[Summer in Grenoble] Marseille - Day 1: Off to Marseille... and Hotel Montgrand

June 13th, 2015

After boarding the Spanish train, Renfe Ave, bound for Marseille, I began eating my dinner.
Even though, I was hungry well before the departure time, I waited until it was past 6PM to have dinner.

By the way, the Renfe Ave had a significantly nicer interior than the TGV.


After having 3 pieces of sandwich, and playing some Monster Hunter on my 3DS

We were already at Marseille.

The Renfe Ave and a TGV situated next to each other.
This was the final stop for the train line, so the rail only went in one direction of the station.

In the other direction was the Marseille train station building.
There are a lot of shops there, but they were all closed because we got there pretty late.

"It's only sunset, what do you mean late?" you ask?
Well, France is at a higher latitude than either North Carolina or Korea.
I believe France is also one of the countries located at the far west of its time zone.

and besides, they actually treat workers in a humane way in Europe, unlike those Neo-liberalist places.

My friends and I came back into the building because we went out the wrong exit.

We were actually supposed to come here

and take the metro to where our hotel was.

Both the metro and the metro station was way shorter than the ones I'm used to seeing.

Here it comes!

The metro wasn't as old as I was expecting it to be.
I was expecting larger European cities like Marseille to have older public transportation, because I thought they would have been using them for a longer period of time, than places like Grenoble or Korea.

The first building I saw in Marseille.
It was well-lit, but had nothing to do with us.

we had to walk down a dark alley

and then go to this hotel, where we made our reservation.
The hotel was called "Hotel Montgrand"

One of the most surprising thing we noticed while checking in was the fact that
we could actually use English to communicate!!
Oh, how we all missed speaking in Anglais after suffering from so much language barriers in Grenoble and Nimes!!

It was a pretty sketchy and old hotel.

This is where my roommate and I stayed.
European hotels have really small rooms, especially at bigger cities.

Fortunately, our room had no problems and a really nice air conditioning.
Other three friends did not share this luxury.
The first room they were in had malfunctioning A/C
The second room they got after complaining had an A/C that worked but started dripping a lot of water as soon as it started operating.
Oh... goodness...

In terms of hotels, we sure missed the one we stayed at in Nimes.
If you have more money, I would definitely recommend staying at somewhere better, like Ibis.

[Summer in Grenoble] Nimes - Day 2: Last Few Moments in Nimes

June 13th, 2015

After viewing the 'Musee du Vieux Nimes,' my friends and I did not have any other good plans left

So, we decided to kill some time at a shopping mall in Nimes
Obviously, not everything in Nimes was super-old.
 

At that shopping mall, we saw this.
Cute lil' booty and paws of a cat.

Do you think that cat had any idea what it was sitting on?
hahaha XD

and there was also this dog that looked like it was about to melt like an ice cream.
Haha, animals in Nimes are great.

after killing some time and buying some stuff, we started to walk back to where the train station is.

...and we arrived back at the Charles-de-Gaulle plaza (Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle).

We sat at a bench, and had some snacks or an early dinner.

hmm..
seems like this should be the last time to see this fountain.

and also this arena.

all right.

 it was about the time when rain clouds loomed upon Nimes, we started walking to the train station.

with that fountain of Esplanade Charles de Gaulle at our back.

my friends and I walked over to Gare de Nimes.

Adieu, Nimes~!

when we just arrived at the station, it was very empty.

The rail map of the nearby area.
Our next trip was to take the train and head eastward to Marseille.

When it was about departure time, my friends and I came up to the platform

When it was time, we were expecting a TGV to arrive at the station, but we saw a Spanish high-speed train, Renfe Ave, instead.
The ticket said this it the train to take, so we loaded our exhausted bodies onto the train and went to our next destination of the weekend.

[Summer in Grenoble] Nimes - Day 2: Maison Carrée, Musée du Vieux Nîmes

June 13th, 2015

After having lunch, my friends and I started walking again
This is just something I noticed while I was in Europe, but there seems to be more roads that are convenient for people than for cars.
I mean, Europe does have a lot of old cities that go centuries back.

After a short walk, we made it to 'Maison Carrée'
Back in the Roman days, it was used as a temple.

I think this structure has undergone some restoration, but even the parts that seemed to be older (the columns for example) were at really good shape.

This is the road you can see from the front side of Maison Carrée

Some shops and cafe's around Maison Carrée.
It feels weird and cool at the same time to see that a historical place is right next to the modern everyday life of Nimes.

Currently, the Maison Carrée is typically used for showing the documentary called 'Nemausus'
It is a documentary of how Nimes came about in the Roman Empire days.

We had some time until the next showing time, so we just chilled in the shade of Maison Carrée

and after we saw the Nemausus documentary,

we walked over to our next destination.

which was this building.
The place was called "Musée du Vieux Nîmes (Google Translate: Museum of Old Nimes)"

?????? 
Well, that was unexpected for a "museum of old Nimes"
some of these stuff are from 19th or 20th century.

The museum also had some odd, artistically designed dresses.

and mostly some antique machines, tools, household items were displayed there.
....
Nothing too much to say.
I mean, that's how museums are.