Exactly a week after we arrived in Lausanne we took off with the group for a week-long educational field trip to the south of France. We were probably still a little jet-lagged and were definitely still adjusting to this new lifestyle, but we had a really fantastic time. I mean, it is the south of France after all. The warm sunshine, the sparkling Mediterranean, the excellent food, plenty to see and do and learn--what's not to love?
This was our first stop upon arriving in Marseille. We're in front of Palais Longchamp, constructed to celebrate the creation of the Canal de Marseille in the middle of the 19th century. Our tour guide was fond of saying that Marseille is "the water city." Note the pink dolphin celebrating to the right of Mark's shoulder. The great thing about traveling with the students is we always have built-in photographers to take pictures of us standing in front of things. And we return the favor, of course. Try to imagine how long a "quick stop" to take a few pictures turns out to be when you have two tour buses full of enthusiastic students and chaperones!
Weary pilgrims hiking up to Cathedral Notre-Dame de la Garde. As you can see, it sits on a hill above the rest of Marseille and can be seen from many parts of the city. As we were leaving the cathedral to go to lunch, we were met with a torrential downpour that is apparently "very, very rare" for this usually sunny region. Fortunately, we enjoyed more typical weather for the remainder of the trip.
The highlight of our day trip to lovely Aix-en-Provence was seeing this seemingly random hole in the floor of the Aix Cathedral. Oh wait, it's a baptistry dating back to around 500 AD. Mark, having recently preached on and having taken an entire grad school course on baptism, was pretty much freaking out. We spent a good portion of our free time that day talking to our tour guide about how awesome it was to see a baptistry that was this old. And that's why all of the student's family members will be getting beautiful Provençal tablecloths for Christmas and ours will have to make do with a framed photo of an old baptistry.
Our planned boat trip to Château d'If, made famous by
The Count of Monte Cristo, was thwarted by strong winds, which meant we had more time to spend hiking around one of the other Frioul islands off the coast of Marseille.
You can't put Pepperdine kids near this much water and expect them to not dive in. It was a little too chilly for swimming in my humble opinion, so we enjoyed sitting on the beach and talking to the students who were equally cowardly.
A shot of the Marseille Cathedral (not to be confused with her hilltop cousin), taken from the top of the newly opened Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations. The museum was designed so that the top of the outdoor structure (which you see at the bottom of the photo) would look like the ocean leading up to the cathedral from this vantage point. Marseille has the distinction of being the "European Capital of Culture" for 2013, so there were lots of interesting exhibits and projects on display while we were there. This museum, however, was by far my favorite. The exhibits were excellent and the building itself was really remarkable.
An ice cream crepe washed down with Evian water. Just in case there are any doubts that we really were in France.
Stay tuned for Part Deux!
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