To Marseille with Love

On Monday, Rachel and I parted ways after an indulgent morning together, her to the airport and me to the train station.

While I was there, I noticed that sadly some French train stations seem to be as unhinged in their organization as Heathrow.

"Alors, your train departs from Track One?  Ah Oui, but is that Track 1, or Track 1A, or Track 1B, or Track 1C?  Are they anywhere near each other?  Mais Non! Of course not!  [Laughs threateningly in a French accent]"

This feels especially egregious because French signage in train stations is generally quite good.  In fact, the French do one of the most thorough and flexible jobs of solving the "oh god, where do I stand on the platform?" problem of any railway network I've used.  For those of you that aren't frequent train travelers, let me fill you in:

In non-terminal stations, once your platform is announced and you've reached it, you have a small puzzle: If you have assigned seats, then you probably know what car you're supposed to be in, but if the train hasn't arrived yet, it's a crapshoot whether you'll guess the right spot to wait, and if the train is only in the station for 2-5 minutes (Try that with an airplane) you might wind up needing to board in the wrong car and then drag yourself and your bags through a bunch of doors between cars, which can be a hassle, especially if other people also had to do this and are heading the other direction.

So the French solve this problem with one set of static signs, which assign letters to segments of the platform, and a set of dynamic monitors, which render the next train as a series of numbered cars, aligned with the letters.   This is genius.

So figuring out where to go is as simple as looking at the monitor and going "aha, the doors to Voiture 8 will line up with the sign for X" or whatever.  I'll try to get a better picture of this later, but here's the idea.

This is great. More like this please.

Every non-Parisian train station I've used so far does this, and it's fantastic. 

So anyway, I had a very pleasant ride to Marseille.  Sadly the views, which were great, did not photograph well (the problem of traveling backwards at proper-country speeds -- it's hard to look up and realize there's a great shot in front of you and grab your phone in time to actually take the picture).

I arrived in Marseille in the late afternoon.

It's possible, when bouncing around France, to get really plugged in to the sense that you're immersed in a foreign culture.

You have a pastry and a tiny coffee every morning in an independent boulangerie and you sit in a park and watch the velos and trottinettes and Peugot scooters and Citroen cars go by.  You board a regional  train and listen to the announcements be delivered only en francais. . . and you can forget that as an American, your pop-culture has applied stupifying amounts of energy, money, and resources to exporting itself e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.    And so you'll be floating along in your little "Je Suis En Fraaaaance" bubble and then you'll step out of a train in Marseille and

WHAM. Carl's Jr.

So yeah, that can happen.

But also you can walk past the Carl's Jr. and be graced with one of the most aesthetically pleasing exits from any Transit hub in the world.

Because, DAMN, the Marseille Saint Charles station has got A View To Beat The Band.

It was gorgeously gray when I arrived.

These pictures DO NOT do it justice. I took more on my way out and hopefully I'll get to share some of those but really you need to go there in person.

I walked through the city, picked up my airbnb keys from a local hotel lobby (KeyNest is doing good work these days) and discovered that my 4th floor walk-up airbnb, chosen in part for it's small terrace, also had a great angle on the city.

By Day

Or by night.

I was to learn over the next few days that Marseille is a town full of beautiful views.