I HAVE AN APT!

HELLO!

LOTS of exciting things have happened over the past few days!!   I'll make a list of them.

1) I GOT AN APARTMENT.  Steph and I now have a place to live!  It is adorable, with two bedrooms, plus a futon sofa, a bathroom, a kitchen, etc.  Plus we have internet and electricity, no worries about waiting to set that up.  CANNOT wait to move in!  Here are some pictures:

dining room/main area

kitchen

2) Contrary to popular belief, I am not in Nice, or Paris.  I am in the region of Nice, but I am in Toulon!  

3) Dad and I discovered the French holiday of "Journées du Patrimoine'' - the Days of Patrimony, or communal history.  This meant that almost everything was free, that the trains were really cheap (5 Euros to Marseille and back!), and that many public offices were open.  We took the cheap train to Marseille and upon arrival, maps in hand, we set out to discover the city on foot.  Since it was free, we took a free tour of the Hotel de Ville and even got to go into the Mayor of Marseille's office !!!  Here we are on the balcony of his office, you can see the port of Marseille behind us:

4) We furthermore discovered EXACTLY HOW HILLY Marseille is ... very!  Dad and I figured that we walked about 5 or 6 miles by the end of the day.  My favorite part was our pre-dinner hike to see Notre Dame de la Garde, a church at the top of a hill that looks over the port of Marseille.  We didn't fully realize how high up the church was, and that our trek would include seemingly endless city sidewalks and flights of stairs.  As we trudged up the hill, Dad asked "Are you doing this in honor of Armance?" (Armance is my French host sister from my stay in Paris, one of my best friends, and a devout Catholic.)  "What??" I asked.  "A long hike on foot to see a Christian icon..." he elaborated.  This was a great way to think of our trek and of Armance and we finally made it up in time to catch the sunset from Notre Dame de la Garde.

Notre Dame de la Garde - from behind

View of the port with the sunset from ND

Notre Dame

6) The next excitement of the weekend was unplanned: Dad and I left our hotel Sunday morning in search of some fruit from the market for breakfast, and decided to continue to walk around Toulon a bit.  As we walked past the port, we noticed that there was a big sign for the “Journees de Patrimoine,” so we approached the gate to find out what Toulon was doing to celebrate.  We were greeted by three military sailors in dress uniform who informed us we could tour the frigate St. Jean.  The line was about twenty minutes to board the ship, but it soon proved to be well worth-it.  Dad had many questions and I served as a translator.  We learned that 250 sailors man the ship, of which only 4 are women (and all the women are officers).  I got to sit in the captains navigational seat in one of the many control rooms.  Dad may or may not have taken my picture, which you may or may not be able to see (depending on its existence), but if such a picture exists, it will absolutely not be on Facebook as we were informed that photos of the interior of the ship are not allowed on the social networks. ;)

Mucho amore til the next time,

Xoxo

Samantha