Marseille: Notre Dame de la Garde

Last Saturday, Caitlin and I went to Marseille for the day. It started out a beautiful day with clear blue skies. When we got there, we ate lunch at a sidewalk cafe in the old port. We both had tuna steaks, which was actually one of the best meals we've had in Europe, and also one of the cheapest! Afterwards, we had ice cream at a traditional French Haagen-Dazs.

After eating, we went take a touristy little train up to Notre Dame de la Garde, a church built on top of a 400 meter high hill in Marseille. Going up the hill offered some pretty spectacular views.

Here are a few impressive figures about the church:

The church was absolutely beautiful inside, with some fantastic golden mosaics. It was actually rather small on the inside. Definitely smaller than St. Paul's in Pittsburgh, and probably pretty similar to St. Mary Magdalene's in Humble.

What a view! At this point it was getting colder and windier, so we took our little train back down the hill and checked out La Bourse, Marseille's famous shopping mall, where we tried on some very stylish hats.

After Caitlin finished torturing me with shopping (just kidding), we took the bus back to Aix. Being able to take these little weekend trips has been one of my favorite things about studying abroad. Next week, we are hoping to climb Mont St. Victoire!