Thornock Happenings 2016: France Trip Post #9

Thursday, May 22nd

Because we got in so late from Paris the night before, we took it easy this day. We slept in and planned to do some things around Vieux Port.

First thing was first. We got up, ate some breakfast, and headed over to steal the internet from Quick to check our email and things. And we got the BEST news! Spencer has been accepted to Central Michigan University's medical school!!! Oh my goodness, we were both so excited! It just made our day (week, month, and year) to find out!

Spencer with his acceptance email! Look how happy he is! :) I'm so proud of him!

From there, we walked to the Abbey of St. Victor. Its earliest foundations date back to like 400 something AD, with newer construction added on or replacing older structures. By newer, I mean from like the 1200s. All that remains today is the church with crypts underneath. I really wanted to see some crypts while we were in France, so this Abbey was on my must-see list. I have to say, it was probably the most under-rated thing around Vieux Port and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Marseille. We walked around the cathedral and eventually decided that the guy wandering around in there wasn't crazy, and he was the one to talk to (and pay) to go down into the crypts. :) It was only 2 euros a person. The cathedral was very old and less elaborate than a lot of them, but it was pretty in its own way. Also, there were these human bones in one of the window displays. No idea whose they were, but there were fingers and parts of a skull. Weird.

We headed down into the crypts and had a nice, quiet look around. We were the only ones there for most of the time. It was pretty amazing to see the relics from so long ago and try to imagine what life was like for those people.

When we'd had our fill of the crypts we walked back to our apartment. We passed a little bakery and grocery store on the way home and picked up a baguette and some cheese to go with our lunch. We warmed up the rest of our frozen rice dish (paella) and listed to our book for a while.

Another thing we were told to go check out is a district just across the port called La Panier. According to the guide of a tourist group we passed, the district used to be full of prostitutes and poverty and then they cleaned it up after one of the world wars. Or something. It wasn't very impressive. Mostly a bunch of narrow streets with shabby-looking buildings and some shops. On our way home we stopped by a patisserie to pick up some pastries, which we brought home to celebrate Spencer's acceptance into school. :)

We ate our pastries and listened to our book some more.

That evening we went to visit Sister Gregory, a woman Spencer served during his mission. She is a very sweet, if not eccentric, old lady who lives by herself. Today her son was staying with her because he was recovering from knee surgery. His recovery wasn't going well, so she asked Spencer if he could help give him a blessing. The missionaries came over to help with the blessing and then Sister Gregory got us all pizza and ice cream. After the visit she offered to drive us to the metro stop since it was getting dark and she was going to drive the missionaries home anyway. I think we almost died. She is probably the worst driver I have ever been in a car with. And driving in France is crazy anyway. We survived in the end though. :) We got home and into bed because we had a fairly early start ahead of us the next morning.