We woke up early for a day trip to Marseille, which is a 2.5 hour train ride. The city is very different than the Côte d’Azur. It is the 2nd largest city in France, after Paris. Though it doesn’t offer the Eiffle Tower or the Louvre museum, Marseille is for people not afraid to discover a real place with real people, where you can see how the French really lives.
Our train ride home was scheduled for 10pm. After close to 3 hours of delay, we arrived in Antibes (our stop) at 2 AM. Unfortunately, somehow we missed our stop and ended up in Nice. At 2:30 AM in the morning, there was no taxi, no bus and no more train.
While finding a solution to home at wee hours in the morning at the Nice train station, we were both exhaulsted and nervious. We met some colorful people to say the least. The most memorable person in particular, was a woman named Antoinette. She hates her name because of it sounding so formal. Antoinette was holding a plastic bag with half of watermelon and some peaches while chatting with a man at the bus stop outside of the train station. As she was describing the bus schedule to us, I realized that she was very pregnant. Antoinette was extremely friendly and offered to walk us to find the street we were looking for. During our walking conversation, we learned that Antoinette sleeps during the day in order to avoid the heat (as most people do not have air conditioning) and hangs out during the night when it is much cooler and quieter in downtown Nice streets. Not a bad idea. I don’t know if she has a job or family, all I know is that this tomboy like curly bown hair woman who smiles with a dimple made me smile in an otherwise uncomfortable situation.
Ultimately we got in touch with my sister Pei’s friend who lives in Nice (but without a car). We crashed in his place for 4 hours until the next morning when the bus is available to take us back to Antibes.
Day 8 – I slept most of the day and was still tired when I got up.
