Wanderlust: The One Where I'm in Lyon

I was at Marseille, the second largest city in France, for the weekend of September 17th. Yep, still can’t get enough of the beach. I think I am finally drawing the line of getting tanned after this trip. I seriously have horrendous tan lines on my body. I have an odd-looking watch tan, which I tried to even out in Marseille (by not applying any sun screen on that little part), but I obviously failed. I also have a TOMS shoe tan and leg tans. I guess I got what I wished for.. I’ve been working on looking tanned since I was even back in Vancouver. Who knew it was easier to get it done here in France. Lol.

Anyway, I had a blast. I went with Diana, another Diana (she’s from Seattle), Bridget (Aussie), and Jiseon (Korean). We stayed at Vieux Port Hostel and it was actually better than the hostel I stayed at in Annecy. We had our own washroom now to ourselves and the bunk beds were good too.

Outside the train station with Jiseon, Diana, Diana, and Bridget!

I wish we could have spent more time in Marseille so we could have gone to see the Calanques de Marseille, which was supposed to be extremely beautiful. They truly are even just basing it on the photos I saw. 🙁 I wanted to see the Palais Longchamp as well, but it was under renovation…… Again, looked amazing on photos. Sigh, maybe next time. 🙁

We ended up exploring the city (and getting lost). We passed by places such as Verite Ville, Hôtel de Ville, and other places. We also bought soap from a random store as we were told that Marseille was known for their soap. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel to change so we can hit the beach before the sun sets. On the way to the beach, we passed by the oldest bakery in Marseille too. They made simple stuff only though. Nothing spectacular, in my opinion. However, we did stop by Banette and got ourselves some yummy pastries!

The beach area we went to was called Plage des Catalans. I didn’t bother getting into the water. Based on my friends’ reactions, it seemed like the water was crazy cold. I just stayed with Diana (since she didn’t bring a swimsuit) and played silly games like “Count the number of topless women on the beach” and “Count the number of men wearing speedos.” It’s funny how Diana was hit on by some random French dude too named Kad. We kept teasing her after because she was talking to the man almost the whole time we were there, and he eventually asked her out for drinks after dinner (even left her a message while we were at dinner). Hilarious. and maybe creepy at the same time. We tried to be classy as well by grabbing some wine and beer (on cups) and enjoying them by the beach.

The awesome pastry I bought from Banette (explosion in your mouth) and rosé wine + beer by the beach.

One cool thing that happened that day at the beach was there was a man playing the piano. It seemed so unreal since it’s like you only see those kind of things happen in the movies or like music videos, but I was so amazed. They also had random piano there for anyone to play with. All in all, it was a fun and relaxing day at the beach. By the time the sun was setting, we were all starving and ready for dinner.

Marseille is known for their unique dish called bouillabaisse (pronounced as bwee-yah-behs). I was so excited to try it because I was feeling a little adventurous that night. I read online that bouillabaisse is usually a little pricey. The cheap ones aren’t of good quality and can just be imitations. I settled with one that costed about 28euros if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, it took so much effort to eat the dish. There were three dishes: 1) the fish soup, 2) bread with cheese and some dip, and 3) seafood plate (a ton of fish, mussels, scorpion fish, and some potatoes). The waitress said you eat it by pretty much dipping everything inside the soup. I felt as if I had to stuff down soooooo much fish inside of me. Crazy.

Bouillabaisse: Fish soup, Bread plate, and Seafood plate

Other than that, the restaurant was amazing. Fresh seafood was served! Their mussels with white cream sauce was delicious. Moules et frites FTW! Their dessert was amazing as well. We had the Tiramisu and Il flotante, which are two desserts that I’m not huge fans of, but they were surprisingly delicious from that restaurant.

On the following day, we woke up early to explore more of the city. We hiked up the Notre Dame de la Garde, which gave you a 360 degree view of the city of Marseille. The view was breathtaking and marvelous. I couldn’t stop taking photos. The Notre Dame itself was beautiful with such exquisite architecture inside.

We started to head for the train station after this. We bought some food along the way though. We got tarts/flans for only 1.50euros and the slices were HUGE. Best deal ever. I also tried mahjouba with a ton of cheese inside. I have no idea what it is, but apparently, it’s an Algerian-Moroccan type of food. It was delicious though!

Mahjouba fromage, my flan, and us happy girls with our pastries!

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In other matters, I am so stoked for my Germany trip (Nüremberg and Munich) this weekend for OKTOBERFEST!!!! Can’t wait to see some familiar faces too..ahem ahem, Debbie and May!! 😀

I have also planned most of my trip for my time here in Lyon, leaving me with barely any weekends here. :/

Here’s my schedule:

Sept 29-Oct 1 = Germany (Nuremberg and Munich)
Oct 6-9 (til Tuesday) = Prague
Oct 14-15 = Brussels
1 week break = Italy (Florence, Milan, Venice, and Rome)
November 9-12 = Berlin
Nov 16-19= London
Nov 24-26 = Barcelona

Good luck to me. Cheers. HAHA.