Weekend 5 - Calanques and Avignon! And Caumont!

On Saturday, I went to the Calanques of Sugiton with my friends Monica and Chris. The Calanques are technically off the shore of Marseille. The trek was a lot longer than any of us expected, so my other companions brought almost no food and one of them didn't even bring any water! We were really lucky that I went to Monoprix that morning and got myself some cheese, fruit, and chips (I knew I was going to be hungry). It was definitely a lesson to be learned - always be prepared!

The views were so beautiful though. After we got to the Marseille train station, we had to take the metro and another city bus to get to the entrance of this park. And then we had to walk about an hour to get to the actual Calanques. Needless to say, I was extremely exhausted by the end of the day!

The view was so worth it though! The water was INCREDIBLY cold, like colder than refreshing, but I'm still glad I went. I am so tan now!

(I'm the little green person waving. See that rock behind me? I jumped off of that! It was really scary and I got a wedgie)

The worst part was the first 10 minutes on the way back, because we had to hike this huge rocky mountain line, and it was absolutely exhausting. Once we got to the park, it was thirty million times better because the trails were flat and the area was shady, but oh gosh, that first area without water and after swimming for 3 hours in the sun... awful awful awful. 

 On Sunday, I went to Avignon! They are having a Theatre Festival there. I had never been because the last time I was supposed to go, I had a class field trip. So Iku and I went! We got there super early in the morning when none of the stores were open and the streets were empty. It really is a very pretty town though! Everywhere as decorated with posters of showings. They call it, "OFF" because it's "Off-Broadway."

When we got there, none of the buildings were open, so we spent a good amount of time looking for the market (everywhere has a morning market!) and we FINALLY found it. Turns out it's indoors, which is pretty cool. Do you see those theater posters?? 

After, Iku and I decided to go to the archeology museum. We actually did most of our activities on very little money because I literally didn't have any. I only brought like 35 euros and the majority of that went into the bus fare which was a lot more expensive than I expected. Anyway, so I only had like, 10 euros to spend the entire day, so we went to this museum for 1 euro. It was cool!

The architecture in Avignon really is beautiful!

Next, we found this free conference about theater and stuff. It was here that I realized that some French people really like to talk. Like they really love hearing themselves talk. They were going on and on and on and on, and I understood the words but couldn't make the connections as to what they were saying in my head. It didn't help that Iku and I were also very tired (after waking up at like 5:30 that morning), and actually Iku fell asleep during this conference but it was still nice to listen to French people talk even if we were getting hungry, irritable, tired, and impatient for them to finish, haha. 

After our little picnic lunch, we wanted to go to the Jean Vilar house, but it was still closed for lunch, so we stopped by the Hotel de Ville (city hall) instead! It is so regal! The flags from left to right: EU, France, Provence. And the giant French flag says Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (liberty, equality, brotherhood). 

After Jean Vilar, we stopped by the Palais de Pepe. It's super expensive to get in, but the outside looked just as impressive! And anyway, it probably couldn't beat the Sagrade Familia, so I'm not too brokenhearted.

We found a park with this amazing view of everything around the city.

Monday morning I didn't have my writing class, so I decided to visit the Caumont Centre d'Art. It was so pretty! It was probably my favorite art exhibit I've been to on my entire trip.

This is a pretty garden inside the center!

I went by myself so I had to make due with crappy selfies. Haha.

And there it was, my last weekend in Aix! Tuesday is Bastille Day, which I'm super excited for! It's the French Day of independence, so there's going to be a parade, and a ball, and fireworks! Here's to my last week in Aix!

-Cindy