Weather: Warm, mostly clear
Internet: 4? Euro/hr (didn't write it down)
From San Sebastian we headed to Marseilles. We stopped overnight in the French border town of Hendaya to get the timing of the trains right (with an extra trip back and forth across the border to pickup Jason's backpack which had been forgotten on a train that fortunately hadn't gone too far.) Since French was my area of mediocrity specialty it was my turn to be the interface. So, before finding a room for the night, I arranged our tickets for the next day. I was pleased with my success in talking with the ticket agent all though the success was largely due to her skill (she had no trouble understanding my French or my English which I used when I had trouble with the French.) Even though it was a fairly small station, I was very impressed with the agents as they all seemed to be able to speak at least some of English, French and Spanish and were very pleasant. In fact I would have to say they were my favorite agent interaction.
The train ride through France the next morning was pleasant and uneventful. The condition of the train and the scenery were both quite nice. We spent a lot of the time playing monster chess, which we decided was probably black's game.
Upon arrival at Marseilles we quickly secured a room at a hotel across the street from the train station. It was reasonably nice, but the traffic noise, even at night, was pretty bad. The guy at the desk was nice though and showed us where the main sites were.
After witnessing the Spanish insanity that was "Alle Tu" we took an interest in the gameshows of other nations. We were quite impressed with what we saw of the French. The show we saw had two types of puzzles: one where the contestants had to combine a set of numbers (following certain rules) to end up with another number, with points assigned based on how many steps they took (I don't remember if short or long was better), and the other was kind of an annagram mastermind game where they would tell the contestants how many letters the word had (generally between seven and nine) and certain letters that were in it and the contestants would take turns guessing a word and they would get information about what letters in the word they guessed were in the right place, or were the right letters in the wrong place. I didn't end up seeing any gameshows the rest of the trip so I must tentatively give the French gameshow the title of best European gameshow and I hope against all that is holy that there isn't a gameshow that is worse than the one in Spain.
Among our other cultural experiences in France we also saw "Infernal Affairs" a Hong Kong movie with Chinese language and French subtitles, an all around international experience.
We did take a tour on a little pseudo train from the pier though parts of the city up to the Cathedral de Notre Dame which is on the high point of Marseilles in the middle of the city. It is a relatively small cathedral, but it had a great view of the city and the sea. Apparently one of the islands you can see not far off shore held a prison that was the inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo.
We had three meals of varying memorableness (and possibly others that weren't at all memorable.) I introduced Jason to the goodness that is the doner-kebab, a hoagie filled with lettuce salad, hot pork cuttings, tomatoes, and french fries (though the one in Marseilles wasn't as good as the ones that I ate in Paris a few years back.) Then there was Chickenville which I wanted to eat at partially because the name sounded like it was trying to be American, but we had never heard of it. They had possibly the best fries I have ever tasted, and some great fried chicken too (although my meal was marred by accidently eating a bit of kidney as I was cleaning of the last bits of chicken crisp. Jason happily finished off the kidney, but it left an unpleasant flavor in my mouth.) The most memorable meal was at one of the many seafood restaurants by the pier. Jason ordered some Boulliabase, and I, not being such a seafood fan, ordered duck. For an appetizer Jason ordered Purple Rocks which appeared to be some sort of molusc with a highly concentrated bitter fishy flavor. I tried one but left the rest to Jason who, naturally, enjoyed them to the last bite. After a very satisfying meal we splurged on Peach Melbas which were glorious. Note to American food vendors: open a peach melba and/or doner kebab chain and make a killing!