Marseille, France

While we were staying in Lyon, we took a day trip down to Marseille. It took just under two hours by train to get there.

As soon as we got out of the train station, it was SO hot and humid! We knew it was going to be hot, but we did not anticipate the humidity! Or the smells! We exited the train station and started walking down the street and the smell of sewage and garbage was SO overpowering! Very disgusting!

We walked down the road a bit and stopped by a bakery for a snack. Then we walked down to the water.

There was a ton of boats in the port! Everything from junky little dinghies to large expensive looking yachts!

Cathedral Saint-Marie-Majeur de Marseille.

After visiting the Cathedral Saint-Marie-Majeur de Marseille, we decided to take the bus along the waterfront and up a very steep hill to Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde. Since it was so hot (and almost 3 miles, mostly up a steep hill) we didn't really want to walk that far. 

It was a very interesting bus ride because the bus seemed to go kinda fast and made these very, very, sharp turns where it seemed like there was no way the bus was going to fit! But, it did and we were greeted with a pretty great view.

Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde.

I really thought I took more pictures inside the church, but apparently this is all I took! It was a pretty big place. It had the large sanctuary which is pictured above, and it also had a lower one as well. It was kinda dark and creepy in the lower one since it was in the basement! 

Once we were done walking around the church, I was feeling pretty terrible. I don't handle the heat very well, and with the high humidity, I wasn't feeling the greatest.  So we took the bus back down the hill and found a place to eat some lunch. 

We came across an American bagel sandwich place, so we stopped there. The food wasn't the greatest, but it was nice to finally have something to eat. We sat there in the air conditioning for a bit before deciding to walk to the beach.

The beach ended up being pretty small and really crowded with people. It looked man-made too. My dad and I waited on a bench while my mom, sister, and brother went down to put their feet in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Once we did that, we didn't really know what else to do. We still had maybe 5 or so hours until our train left to go back to Lyon, so we walked to a park and sat in the shade for a little while. There was a bit of a breeze on the hill, so that was pretty nice. And the view wasn't too bad.

So, we admired the view for a bit, then decided we were bored of that and walked back into town. We stopped at a shop that sold French soap (my mom wanted to get some French lavender soap) So we did that, wandered around town for a while, then ended up at McDonalds because it was air conditioned. Everyone was pretty tired of the heat, and we didn't know where else to go, so we sat there for a while before heading to the train station to go back to Lyon. 

I wasn't real impressed with Marseille. I think it would have been a little bit better had it not been so hot and humid, and the smells certainly didn't help. The city itself is really really dirty. There was garbage literally everywhere and the stench of sewage was horrible. It is definitely not a place you want to be wandering around alone at night! 

We did get to see some neat sights. Both of the churches we visited were pretty neat and it was cool to see the Mediterranean Sea. I know there are some neat places around Marseille too, but I don't think I would go back. 

Considering this was really the only 'dud' in our trip, I would say we didn't do too bad!

Lyon, France

Next up on our trip was Lyon, France. We were all excited to visit Lyon because that is where my brother had spent the last year going to school. We were very interested in seeing where my brother had been living and why he liked Lyon so much! 

We spent a total of four days in Lyon, with one day being a day trip to Marseille, (that post will be coming soon.) and then we had another day trip planned to go to Switzerland, but unfortunately that ended up not working out. We had booked a rental car before we left, but when we went to pick it up there were all these fees and the car was going to be well over $200 for one day! So we ended up just staying in Lyon and doing some shopping and walking around.

When we first arrived, we checked into our Airbnb apartment and then set out to explore Lyon! The nice thing about being in Lyon is we had a pretty good tour guide! Michael knew all kinds of neat things to see and do.

Lyon is the French capital of mural painting and has many interesting murals painted all over the city. This one featured 25 historical figures and characters. It, of course, had Le Petit Prince and the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

A building in Place des Terreaux.

 Hôtel de Ville (city hall)in Lyon.

 Fourvière on the hill.

On our next day in Lyon, we came across this market set up along the river. We all enjoyed walking through it! There was so many beautiful flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables, and meats and cheeses.

Market in Lyon.

The fruit smelled SO good!

 Bridge over the Saône.

 Palais de justice historique in Lyon.

 The Pink Tower.

We took a tram up the hill so we could visit the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. I somehow managed to not get a picture of the outside, but the inside was extremely beautiful. It was definitely my favorite church that we visited while in France!

 The view from the top of the hill by Fourvière.

We then walked over to the Ancient Theatre of Fourvière. It was built around 15BC.

The theater is still in use and while we were there they were setting up for a summer concert series.

The view from by the theater.

Another mural in Lyon. Yes, the entire thing is a mural! Even the stores and 'buildings'. It was very neat to see!

We all really liked visiting Lyon! It seems so many people view France only as Paris. Meaning, a lot of people seem to think that Paris is the only place to visit in France, then I think you are really missing out! France is SO much more than Paris. 

Lyon was a great city! It isn't very touristy (which is GREAT!), but there is still a ton to do there. I would definitely go back to Lyon and I definitely recommend visiting! 

Mont Saint-Michel and Dinan

We woke up early and drove out to Mont Saint-Michel. It took us about an hour and a half to get there from where we were staying in Vierville-sur-Mer. 

The French countryside is beautiful! We enjoyed the drive because of the scenery. Lots of neat little villages and rolling hills.

We were driving along when we came around a corner and then we saw it! I had always thought Mont Saint-Michel looked really cool and it was always somewhere we all wanted to visit.

We parked in a large parking lot, then took a shuttle to the island.

It was really windy when we got off the bus on the bridge. And the tide was out. I bet Mont Saint-Michel looks really cool with the tide in! Not that it's any less cool with the tide out!

 Mont Saint-Michel was very neat! We enjoyed walking through the town and exploring the island. There were lots of little shops and cafes to visit too! Definitely a place you should stop if you're in France! It's at the top of our lists as one of our favorite places we visited. 

As we were leaving Mont Saint-Michel, we spotted this store. We all like the St Michel cookies, so we had to stop! We ended up buying a lot of stuff! Cookies, Madeleines, and some butter caramel sauce. Definitely a great place to stop! (It's right by the entrance to the parking lot of Mont Saint-Michel.)

From Mont Saint-Michel, it was about 50 minutes out to Dinan. My mom and brother had read about Dinan online, and we thought we would check it out. It's a really neat old town.

We spent a couple hours walking around Dinan, checking out the little stores, and taking pictures (as well as stopping for some ice cream which was SO good!) before heading back to our apartment.