Vacation from Vacation

I may be living it up in Paris for two months, but it's not all fun and games. This trip is, in reality, a course for credit, and we're doing real work here. All the trips we take outside of Paris are organized around visits to specific architecture projects that we are documenting and analyzing. But don't worry, we do set aside some time to relax and have fun, such as this past weekend, when we were in Marseille. While the reason for traveling to Marseille was to visit the Belle de Mai Friche project, we had plenty of extra time to wander the city, hike around the Calanques, and scamper around the Iles du Frioul:


Homer Simpson!


Is it just me, or is this motorcycle a wee bit too small?


Gorgeous.


You can't camp, smoke, or barbecue in the Calanques, but you can fall off a cliff, get hit by a falling tree branch, or get caught in a rock slide.


Do you see the little bay at the bottom of the "V" formed by the Mediterranean and the hillsides? The one waaaaayyy far away from where this picture was taken? We hiked down to that.


...We're getting closer to the water...


...But first we have to repel down this 15' face...


... And we're there!












The Iles du Frioul.


Our swimming spot here was MUCH easier to get to than the one in the Calanques.


The seagulls on the island were VERY protective of their babies. A couple of us got dive-bombed when we got too close, but fortunately none of us came under this kind of attack.


A popular spot.