Les Restos du Coeur

Above - Marseille's oldest house. You can see that the engravings of the road names are opposite to the road name signs. That's because the whole house was turned through 90* after the war. Above - Marseille's oldest house dating from the 16th century.

On Saturday evening I went out with Les Restos du Coeur. I was working with different volunteers this time, they seemed nicer and it was better. It also wasn't as cold as the last time I went out with them which was before Christmas. We were doing the same route as I'd done before Christmas - Joliette, Vieux Port, Le Panier, Bougainville, Rue de Lyon. There were 5 of us - Stephan, Suzanne, Aurelien, Valerie and me. There weren't as many homeless people this time but I recognised some of them. They were sleeping in the same places, wearing the same clothes as they had been before Christmas. And to think that I'd been home, celebrated Christmas, come back, drank goodness knows how many cups of tea, taken goodness knows how many showers and here they were with the same clothes, sleeping with the same rubbish around them. I did learn something though. Valerie is Marseillaise and like a typical Marseillais she is proud of her city. She showed me the oldest house in Marseille that was actually pivoted 90* after the war. I went back on Sunday and photographed it. Just opposite here is a doorway (you can't see it in the photo) where two of the sans abri sleep who we fed. They are always so grateful for the cup of hot soup or chocolate we give them along with the bag of food which, on Saturday night, had in it a pear, a baguette, a yoghurt, a chocolate bar, a cake and a tin of sardines or tuna (they got to choose). There was apparently cheese in the fridge as well but we forgot that. I was asked by quite a few of the sans abri 'pas de fromage' to which I just said 'pas ce soir'. It would seem cheese is popular with les sans abris in Marseille!

Les Calanques

Above - Walking from the carpark towards the sea.

Above - One of the Calanques.

On Saturday morning I took the metro to Saint Just where I met Christiane - one of the teachers from Lycee. She drove us to Luminy and we went walking in Les Calanques. 'Calanque' is the word for rocky inlets in the mediterannean. It was about a half hour walk to the sea from the car park and as we got nearer to the sea the walk became more difficult. We stopped and ate lunch (we'd both taken sandwiches). We then carried on walking. It was really warm because it was well sheltered from the wind and the white of the rocks reflected the sun. Afterwards she took me back to the metro and I came home. I was exhausted after all the walking! But it was definitely worth it as it was really really beautiful. You can get there by bus, it isn't far. So I would definitely go again.

Week 4 - Outside Lycee

So, Monday. I was supposed to be going on a school trip with 12 primary school children to collect shells on the beach. Now, it never rains in Marseille... but it was raining on Monday morning. My alarm clock went off and I could hear something. Water. I just presumed it was the hosepipes for washing the streets. So I got up, got dressed, had breakfast and then decided to look out of the window and no, it wasn't the hosepipes. It was indeed raining. Typical. School trip cancelled. Me, all ready to go and it was only 7h30... It was going to be a long day, wasn't it?! I worked on my dissertation and the in the afternoon did a spot of shopping with Rachel. We then went for coffee with Louise at 18h. The traditional Monday coffee.

Tuesday. I'm not sure how it happened but I found myself watching a German film with Lucy and Louise which, thank goodness, was subtitled, albeit in French. It was actually a really good film!

Wednesday was spent with Louise. I met her outside the library as I had to take my books back and we went to Monoprix together. We then ate beans on toast chez moi before meeting Aimee and going to the cinema (yes... again!). We saw a really funny film 'Juno' in English with French subtitles and helped some tourists from New Zealand plan their one day in Marseille sightseeing too!

Thusday was a final farewell coffee evening before the holidays. Ok, so only Louise has gone home. Aimee is only in Madrid for a few days and everyone else going home wasn't there. But still.

Friday. I met Angeline at 14h and we went shopping. I bought a coat. We went for a drink and then we both had cours de conversations so had to part. We said we'd cook together one day next week.

Week 4 - Ameliorations at Lycee

So I arrive at Lycee on Tuesday morning at 8h as Isabelle hasn't phoned me to say her Terminale wouldn't be there. A part of me still wasn't expecting them though. But they came! I recapped global warming with them much to their delight and then went on to my cartoon strip of the running man which I really like. I think I'm going to do it with every class. At 10h my 2 Terminale girls came and then at 11h I had my BTS as they are now back from work experience. I then ate my lunch and had an hour free before my class. I went back to my room to find there had been a leak over the lunch hour... the caretaker was mopping water up. So, I taught my terminales in a soggy classroom and then, at 15h, my secondes - classe de merde arrived. I wanted to do the David Guetta Atomic Food song again as it had worked so well with the other half of the class but the CD player wouldn't work so I had to leave my classe de merde in the room on their own whilst I went and swapped the CD player. Amazingly they were fine. The lesson then went well and I came home having worked 5 hours - more in one day than I had worked all of the previous week!

Thursday was a continuation of the ameliorations. As my BTS were back from work experience I had a class at 8h. I then had a class of Anglais Renforce with Christiane at 9h where I did my Brighton lesson which involved a lot of repetition (as it was a dictation) and then I had to write all of the 10 dictated sentences on the board. The lesson worked well but I could not only recite the sentences off by heart by the end but I also had arm ache! At 10h I had a class of Terminale. It was a really good lesson. Then I had a class of BTS before lunch so a full morning. At 14h I had another class of Anglais Renforce where I planned to do my Brighton dictation again but because this class was smaller and I didn't fancy getting arm ache again I got them to write the sentences on the board. 10 sentences and, conveniently, 10 students - a sentence each! It was also a really good lesson. In fact, it had been a really good day. A good week. If only every week could be like this.

I worked 10 hours this week. That's not that much short of what I worked in the whole of January!!

