Plodding along

We're doing ok here in Marseille. We all survived the fast and my eating is now back to normal with no harmful side-effects. We've been going out a bit to talk to people and we visited someone at her home in Aix-en-Provence as well, which turned out to be pretty cool. It's a nice place. Maybe I'll put some photos on here later.

Marseille is an interesting place and there are all kinds of amusing things going on from time to time. I actually forgot to mention before, but I almost got my phone stolen by a couple of pickpockets. I was waiting outside the Jesus Revolution place for someone to come with the key to let me in and two young guys come along asking me the time and starting up a conversation. When they noticed my accent, they asked where I was from and we got talking a bit. They ended up talking to me about Zidane, the French footballer famous for headbutting an opponent in the chest during the world cup.

They were standing beside me, trying to demonstrate a move he does and reaching across in front of me with their feet. I thought this was a bit odd, but put it down to the friendliness of people here and the fact they're a bit more physical than back home. Well, as they were doing this I felt one of them touch my hip pocket with happened to have my phone in it. I instincively recoiled and checked the other one, trying to remember where my wallet was. I remembered it was in my bag and relaxed, realising nothing was gone. After that, they realised they were rumbled, although one of them still tried to show me the Zidane move one last time. When I backed off, they got the hint and left. It was funny, because they were very friendly and polite the whole time. I couldn't help thinking that a similar situation in Scotland would result in a knife being pulled or a bit of a scuffle after the cat was out of the bag but here they just went on their way. I'm now a bit paranoid about my hip pockets, though, and I tend to be a bit suspicious of anyone behind me.

I discovered with great interest that there's a tourist attraction here worth visiting. It's called Château D’If and it features in the story The Count of Monte Cristo which has been made into a film a couple of times as well. I've seen the most recent one with James Caviezel and I liked it. The château is a fort on a an island (called If, as it happens) just off the coast of Marseille in the Mediterranean. It's a short boat trip from the Vieux Port harbour and not too expensive either.