La Chartruese, Mon Anniversaire, Marseilles and the Devil's Q-tip

La Chartruese, Mon Anniversaire, Marseilles and the Devil's Q-tip 

One of the three mountain ranges surrounding Grenoble is called the Chartruese. With Denis, Sandrine and Florian, a guy who looks and acts uncannily like Drew Felker, we hiked to a waterfall up in the mountains. It was a beautiful day with many paragliders up in the air, jumping off the mountains. A great thing to do on yet another day off from work.

This is french Drew. 

Mon Anniversaire

Bought 30 delicious crossiants and had to endure smelling them the entire tram ride of the university without being able to eat one. Then at 10:30 I rang the bell that signaled it was croissant time in the office. They were gone in 5 minutes. For dinner went to the oldest restaurant in Grenoble, established in 1739. I had duck with honey, figs and a gratin dauphinois. Fantastic. I also received Harry Potter II and III in french. Went afterwards to a very strange bar that looked like something out of a New Orleans bayou.  A great birthday and a fitting way to celebrate 1/4 of a century.

Marseilles and the Q-tip

Marseilles is the oldest city in France, it also has the oldest port on the Mediterranean ocean, and the largest modern port in all of Europe. The city was built around the Vieux-Port which was where my hostel was located. After checking in I went out exploring the city which is very different than Grenoble. The streets are busier, dirtier, and more hostile.

The Vieux-port of Marseilles

I can't remember the name of this cathedral but it was one of the
most beautiful that I've ever seen in Europe. Very haunting inside.

The church at the top of the hill is the Notre Dame de la Garde.
It overlooks the entire city.

Had a lavande de Provence Ice cream in the old part of the city. Bought some soap, which is the specialty of Marseilles and ate lots of seafood (I actually didn't like the Bouillabaisse, too fishy). While out getting a pastis (a terrible combination of liquorice liquor, water, and sugar that everyone in Marseilles drinks) I met a couple (one Marseillais and the other from Ohio) who told me about a fantastic adventure that I had to do. Apparently there is a Portuguese man who owns a restaurant far away on a rocky beach and there are no roads to get there. He boats in every morning. When the weather is bad he puts all the food in a backpack and hikes there. They told me to get the spaghetti bolognese and the rosé. They drew out the route on the map that I luckily had in my pocket.

In my hostel I met a man from Portland who spoke French and wanted to come with me. I allowed it only as long as he only spoke french to me. Gotta learn somehow. We took two different city buses and then a private shuttle to get to the end of the road where the Calanques (rocky inlets) are located.

This was the end of the road where the shuttle stopped.
We had  to hike from here.

Hiking to the Calanches. 

Once there we had a climb along the jagged coastline for about an hour before we finally came to a shallow inlet where lo and behold there was a restaurant right on the beach.

The restaurant didn't even have a name.

This was the ocean front table where my Portlandian friend and I had lunch.

The islands off the coast of Marseilles.

For 17 Euros I had spaghetti bolognese, salade vert, une baguette, magret du porc, fromage, and two glasses of rosé. The restaurant could have charged ANYTHING that they wanted, it was such a destination, but somehow they keep their prices down. After a fantastic meal we went swimming in the freezing sea right at our feet. Dried off in the sun and then headed back to civilization. At the shuttle stop back at the start of the trail we found this man.

My Crepe Chef.

A frenchman from Breton whose dream was to ride his motorcycle along route 66. He made me a delicious crepes sucré.

On the bus ride back, I was talking to a girl in French when I found out that she was from Seattle, and not just that, but she lives about three blocks from me. Her friend with her was from Portland. They had just finished 27 months of the Peace Corps in Morocco and were couchsurfing in France. Obviously this was too great of a coincidence to just brush off so we decided to join them and their french host. They were heading to Notre Dame de la Garde, the huge, grand cathedral overlooking the city of Marseilles. We took a bus to the top and had a 360 degree view of the entire region which was breathtaking.

I also forgot to mention that I was wearing that ridiculous "French " shirt
that my mom bought for me. It doesn't look half bad though.
Oh and I got a bad sunburn.

Afterwards, while heading to get some ice cream we heard a roaring sound and were soon swept up in the election night madness. People honking cars and screaming. Flags everywhere. We escaped that and they wanted to go get dinner. I was close to my hostel and I still had my backpack from the day and was salty from the ocean. I ran home, took a shower, and was cleaning my ears out with a q-tip (an unfortunate addiction that I have) when suddenly something happened that has never happened to me before. The cotton part of the q-tip COMPLETELY separated from the shaft in my ear. It was stuck. I couldn't get it out, I couldn't hear. There was nothing that I could do so I threw caution to the winds and went back out into the world of nighttime Marseilles.

Crêpes salé, Cidre, Crêpes sucré, Glace. Very difficult conversations with french people since I couldn't hear.

Went home, woke up and hopped back on a train to Grenoble. It was only 1 Euro to upgrade to 1st class. Totally worth it. Got to Grenoble with tweezers being the only thing on my mind. Didn't work. Read online that olive oil will help get it out. Only result: a really oily ear and face. Only avenue left, journey into the terrifying world of foreign healthcare.

After seeing two different nurses (neither of whom spoke a word of English) who couldn't find a tweezers long enough to fit in my big ears I was sent to a specialist. For 37 Euro and lots of enduring French people laughing at me, Dr. Chion pulled out a huge wad of cotton from my ear and Voilà! I could hear again. He even checked the other ear because he didn't believe that it was ok. Then he made me promise in French that I would never do it again.

And so ended one of the most exciting few days I've had in a long time. Thank you Marseilles and to everyone for their Birthday wishes.