Day 15

July 11, 2013

I miss Mexican food… This statement doesn’t have a whole lot to do with my day, but it does illustrate the fact that I am starting to miss some of the comforts of home (mainly nachos). I think the honeymoon phase of the trip has started to wear off for most of us here. In the past few days I’ve caught others and myself talking about Mexican food, macaroni and cheese, and simple Southern-style cooked vegetables. Surprisingly, no one has mentioned missing sweet tea. I still really love France, but I think I’m getting a little tired of bread and pasta (Yes, you did read that correctly).

We had a lovely little trip to Nice today. It was even more beautiful than Marseille! My pictures don’t do the city justice at all, but Nice is exactly how I’d pictured the “French Riviera” to look. The city has a definite Italian influence, especially with its architecture and bright colors.

It took us about two hours to get there by bus. Once we arrived we stayed on the bus for a tour of the city and got off at a park near the Matisse Museum. We got to walk by a monastery and see their gardens with a great view of the city below. Then we hopped back on the bus and were dropped off at the market for two hours of free time to get lunch and go shopping. Another comfort of home that I’m starting to miss is speedy service. I understand that time is viewed differently here, but we spent almost all of our free time at a restaurant getting lunch. Molly and I only had about 20 minutes left in Nice to visit a few touristy shops before we had to be back on the bus. It's definitely a city that I'd like to explore more some other time.

Many of our classmates are staying in Nice for the weekend or staying for the day and then leaving to go on weekend trips to Monaco or Italy. Molly and I are leaving for our weekend trip out of Marseille, so we got back on the bus with some other members of our group and went to the village of Grasse, France to tour a perfume factory. It was definitely the nicest smelling factory I’ve ever been to! I’ve never really been interested in perfumes or scents, but it was cool to see how much work goes into making a bottle of perfume.

After the tour we got back on the bus and came home to Marseille. We arrived at about 7:00 and have since been getting ready to travel tomorrow. We’re planning on waking up bright and early at 5:00 so we can get out of Marseille on time.

I’ve had a lot of fun being vague about our weekend travel plans so that I could surprise you all… I guess you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to see where we end up going!