Panicking in Marseille

Today was a pretty lazy day, but also probably one of the most stressful of the whole trip (at least for everyone else). We originally thought of taking a rental car out so we could see the surrounding countryside, and see what it was like to drive on the streets of France. Bryan woke me up around nine so that we could go check out the prices. Of course when I went to find him a few minutes later he was back asleep. Kevin and One of the Four of Us was still asleep, so I decided I’d just chill for a bit.

When everyone else got up, it was time to book a place to stay in Paris (I hear 24 hours before hand is prime time to book). Since all the good hostels were taken and the hotels were thousands of euros, we resorted to a website called Airbnb to find our accommodations. Airbnb allows people to lease out parts of their house or an apartment with at least a bit of security in the form of 1 million dollars of insurance. Since I would only be in Paris for one night and I could stay at the airport if I had to, I wasn’t too concerned yet. Kevin, Bryan, and Mr. One, on the other hand, were starting to get a little worried.

With no guarantee that any one Airbnb host would take us, we only had one option: email them all. We set our requirements and started. One by one, everyone on this site was getting a message from us until we heard what we wanted. Some 30 requests later, we received a response from a gentle chap by the name of Simo. He had space for us! We checked the reviews on his place and sent a booking request – his place was right next to the Eiffel Tower. Thinking we had found our place to stay, we left the hotel and headed into Marseille for a relaxed day.

Down at the office of tourism, we waited in line to find out how we could buy a boat ride that day. Bryan discovered that the city had free WiFi, and we logged on. A few minutes later, while everyone was learning about our marine possibilities, I received an email from Airbnb – Simo had declined our request. This was a problem. With barely over 24 hours left til we arrived in Paris, we once again had no place to stay. There was a nice place we could sit and figure out what to do next (and cry) right across the street, so we went there. We also bought some food so we didn’t feel bad using their tables. At his point Bryan was frantically searching the Airbnb site for more places. We couldn’t leave the Wifi without finding a place to stay. I was getting hungry at this point, so I told them I was fine with anything and went in search of a grocery store. Mr. One couldn’t stand the wind chill outside, so he went inside the restaurant to make a large bank transfer in case we needed more money to afford a place, and to search for apartments as well.

Kevin and Bryan desperately search for a room

Bryan is sad

About 45 minutes later I had found my grocery store, bought some salami and cheese, and was headed back to base camp to see how our search for housing was going. Within a few minutes, there was good news. A man by the name of Erik had given us the okay to reserve his place. It wasn’t nearly as close to the main attractions as Simo’s, but it was still in the city and at this point we just wanted a place to stay. We booked it immediately.

Relieved that we now had a place to stay, we decided to celebrate with a bottle of wine. We needed to go back to our hotel anyway to pick up some clothes, so we picked up the bottle of wine from that same grocery store on the way back.

The grocery store

Kevin and Bryan select the celebratory wine

Kevin explains the rooming situation to Mr. One

We then relaxed in the hotel for a few hours in the French way. We finished off a bottle of wine and took a nap (except for Kevin, he went to drink some coffee while we were asleep). Now that all of our problems were solved, we went out for dinner at the place recommended to us the day before by a couple of locals. It was quite good, though it was pretty close to American food for me. We also had a new view of the harbor, and it was indoors so our glasses didn’t fly off the table.

Bryan sips his wine

Our restaurant

The view from the restaurant

Bryan's food - I have no idea what it was

My food

CP's food

After dinner we decided to explore the city a bit. We headed down the east side of the harbor hoping to find the ocean. On the way we found an old castle that was apparently now a club. It was a bit too classy for us though. We eventually made it to the ocean, where we had a nice of the islands off the coast and some American commercially symbols.

Sunset on the harbor

Us walking towards the castle

View of the ocean

A bit of McDonald's charm to go with the ocean

When we finished admiring the view, we headed back to hotel, where we had a bit more wine and then went to sleep. Tomorrow would be Paris, and we needed to be rested.

-Tim