July 30: Milling in Marseille, & Looking for Lavender

This morning, we made the tough decision to not travel to northern France this trip. It would have meant more of our few remaining hours in France spent riding in trains than actually being in the desired locations. We would have returned home exhausted rather than refreshed. One major cost of this decision is we will not make use of most of the Eurail passes we bought; out of 7 possible travel days, we will only use three. Oh well…

Breakfast was from a nearby boulangerie and organic produce shop in Pegomas: pastries (including an outstanding lemon meringue tart), baguette, fresh apricots, Granny Smith apple juice.

Drove to Marseille to deal with our rental car, which by this point was already one day late in returning, and causing Beth added anxiety as a result. I thought GPS was taking us to airport (where we originally rented from), but instead it took us to downtown Marseille location. We were able to extend rental for another couple of days, and in the end, this was providence at work, as we can return the car here instead and it’s a better location for our train departure in a couple of days.

We spent the afternoon in old port region of Marseille, which will likely be our last look at the Mediterranean Sea this trip. We got drinks at Starbucks (to complete 3 countries). We briefly considered trying out renting electric scooters to explore the area, but it turns out Faith and Luke are technically too young to ride (although many Europeans seem to ignore the technicalities in renting these things). We walked from the harbour area to a beach that was PACKED with people (quite the contrast to our private beach in Camargue). The beach was in sight of Chateau d’If from “Count of Monte Cristo” novel fame. We bought more patisserie (a choux pastry in the shape of a peach, a croissant pignon containing pine nuts, a maybe the best baguette of the trip) which we enjoyed in nearby city park with great view of harbour.

During this walking in Marseille, Beth started a conversation on a good topic: what habits should we pursue to ensure we remain married another 25 years? It’s an unfinished conversation as of this writing, but a few thoughts we came up with:

• Keep fighting fair: work through conflicts in healthy and honouring ways. (Reminiscent of Gottman’s work with couples; his claim was relationship success can be predicted by what couples do when they are in conflict)

• Keep connected by acknowledging and sharing our emotions, even and especially the hard ones

• Keep planning things to look forward to; like celebrations, trips, achievements together

• As much as it in in our influence, aim to remain physically healthy. No reaching another 25 years if one or both of us has died prematurely from preventable illness.

• Consider looking for marriage mentor; another couple who is a little further ahead in life stage. Consider being marriage mentors for younger couples.

• This conversation had me thinking about a book on marriage by Craig & Amy Groeschel, “From This Day Forward”. They had 5 quick-to-remember habits to a lasting marriage: Seek God, Fight Fair, Have Fun, Stay Pure, & Never Give Up.

We booked AirBnB in Régusse, a rural town north of Marseille, but our host asked us to not arrive too soon as apparently it takes her 3 hours to prepare the space. Drove in that direction via lavender fields near Valensole - these were neat to see, but unfortunately it was not prime season, the purple blossoms had been already harvested by late July.

More fun winding road driving in the area as we approached Lac de St. Croix, a lake that is in landscape very reminiscent of the Okanagan lakes. Lovely dinner with a panoramic lake view, although Beth’s experience was coloured by some snobby behaviour of people at the next table, criticizing the uncultured way Beth was eating her fish entree. Apparently these people thought Beth didn’t understand French. My dessert was pretty yummy; a pear and almond tart, very reminiscent of Janet/Nana's Bavarian apple torte.

Checked in late (11 pm) to AirBnB; our hosts are an older couple originally from Norway, have set it up as a duplex unit to their own home. Of all our AirBnB stays, no hosts have thought of more details or been this generous, from heart-shaped folding of towels for the honeymooners to snacks and drinks and games for the kids. Looking forward to vegging here tomorrow.