Marseilles

Hope you're not bored of them because here's another batch of photos from our trip to France, this time from Marseilles.  We had a wonderful day there, just walking around...

We ate boullibaise and drank rose in the port. I know it looks like he was, but that crab was not alive, crawling out the primordial soup to kick my ass. He was delicious though. (or so Steven said. I couldn't bring myself to eat him.  too cute.) 

(btw, I made Julie Child's bouibaise recipe for a dinner party the other night... more on that later.) 

Maybe it was because we'd seen so many austere restored ancient churches and modern Corbusier buildings earlier in the trip, but I loved the cathedral with all its excessive everything.

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

During our trip to France we went to Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, a cathedral dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene.

Despite what you may have heard, Mary Magdalene was not a whore. She was a close friend of Jesus, hung around him a lot, tended to him while he was on the cross, cleaned his body after he died and was the first to see him after he rose from the dead. 

At least that's what I think I learned at Catholic school... I can't quite remember.  I'm sure about the "not a whore"  and "first to see Jesus" parts.  They really drilled those parts home.

The cathedral holds 2 relics of Mary, her skull and a hunk of her skin that Jesus supposedly touched after the resurrection.  In case you didn't go to Catholic school, or take art history in college, relics are body parts of holy people kept as objects of reverence.

I love relics, in all their glorious grossness. And I love reliquaries too, especially this one since they made Mary a wig of golden hair. 

Abbaye du Thoronet

Ok, I took a million photos and I'm having a hard time editing... bear with me. The Abbey at Thoronet is a former Cistercian abbey built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century and it is beautiful.  

vive la france

We just got back from spending a lovely 10 days visiting Steven's parents in the south of France.  (view from their front door.)

We had a lovely time, traveling around the small towns, seeing the sights, eating the food, chatting with family. (garden I want to go to when I die)

Much more about it in coming days.  I hope you all don't get bored of all my travel photos. (Steven's parents, the year they got married) 

the long and the short of it

While we were in North Carolina we went hiking on the Appalachian Trail!  (insert Mark Sanford joke here.)  We climbed "the balds" on Roan Mountain and it was gorgeous!

 There's such a wonderful mix of landscapes.

 You walk through shrubs and forests on your way,

 up to the open rocky grasslands.

 And do you see what I mean about the rhododendrons?!

As if that wasn't unfair enough, blueberries grow wild too!  Ridiculous.

Gus and Ollie had the time of their lives!  

After a long walk on a long leash and short legs, Gus needed a long nap.