Nov 30 2008
in which I wander around marseille
Things I learned from my day in Marseille (well, actually, I have no idea whether any of these are true, it’s just stuff I observed, so…take with several grains of salt?):
- French people like dogs. A lot. I saw one in a McDonalds, for instance, and also saw a St. Bernard and a Great Dane, both of which are in the small-pony branch of dogs. French people also don’t clean up after their dogs when they poop on the sidewalk. (This might not have been dog doo, actually, but whatever it was, it showed up all over the place.)
- It rains all the time in Marseille. Poured from about noon on yesterday and rained for a while today. At least people here actually deal with this and bring out their umbrellas. On campus in Norwich, where it rains at least once a week, 3/4 of the students will run around in the rain without an umbrella. (And actually the hostel owner tells me it’s sunny 200+ days of the year. Guess it’s…just me then?)
- There are a lot of homeless people here. More than one person was camped out down at the Vieux Port, under an overhang in blankets and sleeping bags and stuff. An old church in the Panier quarter had somebody else’s sleeping bag spread out. Lots of others asking for money. Also some lady in the market tried to talk to me and, like, show me her baby? I assume she wanted money since I don’t speak French. And then she grabbed my sleeve when I was shaking me head, so that was definitely a no.
- Everyone smokes. Oh wait, that’s not a France thing, that’s a FREAKING EVERYONE IN EUROPE thing. I swear, everyone on this gorram continent must have a pack-a-day habit. (At least they don’t do it indoors like in Turkey.)
- Speaking of which, Turkey, or at least Istanbul, apparently takes a lot of its cues from France. Maybe that’s just both being Mediterranean, I don’t know, although technically Istanbul’s not on the Med at all.
- The French do street signs way better than the English. Still not quite as good as in the US, I think, but the main point is that they have street signs at every intersection. It’s wonderful.
