Last time Marseille?
Door: Stéphanie
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Stéphanie
04 November 2010 | Frankrijk, Marseille
With all the people I met and I had around me, I decided to prolong my stay in Marseille. Therefore this last episode; about a summer in the south of France.
July was hot, the sea was like a shower and I was fried. August hot as well, but more often we have had the mistral wind which is always welcome during the hot summer but which also made the sea less warm. And what about the rain; I don’t know what that means. September still always good for a dive, but less need to take a fixed route downtown to stay in the shadow because the sun is less hot during the day. But the weather became a bit unpredictable: when the morning started cloudy or rainy, at noon it was already over. And I could no longer count on the sea as before. It had unexpected water currents that supplied ample jellyfish: during my last swim I was finally bitten by them.
Since the weather was always nice, we preferred to close our shutters to prevent the heat from entering our sitting room. As we closed them in the morning and the neighbor always had his turn in the afternoon, our conversations had much been reduced. Except occasionally when one of us was lucky, a garlic clove reached my head (again!) or I (or my roommate) sprinkled the neighbor whit a downpipe.
Luckily there were always the cooler evenings where we really met the neighborhood for a drink or a bite together.
At the end of the summer I met some people who played guitar and percussion at the port. I liked to join them and later on we had dinner together (always going on making music); a bbq in the small street where they lived in little dollhouses, with fresh fish since the R is back in the month and where I discovered the taste of the New Caledonian kitchen!
In the small harbor Vallon des Auffes, after almost everybody from Marseille had left, because there were always people staying for an apero “on the rocks”, I often came for a sunset swim. When the night is too hot I joined the fishermen in a Zenposition or next to where radio ‘Frog’ (88.8FM) shook the terraces and not to forget; the roller skaters who passed the small port at midnight on the corniche. I didn’t leave Marseille because I did not have a reason to go elsewhere. Nevertheless I made some small excursions like wild camping at the Porquerolles island (with my roommate Marion) where the sea almost hit our tent and made me drunk with the sound of the waves all night long or second one to the Calanques where the only summer shower surprised me in my sleeping bag when I was sleeping under the sky (lucky me it lasted just a minute).
We’ll see
We’ll see, people often say in Marseille to hold off undesirable appointments. I learned not to count on people but to wait and see. They are, however, very good in last minute invititations: for dinner when I just had mine or for an excursion when I just woke up and was still in piyamas. When we had an appointment to start together very early in the morning, they didn’t start at all or a second time they started without me. I was Lucky to get to know a guy who came from Paris whom I could count on. When he promised me a raspberry cake for my birthday I could really eat it on my birthday.
But as people from the south always do everything at the last moment you can have your turn in keeping them waiting. The day of our departure we were late with emptying the appartment and our neighbour who invited us to dinner waited for us until 11.30 p.m. And still late I arrived at a friend’s place, who was to drive me to the airpor, to discover that the entire street was still up to be able to say goodbye……
On departure day my friends in the neighborhood had handkerchiefs in their hands: not because of my departure but because my cold probably contaminated them during the last dinners together. So I used tissues as well? No, I was already cured of my cold and on top of that I was sure to come back soon!
July was hot, the sea was like a shower and I was fried. August hot as well, but more often we have had the mistral wind which is always welcome during the hot summer but which also made the sea less warm. And what about the rain; I don’t know what that means. September still always good for a dive, but less need to take a fixed route downtown to stay in the shadow because the sun is less hot during the day. But the weather became a bit unpredictable: when the morning started cloudy or rainy, at noon it was already over. And I could no longer count on the sea as before. It had unexpected water currents that supplied ample jellyfish: during my last swim I was finally bitten by them.
Since the weather was always nice, we preferred to close our shutters to prevent the heat from entering our sitting room. As we closed them in the morning and the neighbor always had his turn in the afternoon, our conversations had much been reduced. Except occasionally when one of us was lucky, a garlic clove reached my head (again!) or I (or my roommate) sprinkled the neighbor whit a downpipe.
Luckily there were always the cooler evenings where we really met the neighborhood for a drink or a bite together.
At the end of the summer I met some people who played guitar and percussion at the port. I liked to join them and later on we had dinner together (always going on making music); a bbq in the small street where they lived in little dollhouses, with fresh fish since the R is back in the month and where I discovered the taste of the New Caledonian kitchen!
In the small harbor Vallon des Auffes, after almost everybody from Marseille had left, because there were always people staying for an apero “on the rocks”, I often came for a sunset swim. When the night is too hot I joined the fishermen in a Zenposition or next to where radio ‘Frog’ (88.8FM) shook the terraces and not to forget; the roller skaters who passed the small port at midnight on the corniche. I didn’t leave Marseille because I did not have a reason to go elsewhere. Nevertheless I made some small excursions like wild camping at the Porquerolles island (with my roommate Marion) where the sea almost hit our tent and made me drunk with the sound of the waves all night long or second one to the Calanques where the only summer shower surprised me in my sleeping bag when I was sleeping under the sky (lucky me it lasted just a minute).
We’ll see
We’ll see, people often say in Marseille to hold off undesirable appointments. I learned not to count on people but to wait and see. They are, however, very good in last minute invititations: for dinner when I just had mine or for an excursion when I just woke up and was still in piyamas. When we had an appointment to start together very early in the morning, they didn’t start at all or a second time they started without me. I was Lucky to get to know a guy who came from Paris whom I could count on. When he promised me a raspberry cake for my birthday I could really eat it on my birthday.
But as people from the south always do everything at the last moment you can have your turn in keeping them waiting. The day of our departure we were late with emptying the appartment and our neighbour who invited us to dinner waited for us until 11.30 p.m. And still late I arrived at a friend’s place, who was to drive me to the airpor, to discover that the entire street was still up to be able to say goodbye……
On departure day my friends in the neighborhood had handkerchiefs in their hands: not because of my departure but because my cold probably contaminated them during the last dinners together. So I used tissues as well? No, I was already cured of my cold and on top of that I was sure to come back soon!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
