Our Day in Aix en Provence

Tomorrow is our Presidents last Zone Conference before he goes home.  Since we are the only couple in The Provence region he ask us to go to dinner with he and his wife.  We had a couple hours to kill before meeting he and his wife for dinner so we walked the ville.  These photos don't do the ville justice.  I took them with my ipad.  I want to make one comment here.  I make one criticism about France here.  Since they have NO!!!! public bathrooms, No, not even pay ones anywhere in Provence, I could have gotten uromysotysis and died. 

Mirabeau  Fountain Aix en Provence

Who said France doesn't like the USA.  How else can one show love than to make a Red,White and Blue bikini

Oh yeah the pastries

I just had to get some pics of me so some day they would say, "Oh yeah, Dad was there also"

You know I love alley ways.  They always lead somewhere interesting. 

Italian Gilato

"P" day at the Vieux Port

After getting things organized for the week, mom and I went to the Palais du Pharo at the entrance to the Vieux Port.  It is a public park that over looks the port.  The fort in the back ground behind Jeannine is Fort St Jean.  Built in 1660, it is now a museum of European and Mediterranean history.  In our travel to the park we went by way of Metro.  We take the Metro to the down town area because it is less of a hassle to park.  This may bring back fond memories to Aaron and Jared.  As we descend the stairs down in to the bowels of the Marseille Metro System there is a familiar smell that slowly penetrates ones sense of smell.  Yes, it is the smell of Urine.   At first you sniff and think, OH NO!  then as you descend further you realize there is no escaping it.  At first it is a bit annoying, then one grows accustom to the pungent odor.  Then before you know it you can't even recognize it is there.  Even if you try to recognize the smell, you can't.  It has become a part of your very being.  It is at this time you realize you are no longer a visitor.  And you say to yourself, "I am one of them".  Enjoy the photos.

Panorama of the Vieux Port from Fort St Jean on the left to Notre Dame De La Gard to the right.

Vieux Port, Marseille

I know I took a lot of photos of the Vieux Port, but it is a unique place.  All Mediterranean ports are similar, Monaco, Nice, Cannes, Toulon and Marseille,  Marseille is the largest of all the French Riviera ports and is the only one with two forts on either side of the entrance.  Fort St Jean on  the west side and Fort St Nicolas on the east.  Both were constructed in 1660.  The Vieux Port dwarfs all other ports.  It is the oldest of the ports and  has the most history.  It was used by the Greeks in 600 BC. 

Jeannine with Fort st Jean in background. 

The tower of Fort St Jean

Me with Notre Dame de La Gard in top left corner.

Some kids swimming on the Fort St Nicolas side of the port.  This water is crystal clear.

Fort St Nicolas in the foreground with Notre Dame De La Gard on the hill.  Taken from the Palias de Pharo.  And yes that is a gold Mary on top. 

Drive Home through Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and France

Italy

On our way home from Bern Suisse, we drove south through the Alps to Italy.  It was very foggy and rained a lot so not many photos.  We drove through Friboug, Gruyere and St Bernard Suisse.  Then on through Torino and Savona and  Italy where we came to the Mediterranean.  Then we drove north to Monaco.  Monaco is way over rated.   It was very crowded because the Grand Prix is in two weeks so they were setting up grand stands.  We got to drive the course that the cars will be racing on.  Just the main drag of Monaco.  I did think that was pretty cool.  I recognized it because of the one seen in Iron Man where they are racing in Monaco.  Then back to Marseille by way of Nice and Cannes.  It is good to be back.  Driving through the Alps is nice, but in the rain it is a bit stressful. We had planned to go to Milano, but ended up in Torino due to the Rutman guidance system. 

Suisse Alps

Suisse Alps

Italian Alps

Italian Alps

Italy

Italy

Vineyard in Italy

Bern Swiss Temple trip with the Marseille Young Adults

 

Here are some pics from our Bern Swiss Temple trip.  Mom and I went out in our free time to scout out things to do for our Young Adults.  So we went to the Old Ville of Bern where we went with Aaron 12 years ago.  I will post some pics of our week on face book.  One of the cool things about our week in Bern was so many different languages spoken there.  Each morning we worked with the Young Adults doing Baptisms for the Dead.  We entered the temple and the guy checking our recommends only spoke Italian.  The man in charge of the Baptistery only spoke Italian.  Our group leader spoke French.  Everyone else spoke German.  So it is a little different than going to the Oakland Temple.  We had some extra girls join us from other country’s.  Two from Verona Italy, one from Barcelona Spain and two girls from Angers France.  The funny thing was the girls from Italy only spoke Italian and a little English, so I had to translate.  One girl had a request so I had to translate to our French group leader their request.  While doing the confirmation I was lucky to get only English and Spanish names so I had no problems.  My French companions were not so lucky.  They had all Hungarian names.  It was cool to see them struggle with the Hungarian names.  So I wasn’t alone.  I did a 150 names all in French.  Spending 5 days at the temple with the Ward of Marseille was awesome.  We all ate together and talked.  My French improved and our relationship was strengthened.  

Bern Suisse

Bern Suisse

Bern Suisse

Bern Suisse

Bern Suisse

Bern

Notice,  On the right hand there is a 800 year old clock tower.  On the left there is a McDonalds.

Bern Stake Center

View from Bern Temple