L'Estaque

Above - L'eglise a L'Estaque

Above - Le port a L'Estaque

Above - Le port a L'Estaque

Above - La Folle Epoque a la Prefecture

Above - ooh the irony. The resting place of one Marseille's many sans abris in the poshest part of town - Prado.

Above - Le Stade Velodrome - home of OM

I met Louise at 10h45 at Noailles. We went to Rond Point to the 'OM Boutique'. We were in there quite a while looking round. You name it, they make it. You could literally kit your house out with OM merchandise. Not only are there the usual scalfes, gloves, hats, t shirts, shorts and jumpers. There is also an OM keyboard, mouse, mousemat, pencil case, pen pot, rular, fountain pen, jewellery, dressing gown, slippers, cushion, baby clothes, underwear, jackets, mugs, glasses, soap, toiletries - yes! There really is EVERYTHING! After the OM boutique we went to La Folle Epoque for a hot chocolate and to discuss what we were going to do in the afternoon. I really wanted to go to L'Estaque - it's the northern most part of Marseille. I'd heard it was pretty and had inspired the impressionist painters. I'd also done a bit of research and read that there were two speciality foods - panisses - fried chick pea fritters (which my students at Lycee had told me about) and chichi - a doughnut type thing. I'd never seen them in parts of Marseille I'd been to. We sat in La Folle Epoque reading out tourist books and decided we'd meet Aimee at Reformes tram way at 14h30 to go to Joliette to get the bus to L'Estaque. We went in Virgin en route and I bought a book - 'Reviens moi' (of the film I saw the other night). We also went in two more OM shops - they are everywhere, and Louise bought an OM scalf as she is going to watch OM play Monaco at Le Stade Velodrome on Sunday evening. We then went to Reformes and took the tram to Joliette where we got the bus to L'Estaque. It was like we'd left Marseille. It felt like we were on holiday somewhere. We walked around, went in a few shops and then got a coffee. Afterwards we sampled the Panisse and Chichi - both delicious. We walked up to the church and around some more before getting the bus back to Joliette. We walked to mine and had a cup of tea and something to eat before going to Monoprix. I did my shopping as did Aimee. I then came home as did Aimee and Louise went to a soiree of one of the teachers from her school. I was going to go too but I was too tired. I went home, showered and slept. It had been a really good day.

Ecole Parc Belle Vue

On Friday morning I met Louise at Joliette. I was going to her school. It's an Ecole Primaire in Les Quartiers Nords - 'Les Quartiers Difficiles' to say the least. From the outside it looked like it wouldn't be a very nice school. It was in a dodgy area, there were bars on the windows. But inside it's was really nice, clean, colourful, well equipped. So different to my Lycee. Next door to the school are huge blocks of flats and at every balcony was a satellite dish and washing. It was a picture. Apparently the satellite dishes are so the families can get the tv channels from all over the world. This part of Marseille has a high proportion of immigrants. Louise said that she has about 150 children and can count the white children on one hand. The families are big. Often the children have 7 or 8 brothers and sisters and when they're not in school it's often because they've had to stay at home to look after a younger sibling. It's the poorest area of Marseille. But, judging bu the graffiti, it is also the best educated area - ha - joke. The graffiti read 'We don't need education' which is quite impressive and ironic for the area. I was at Louises schoo because her school needed people to help with the outings and I said I'd do one because a) I thought it'd be good to see a French Primary School and b) my Lycee were proving pretty useless and I had plenty of spare time and c) it's les quartiers nords - it'd be an experience. So I went to meet the teachers. Louise's School is so completely different to mine. All the teachers sit down together in the staffroom for lunch. Because it's a primary school it's smaller and there are fewer teachers and everyone knows everyone else. They're like a family. All the teacher's were really nice and I met Alain who is also going on the trip on Monday. In the afternoon I stayed with Louise and one of her classes. She had 10 students at a time and played Bingo with them. Because they are younger they don't really speak any English so she has to speak French. It means she uses her French far more than I use mine. I did one of the games of Bingo and I also played with the students too. It was really good fun. I left before her 6ieme came as I had my cours de conversation. I had just spent 3 and a half hours playing Bingo - more time than I'd worked in my school all week!! I went to my cours de conversation in the evening and then Louise came round for tea. We had pasta. It rained.

Keeping you updated

So, yes. Wednesday I worked on my dissertation. I made good progress. At about 18h I got a phonecall from Aimee and I went to meet her for coffee. We went to the Japonese place in Galeries Lafeyette. Louise and Rachel joined us. Afterwards, Rachel left and I went with Aimee and Louise to Monoprix and bought a pototo and an avacado. I then went home. I was checking my email and saw I had an email from Christiane (a teacher at Lycee) she was informing me of a room change for the anglais renforce class on Thursday at 10h. They wouldn't be in their usual room - H64 but would be in G3. That's fine, I know where that is. I decided I was going to do my cartoon strip with them. So, on Thursday I left at about 9h15 and got to Lycee, did my photocopying and was just putting my phone onto silent when I noticed I had a text message - it was Christiane. There had been another room change. They were in 'd salle de physique'. It took a bit of finding but I got there eventually. The lesson went well but they're a big group. Sometimes I think it'd be better if they were split into two smaller groups, but nevermind. After this lesson I went to the Secretariat to see whether Marie Jose was in as I had a class with her at 15h and she'd been absent the last two weeks. She's away until the end of term. That meant I'd finished for the week. My Lycee really is setting new records - I've worked 2 hours this week! Thursday afternoon I went shopping with Aimee and Rachel. Aimee bought a beautiful coat from H&M. At 18h I met Louise at Vieux Port and we went for coffee. We then went for a meal in 'Chez Toi' which was delicious. We then went to the cinema to see 'Asterix aux Jeux Olympiques' which was really good.