Hiking in France - Day 5 (Marseille, Manosque)

August 16th, 2006

Read previous "Hiking in France" posts:
Hiking in France - Day 1 (Paris)
Hiking in France - Day 2 (Paris, Marseilles)
Hiking in France - Day 3 (Marseilles, Cassis, Calanques)
Hiking in France - Day 4 (Cassis, les Calanques)

Here's Kayla's journal for our fifth day of traveling in France:

Today we left Cassis at 8 a.m. and were lucky to catch a bus (€5,40 for both of us) to Marseille. We got off at Rond Point du Prado and took the metro to Gare St. Charles. We bought our train tickets to Manosque for €29 which left at 1:35, so by the time we finished our late breakfast we had three hours or so to explore Marseille. This time we actually saw some of the city instead of just the metro! We mailed a postcard, stopped at a bookstore to find our GR4 book (to no avail), then found an internet place for €2 per hour where we spent 30 minutes. We then walked down a dirty, noisy construction zone to the port and back. This city had so much garbage in the streets. I’ve seen women begging for money as well as older men. There were also a lot of North Africans in town. So many people out it’s crazy. A lot of people smoke—young beautiful women addicted to cigarettes—yuck! Even some smoke with their little kids around. I also noticed a Muslim couple sitting on the sidewalk. She was fully dressed in black robes and was stopped to nurse their baby (very modestly of course). I was glad to see that.

The train to Manosque was muggy—I slept most of the way because last night I had a very hard time going to sleep. Before the train left the station I used the bathroom after which I saw a sign in several languages that said “It is forbidden to use the toilet while the train is in the station”. Then I saw that it was not a real toilet but just an opening to the ground! Whoops!

So arriving in Manosque we walked about thirty minutes to the Centre Ville and found the tourist office and found a map and the GR4 book we needed. We then came to our campground which is to the southwest of town about 25 minutes from the center. Very few people camping compared to Cassis—in fact ours is the only tent—others are in campers and RV’s.

We went back to town (without gear—yeah!) for a real restaurant dinner—our first of the trip—costing €23 and very nice food. I had noodles with a cheese sauce and salad while James ate salad, fish with vegetables and shared the apple pie desert. James went right to sleep after our showers but I did my laundry and hung it out on the line and have been writing a lot as you can see!

I’m hearing frogs tonight—the last two nights in Cassis it was pigeons all night. It is rather windy which makes for a chilly evening. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep better tonight because James wants to leave by 7 a.m. An early morning with a 15 kilometer walk to Greoux-les-Bains.