Sorry, but I just couldn't do an update from Marseille. I'll explain why later.  

We were up early from Carcassonne on our penultimate day in France. Today, we broke the rule we usually live by on the road, that is, "Never eat at an establishment you can eat at in Bloomington IL."  We are justifying our actions by saying we are doing so for research purposes.  We are eating breakfast at McDonald's today. You see, 41 years ago, there were only 2 McDonald's in Europe (that we knew about)...Paris and Munich. We craved a Big Mac after 4 weeks in Europe and went to one in Munich. And do you know I had?  A Big Mac, Fries and a Beer! Yep, they served beer in McDonalds in Munich! How wonderful. The question at hand now was, did they serve wine in McDonalds in the South of France? The answer is no.  As it turns out, they barely serve breakfast.  A small sign about breakfast. Since they really didn't have any of the usual, Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit or Egg McMuffin, I asked if I could get a Big Mac...sure! So I did. Sandy got just a plain English muffin. And boy, that's what she got. No butter (they did not serve butter with their English muffins), and no jelly. The only things close were pancake syrup or Nutella.  Grade-wise I gave the Big Mac an A+, Fries a C, Sandy gave an F to her English Muffin and we both agreed Bob and Julie Dobski don't have any competition in the South of France!

We headed about 1.5 hours southeast to a small town called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Sort of off the beaten track from most tourist destinations Americans see, but the French vacation there.  SMdlM is a small town which might remind Americans of Ft. Lauderdale. Long beach (sand this time, not rocks or pebbles) and a harbor where fishing boats come and go. We got to town about 12:40 and wouldn't you know it, they were having a market...as Sandy said, "Just for me!"  We finally found a place to park and Sandy ran to the market before it closed at 1:00 pm and actually bought a dress.  

SMdlM is known for several things. In 1888 Vincent Van Gogh visited there for a week and went home with three paintings and 9 sketches. Interestingly, when we checked into the tourist office, while they have a Van Gogh Street which is the main drag, there are no tourist attractions for Van Gogh; a fact that troubled the tourist official we spoke to.  

There was, however, a church. The SMdlM church is the focus of pilgrims for Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe who according to one version of the Passion were the three women who were visiting Jesus' tomb to anoint his body with oils when they discovered the empty tomb. Legend has it the three, along with Joseph of Arimathea along with a servant girl (Sarah) came ashore in a wooden boat here and spread the word of the resurrection. The bones of Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe are said to be in the church, along with a statue of the dark skinned Sarah who became the patron saint of gypsies. There is a gypsy festival in May every year. Beautiful sanctuary.   

This southern area is called Camargue. They are known for their white horses and for bullfighting. We got pictures of some of the white horses and a great one of (shall I say) a very anatomically correct bull!!!

You can climb to the top of the church (which used to act as a look out for pirates from the 9th - 12th centuries), but it wasn't open until 2:00. So we had lunch at a great fish restaurant near the water. We tried a fish we had never had before, called John Dory. I looked it up later on. What an ugly fish, but tasted great. Light, white and tasty with butter and herbs. Glad I had Euros...cash only...no credit cards.  

After lunch we climbed the 53 claustrophobic (and some of you know I am terribly!) spiral stone steps to the top of the church. What a great view of the surrounding countryside. However, if you wanted a better view, you could negotiate a 45 degree pitched roof for an additional 25 feet. Now that didn't scare me. Sandy stayed at the lower level lookout area.  

We headed back to the car for the 1.5 hour drive to Marseille. I tried to get us into the HI Express at the airport, but it was booked. We booked one in downtown Marseille. Traffic was just awful! Trying to find the hotel was not easy, even with Never Lost. Almost got there and was on the wrong side of the street and had to go around the block to get to the other side. Now that sounds so easy...going around the block. You have to remember these streets are 2.1 car-widths wide, and if someone decides he wants to stop there for 10-15 minutes (just put your blinkers on...that seemed to make it alright!), we ended up backing up, turning around, going for a while on a one way street the wrong way. It was pure Hell. We knew we were only a block away from the hotel, but not sure of the parking situation there, so we pulled into a parking garage. The best way I can describe this garage is for you to recall the movie Christine (based on the Stephen King book).  It was three floors of that dark, dirty,ugly, burned out, rat infested garage. We walked the block to the HI Express where they informed us they have a garage of their own and it was cheaper. Turns out it was cleaner, and safer too. We went and got our car, paid 3 Euro and got out of there.

