My opinion of Marseille improved in the daytime. We got up and went down to the old port to catch a little ferry out to an island off the coast of Marseille to take a tour of the Chateau d'If. If is a castle that was built in the 15th century to guard Marseille port, and later became a prison, kind of like Alcatraz. This last month I read the entire unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and in the beginning of the book the main guy, Edmond Dantes is unjustly imprisoned there for 14 years. His character is actually based on a true story. After reading that book I really wanted to go see the castle, and it wasn't too bad. There was even one of the cells with a hole in the wall to the cell next to it, which was pretty fun to imagine was Edmonds hole to the cell of Abbé Faria, although I know it's not.
After If we headed out to a really awesome hike to the Sugiton Calanque. If you don't know what a Calanque is, google it, cause it's amazing. We climbed down into a split between the fingers of the cliff into the ocean, and found a little beach at the bottom. The water was so picturesque with its clear blue surface that was clear all the way to the bottom. I felt like we were in a travel magazine. After stripping our clothes we jumped in and swam around in the absolutely freezing cold salt sea. It was quite a shock for such tropical looking water to be so cold. It was a glorious place. We climbed a rock and cliff jumped a bit, and were entertained watching a funny French man try to get his dog to jump off the cliff with him. Everyone watching laughed and clapped when he would throw a stick and jump off, and the dog would quickly run down the side of the rock and take the easy way into the sea. Finally he got him to jump off once and the crowd cheered. It was delightful fun.
I never thought I'd say this but I actually think I like the north of France better than the south. Even after having a great day here in the sun with outstanding weather, I still think I prefer the beautiful scenery and forests of the Loire Valley. It's too hot and the drivers are completely insane, unlike the north. Provence is great for a little vacation but life here seems "less livable" in Garrett's words. I agree. As we drive Garrett talks about how Nantes is is heaven on earth because the city is clean and the people are nice. We both notice how the sun is still setting and it's 10pm. Earlier we talked about what castle we'd live in if we had a choice and endless money to renovate. I personally would choose Usse for location and it's almost cottage-y personality, but if we were going in on it together we'd pick Chambord, because Garrett has big plans for all that space. It has enough grass for an airfield too. I think it's too marshy and seriously lacking garden appeal, but that can be fixed I guess. Garrett would even divert the Loire river to come right to his door so he could speedboat up to Paris, just like the French King who built it planned to do. I hope someday we get to make our own little home, whatever it's size, into our palace and continue to live happily ever after.
Nimes ampitheater
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