News & Blog

A Visit to Marseille
Aix is a really quiet town and easy to cross in less than 20 minutes, but Marseille is the second largest city in France, and it was a colorful and impressive contrast for the students to discover. This year, it is the European “Capital of Culture”, so it’s permanently lively with cultural activities, live music in the street, theaters, markets, and more!
We discovered from the beautiful train station a view of Marseille with the dominant church of Notre Dame de la Garde watching over the city.
1005969_172174156294762_2141444101_n

After a walk in the streets, we went to the museum of Santon, which is showing traditional figurines made in Provence and used for Christmas. We also tasted a specialty: les navettes, biscuits in the shape of boats that were originally created to honor the arrival of the 3 saints of Provence. 8869_172174796294698_1523358746_n

To enjoy the visit of Notre Dame de la Garde, we decided to climb it’s hill and appreciate even more the beautiful view over the city, the port and the Mediterranean sea.
  

For the night, we chose a North African theme. As France is a land of immigration for a lot of North Africans, we explained to them how France once had colonies in Africa and how that history is present in the social landscape in Marseille. We went to a Morrocan restaurant and had couscous for dinner, and to close out the night we had the opportunity to see a show that recreated the central place of Marraccech, with percussions, acrobats, dancers.

-Nina Lopez