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marseille
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march 28th:
we explored marseille; wandering through the big city streets (with way too
much car traffic for my liking) and the narrow small alleys capturing some photographs.
afterwards, we climbed the hill upon which notre-dame de la garde stands. fortunately, i had
hydrated beforehand as it was scorching hot. however,
the view from the top made it all worthwhile in the end.
there hung multiple mobile made of small wooden ships (and one plane)
form the ceiling, in the large hall of the church, which i found interessing.
a cool dude in a cool bmw.
march 29th:
marseille is many things; it's dirty, it's surprising if an alley doesn't smell funny, and the
city is probably pretty poor.
however, marseille feels like a city with a soul; it's a young people city, there's really cool
graffiti everywhere. i also saw probably a half a dozen people with a kufiya in just one day;
in berlin, i see maybe one or two a day.
and when you found a place where cars are severely restricted, it actually feels really nice to
be in such a space.
3 dudes on their skateboards and a lesbian couple (presumably).
some guy's van broke down in the middle of the road and my younger brother petting a fluffy cat.
the subway (métro) system is also quite unique, the "train" runs on tires.
march 30th:
we took bus 83 from 'metro point du prado' and sat on the left side by the window.
then we embarked on a short journey along the seafront. somewhere halfway, we got off the bus
and stretched our legs a bit.
i took pictures of people taking pictures of other people and of a women who was carrying her
dog that looked like "einstein" from cowboy bebop.
below this one bridge, there was a small port; it looked super cool, and i once again wished i
had a flektogon 20mm lens.
menton
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march 31th:
we arrived in menton at around 4 pm, settled into our accommodation, and then set out to explore
the city.
it was cloudy and drizzling a bit. we walked along the beach 'promenade.' for me it feels like
the city lacks a real soul compared to marseille.
although marseille was much dirtier and there was dog shit everywhere (literally everywhere,
more than in berlin), i think i still prefer marseille over menton.
this city feels much more conservative.
but then we found a beautiful corner; we wandered through one narrow alley (1,5m wide) and ended
up in a square,
and despite the drizzle, many people were there, which was nice.
what i do like about the city is the abundance of orange trees that are lining the streets and
the huge rhododendrons growing here and there. with a bit of luck i get a nicer pictures when
the skies are blue.
april 1st:
two things i need to correct about yesterday. firstly, those huge ass trees i photographed
yesterday aren't giant rhododendrons as i initially thought. according to my mum, who saw the
pictures, they are 'moreton bay figs' (latin: ficus macrophylla; german: großblättrige
feige).
secondly, the city isn't as dull as i thought; indeed, it has a soul. yesterday, we simply
walked along the wrong road (avenue du général de gaulle), which was disappointing. i mistakenly
believed that was the entirety of the beach promenade this city offers. i now know that we
also only scratched the surface of what the old city has to offer yesterday.
menton (the historical part of the city) consists of a small but beautiful labyrinth of narrow
alleyways.
on top of the mountain of menton sits some sort of graveyard. the view from up there was worth
climbing the mountain through all the little alleyways.
afterwards, we descended the mountain again and found the actual beach promenade. i saw some
people, maybe my age or a few years younger, playing ball next to a fat ass tree and a sign that
said 'ball playing forbidden.' i thought it would make a funny shot and wanted to snap a quick
picture, but of course, i wasn't quick enough, and they spotted me.
i mean, it wasn't hard for them to notice that idiot standing 5 meters next to them,
photographing them, haha.
anyway, they were really friendly and wanted me to take a photograph of them for real and send
it to them later via email.
one of the girls also spoke broken but definitely understandable german, which took me by
surprise.
i wonder if one of her parents is a native german speaker or if she simply paid close attention
in german class.
unlike me, who took french lessons for six years and knows literally nothing anymore.
note to my future self: get photoshop and learn how to fix
photos that are too bright
eventually, my little brother and i walked towards the italian border. there was a newly
completed separated bicycle path, which i normally welcome, but the following 6 pictures prove
that this path wasn't completely thought through.
i was soaking wet haha, my brother was a meter behind me so he was a bit luckier.
a photo of a guy taking a picture with his phone and a lady with her dogs with the skyline of
menton in the background.
april 2nd:
today we were at the beach basically the whole time. i saw my first 'nett hier sticker' in
france, which was funny i guess.
antibes
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april 3rd:
our accommodation is nestled within a labyrinth of alleyways, which is really charming.
however, there's a sense that the city's streets are somewhat deserted. everywhere i look, i
notice these airbnb locks,
sometimes even three on a single house. this makes me feel like i'm walking in a large open-air
museum. nonetheless, antibes is really cute.
my older brother taking a picture of me while i take a picture of him; and three kids playing on
the old wall of the city.
a face in a stone and an elderly women walking with a cane in an alley.
april 4th:
today, i walked along the "cap d'atibes" with my little brother, and in this context, i also
tried out the internal gps of the 6d.
i wish we could have walked along the entire peninsula (including the upper left part in the
image), but it was all fenced off. on top of that, the second half of our route was fucking soul
sucking, everything fenced of by three to four meters tall walls, with a 20 cm wide joke of a
sidewalk.
nonetheless, the path at the edge of the peninsula was cool and we also saw an abundance of
lizards.
april 5th:
we walked to the fort carré which offered a nice view over the port and the
city.
summary:
i believe i would have preferred using a 35mm or even a 20mm wide-angle lens instead of a 50mm
portrait lens during this trip. i only mounted my ef 24-105 canon l lens once during the entire
time because it made the camera front-heavy. additionally, i still need to figure out which
camera settings to use to prevent overexposed photos.
i also think i want to try just asking people if i can take a photo of them. because taking a
photo of people, sending it to them, and then receiving a "thank you" feels really nice.
now, onto france; the three cities were pretty cool, with marseille being my favorite. however,
i believe i got scammed on the last day. i bought two bags (2x10) of generic supermarket
chocolate croissants for our four-person, 22-hour train ride back home on april 6th/7th. one bag
should have cost 1.61€ (3.22€ in total), but i was then asked to pay 4.28€ (bruh). the worst
part was that i couldn't even ask because the cashier didn't speak english, and everyone behind
me was getting annoyed as i searched for the remaining cents in my wallet.
oh, and the worst part about france is that everyone speaks french. can you believe this? a
whole country speaking french... 2/10 would not recommend.
