today, we watched the Grand Depart of Stage 3 of the Tour de France, ate crêpes with nutella, and then visited the Château d'If. this is pretty much the dream.

we figured out last night that the Tour was going to start around 1:00, and had originally planned to wander around the city in the morning and head to the Tour area around noon. pretty much as soon as we left our hotel, we realized that that was a stupid idea. we were staying right by the Vieux Port (where the Depart was happening), and the area was flooded with Tour paraphernalia and personel. we followed the bright yellow markers along the port, looking at the merchandise on sale and checking out the swag (all of the Tour sponsors give out stuff free to the people in the crowds. Kat got free coffee from a guy carrying a coffee dispenser ON HIS BACK, and we both got free Bouygues Telecom hats), and suddenly it was 10:30 and we had prime viewing spots that we were on no account leaving. we promptly re-applied sunscreen and settled in for the duration. the heat was pretty intense - a family from Hawaii was standing next to us, and even they thought it was hot - but we persevered. the Depart was so exciting, and happened very fast. first there was 1 rider coasting over to line up, then 2, then suddenly there were 180, and everyone wanted to photograph all of them. I got some good shots of George Hincapie, but Kat wins the prize today for a photo of someone we think might be Lance Armstrong.

afterwards, we took our intensely sunned bodies on a quest for food and drink (whereupon we found crêpes but no giant bottles of water, sadly), and then set off to fulfill our very dorky fantasy of visiting a famed literary landmark on the same day as seeing the Tour. the ferry to the Île d'If leaves right from the Vieux Port, and affords the opportunity for some nice views of the harbour (more photos. oh so many photos today). we were like children arriving at a birthday party when we got there, and we were not disappointed. certain parts of the Château are, admittedly, a bit much: a few of the cells have TVs playing clips from various adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo, and most of the historical information is intensely Dumas-themed (which is really very interesting, it just detracts from the mood a bit). in the audio-visual-component-free areas, however, the imagination is free to run wild. we climbed to the very top on a windy stone staircse, and then ran along the sides of the fort looking for not-too-rocky places where one could hypothetically jump/fall/be thrown in and not die.

we took the ferry back, sunburnt and happy, and since then have just been wandering (ie. looking for shady spots). despite all of the negative reports we had received ("you're going to Marseille? ew, why? don't stay too long - just do whatever you need to do and get out!"), we have actually quite enjoyed the city. people have been very friendly here - we find ourselves chatting while buying postcards and paying for takeout orders, and there are both a ferris wheel AND a carousel here. no city with those two things can be bad.

right now we are in an internet café (accents are so easy here. it's just everything else that is hard), waiting until it is time to go to the station to catch our train to Montpellier. we had originally picked Montpellier as a destination because it is the transfer point between Marseille and Barcelona, our next stop. today, we realized that we must be either idiots or geniuses, because the Tour has its team time trial there tomorrow. our train leaves for Barcelona at 3ish, but we should be able to catch some of it before we go. life is good. we leave Marseille in an hour, proudly wearing the marks of our devotion to the Tour (I think I got a burn on my scalp, despite wearing my free hat), with more adventures ahead.