Well, I needed a beer after that. This hotel is right across from the train station. Usually not the best part of town. As we headed to the hotel/restaurant for a beer and a Coke Light, there was a passed out drunk sleeping on the steps of the hotel. Sure wish that hotel by the airport had vacancies.  

Got our boarding passes for tomorrow, which took an hour...sure would have been easier if the guy at the desk told me they actually had a business center like we asked instead of making me get the passes then send them to their email address. Big hassle.  But we had boarding passes. 
  
Sandy and decided to walk the 15 minutes or so down to the water. Marseille has to be one of the dirtiest, garbage everywhere towns we have ever seen. That's too bad because the architecture is beautiful there. They do have a nice harbor area with nice restaurants. We had pizza served by a girl who had been to the States...NYC, Miami Beach and Key West.   Very good pizza. We headed back to the hotel.   

The room we had was ok, but nothing like the other two hotels where we stayed. The bed actually sloped, so I had the feeling that I might roll out of it at any time if didn't hold on. Very odd. But was only for one night.

We were up at 6:00 and down for breakfast at 6:30. Typical European breakfast. Hard boiled eggs, couple of meats, cheese, yogurt, cereal, juice, etc. Good and filling.  

Got to our car and input the airport, but the name didn't seem right to us. Marseilles Marignane. But it was the only airport in Never Lost, so we took it. Now trying to follow Never Lost directions out of town were not easy. Would have been easier if she had said, "Take the tunnel."  We eventually figured it out and headed toward what we thought was the right airport. All the way we were trying to convince ourselves that it had to be the right airport, but I also had in my mind...Chicago O'Hare, or Chicago Midway...Hmmmmm. Not a comfortable ride to the airport. As we neared the airport, we realized we WERE at the right one! What a relief. Now, let's get this car back to Hertz. That was not easy. Finally found the entrance and got it to them. I told you I got the extra insurance. We didn't need it. Not a scratch on the car, but darned lucky we didn't. Money well spent for the peace of mind.  

Got our luggage into the airport and had to go to a different terminal. No problem. Checked in. Almost too early. But a guys said by the time we got through line, we'd be fine. And we were. And luggage was 41 lbs. and 48 lbs. respectively for Sandy and me.  

Headed through airport security and I got random checked for explosives. Interestingly, he swabbed the front and back of my hands, my legs and my socks. Never experienced that before. I was clean!

We headed to the gate and waited a while before boarding the flight to Paris. As I showed my boarding pass, I was called out of line again (Boy, I must look very suspicious!) for a full bag check and pat down. I was clean!

Change of planes in Paris was fine. We boarded for our 8 hour flight. I swear to you there were two children who tag-teamed each other screaming for 6 of the 8 hours. I put on my earphones, and began singing along with the music...and I didn't care who heard me!  I will say the Air France flight attendants were wonderful.                                             

We landed in O'Hare cleared immigration, got our luggage and cleared customs. No problems. Did see a funny incident at immigration. A bunch of Pennsylvania Dutch were returning from a trip to Amsterdam and other cities and this immigration guy was giving the PD lady with her long skirt, bun hair and mosquito-net bonnet they wear the 3rd degree about something. Poor lady didn't know what to say except I'm with a tour group. He finally let go.  

Bryan picked us up within five minutes of when we stepped foot out of the International Terminal. And two and a half hours later, we were home.

We had a great time on our trip. We had visited many cities in the South of France and some beautiful places. We saw some historic places. We saw some artistic places. We saw some religious places. We had eaten some great food. We also had some interesting and scary times, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. That's what travel is all about. As Sandy says, "It'll make a great story!" Travel is exciting. It broadens your mind.  

Thanks for traveling along with us. Hope you enjoyed hearing about the places half as much as I did telling you about them!

I'll post pictures in a day or two!

Take care my friends and family.

Dave & Sandy