Rue de la Chouette (Owl Street), one can rub a little statue on the wall of an owl and make a wish.
Obviously, we are now in Paris. We arrived Friday, the 15th. We're getting settled in for our last month. I'll be back with a new blog next week.
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