We were missing a few people, but I was really happy with the turnout and all the families and kids that showed up to walk the course. My run time wasn't bad either for as little as I have been running lately: 26:56, which is better than a 9-min mile pace for 3.1 miles. We went to lunch afterwards and then had game night at Jose's house later... great day with awesome people! :)So, back to France. Monday was the day of the shuttle launch, so after my shift ended at noon, I took off to sightsee before coming back for the launch around 8:30pm. Thanks to a Wikipedia article on "castles in France", I found one only 45 minutes north of Istres on the edge of the Alps, called Chateau des Baux. The drive there was gorgeous, and as I got closer and closer to the massive mountains, I was actually bouncing up and down in my seat. It was sooooo exciting to be off on my own with my trusty camera, to be free to explore every inch of the site and take in all the views as slowly as I wanted. My other team members were either working or didn't want to go. With the exception of the two trips I initiated, all they did on their off time was sit in their hotel rooms and watch movies. I will save going off on a tangent now, but that mindset is something I will never understand. The world is so big, and we only have one lifetime to experience it!
Chateau des Baux was an incredible site to explore because there were so many different parts of the castle, like rooms and stairwells and towers and tunnels - so exciting! And the view from the top was just breathtaking. I couldn't even begin to guess how far you can see, it felt like hundreds of miles, even with the haze. I took somewhere around 200 pictures that day, but only posted about a quarter of them (the best, of course!) here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=346357&id=701905001&l=fc040b2563
It was really cool to feel like a part of the shuttle launch that evening. We listened to radio chatter from all the different parts of the Istres TAL team out on the airfield making all of their preparations and checks to be ready for the shuttle in the case of a landing. We had NASA's video feed from Cape Canaveral on one of the laptops and it was really cool to hear the official countdown and the responses from the crews on our airfield. When it launched, we all held our breath as we heard Houston controllers announce the opening of the TAL window. We cheered the shuttle through the next few minutes, then cheered even louder when closing of the TAL window was annouced as it successfully entered orbit. Operations at Istres were officially over, so we cleaned up our equipment and headed back to the hotel before leaving the next day.
On Tuesday, my other three team members had flights out around 7:00 in the morning. My flight was at 8:20pm. I had to ride to the Marseille airport with them since neither of our rental cars were in my name, but there was no way I was sitting in an airport for 13 hours. I rented a car myself at the airport and took off for another castle on my list, the Chateau d'If, on an island off the coast of Marseille. Unfortunately, my Garmin took me straight through downtown Marseille traffic... and the car I rented was a stick shift, since it would have cost almost $200 more for an automatic. Obviously, I have gotten much better at the stick while driving Mini, but I am still really slow shifting from a stop to first, and I get nervous when other cars are behind me. Not to mention, I learned to drive stick on the other side of the car AND the other side of the street! There were a lot of tense moments and whispered prayers between the airport and finally finding a parking garage near the harbor, but I made it without causing an accident or hitting a pedestrian... a major miracle, in my opinion.
After parking the car and breathing a huge sigh of relief, I walked along the Old Harbor until I found the dock with boats headed out to the castle. I must say, I had a bad first impression of Marseille from Friday's visit, but the Old Harbor area was beautiful! Lots of traffic still, but gorgeous sailboats in the harbor, cafes with outdoor seating lining the square, old buildings and churches with beautiful architecture down every side street. There were people selling fish laid out on tables along the pier, looking like they had just been caught a few minutes ago. I glanced over at one vendor just as he whacked the head off a big fish with a huge knife... not my favorite image of the day, hehe. I bought my boat ticket, then wandered around the harbor taking pictures until it was time to board.
It was a gorgeous day in Marseille, clear skies and sunny with just that pesky haze that seemed to hover over that part of the country. I picked a seat at the back corner of the top of the boat, and was rewarded with a beautiful view of the city laid out on the coastline as we pulled farther and farther away. The wind was blowing my hair, it smelled so fresh, and the water was a brilliant shade of teal. The area actually reminded me a lot of the views of Greece I have seen in movies. The buildings were not bright white, but the layout of the city across hills and the color of the water were very similar. I'll have to go to Greece sometime and compare. :)
The Chateau d'If is on a very small island and was used as a prison for most of its existence, kind of like the medieval French version of Alcatraz. It was this castle that inspired Alexandre Dumas to write "The Count of Monte Cristo" in 1844. The book has been made into a movie several times over, but supposedly most of the filming used a castle on an island near Malta that was somewhat bigger. Chateau d'If is a relatively small castle, but in extremely good condition with lots of signs about the history of the castle, who was held in which cell, etc. Also, the view from the roof was amazing - 360 degrees of open water, the Marseille coastline, and other islands. When the boat came back, its next stop was one of those islands, called the Ile de Frioul. I explored a good bit there as well, and have a video from the rocky coast of that island here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=app_2392950137&ref=profile&id=701905001#/video/video.php?v=362319605001
And, pictures from the whole day are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=346744&id=701905001&l=45bd4e1a34
Overall, France was an awesome adventure and I would definitely go back to that area. I also want to see Paris and how different it is. For now, though, I am thrilled to be back in England with the holiday season in full swing and so many good times with great people. Back to work tomorrow after the 4-day break!
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