The Hotel Le Corbusier is everything we hoped it would be. Spacious room furnished in mid-century style with a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean Sea. We slept so comfortably here.

We stopped in Nimes yesterday and ate our picnic lunch by the Roman arena ruins. Made me anxious for the real Colosseum, less than a week away. The ruins were closed that day because they were preparing the fireworks for the town's Bastille Day celebration today. Of course, if you have Roman ruins in the city of your town, where else would you shoot off your fireworks?

In Marseille, after checking in at Le Corbu and taking many, many photos, we walked down to a local bar with a soccer theme. There was only one other patron when we arrived and we were so well-treated. The bar snack they provided was some of the most delicious black olives I've ever had (salty to keep us drinking). Three beers later the bar had filled up and we were ready to head to dinner. Chad asked the bartender to call us a taxi in what must have been pretty broken French, because our fellow patrons passed the time waiting for our taxi coaching us on French pronunciation. They were very sweet and our new friend directed the taxi to Vieux Port (Old Harbor) for us, probably fearing our ability to tell the driver where we wanted to go!

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the beautiful old harbor. Chad got bouillebaise, which was delicious, and I chose paella, which was also good. Both had huge shrimp and mussels. We were able to navigate Marseille's little Metro (just 2 lines) back to our hotel neighborhood for a short, pleasant walk home.

Today we celebrate "Quattorze Juillet" (July 14th, aka Bastille Day), with the French in Nice, the equivalent of our Fourth of July. Fireworks over the sea - I think it will be amazing.