Notre-Dame de la Garde

One of the places I visited while in France was Notre-Dame de la Garde. The pictures you see in the slide show show some of the inside of the church and some of the view from the hill the church is on. I will now copy and paste from Wikipedia so that I get all the info right! For some reason I didn't get any pictures of the whole thing so if you are interested in seeing that visit wikipedia.

Notre-Dame de la Garde is a basilica located in Marseille, France. This ornate Neo-Byzantine church sits atop the signal hill of La Garde, the highest natural point in Marseille, being a 162 m (532 ft) limestone outcrop on the south side of the Vieux Port. As well as being a major local landmark, it is the site of a popular annual pilgrimage every August 15th (Assumption). Local inhabitants commonly refer to it as la bonne mère (the good mother).

Statue of the Virgin and Child on the belfry
Commissioned by Saint Charles Eugene de Mazenod, then bishop of Marseille, and designed by the architect Jacques Henri Esperandieu (1829-1874), the church was built between 1853, when the foundation stone was laid on September 11, and 1864. The site was a 13th century chapel also dedicated to Our Lady of the Guard, filled with the ex-votos of safely returned sailors. It shared space atop the hill with a 16th-century fortification established for Francois I, built in 1525, whose own salamander badge is to be found within the present basilica's north porch.
The basilica is surmounted by a 60 m (197 ft) belfry topped with a huge statue of the Virgin and Child, visible across much of the city and from miles out at sea. The basilica took five years to build and required 170,000 tons of material, including 23 shiploads of marble and porphyry from Italy.

In the nave, facing the altar
The interior is decorated with inlaid marble, mosaics and murals. Many of the walls are covered with hundreds of ex-votos, including paintings, plaques, model boats, war medals and even football shirts given by players and supporters of Olympique de Marseille, the local football team

Pick-up time.

Here is a video I took while we were hanging out at Mentanna's house in France. This video has been posted mainly so my family can see Mentanna and her boys. Enjoy!


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A sophisticated, well-refined French experience.

Ok...time for a fun story from France. Pictures not included.

The night Mentanna and I had the light French meal I offered to go buy the baguette we would be eating. (For pictures of the meal see one of yesterday's posts.) I asked for specific directions to the bakery knowing how easily I get lost if I'm not paying attention. My direction sensors must have been on already because she told me it was a 10 minute walk close to where we had walked two days before, and I knew exactly how to get there. So after a little scribble of a map was made I set out. I didn't take the map with me knowing I knew exactly where to go. I know, I know...most of you are thinking I got extremely lost...I've set it up that way. The reality is I found the shop with no problems whatsoever. What happens next is what flustered me. I walked into the shop, confident in my bonjour, and saw the baguettes in a basket behind the counter. I realized that I had no idea how to say one baguette in French. I guess I expected to be able to pick it up myself. The nice lady at the store said something to me. I have no idea what. I held up one finger...my pointer finger then quickly switched to my thumb because I had a dim memory from my last trip to France (2 years and 9 months ago) of Mentanna telling me that in France the thumb was one. I said "baguette" and gave the lady the thumbs up sign...which I now know wasn't exactly accurate...it's more a thumb to the side gesture. I'm sure she was thinking "yabanci" which is Turkish for "you're not from around these parts are you?" or whatever the equivalent is in French. She gave me my baguette and told me how much it cost. Again I had no idea what she said, but Mentanna told me before I left that it would be less than a Euro. I took a Euro out of my pocket, put it on the counter and watched the lady try to figure out how much change she needed to give me. I saw her staring at the coin with a confused look on her face. I looked at the coin and noticed Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, staring back at me. Ooops...that would be a lira...not a Euro. I didn't even realize I had lira in my pocket. I pulled out another coin. Again, Ataturk graced it's face. Oh no...did I have any Euro? Thankfully I found a 2 Euro coin and paid with that. By that point I didn't know how to say thank you or goodbye in French. My 5 French words had escaped me. The nice lady said something else to me so I just smiled, turned Asian on her and backed out the door bowing several times, because I had no idea what else to do. I walked back to Mentanna's house giggling the whole way. I'm sure that several people I passed and the lady waiting at the crosswalk with me wondered what was funny and if I was in my right mind. Fun times! Good memories!

Oui Wee Wii

One of the things I enjoyed most in France was watching Mentanna play on her wii. I had heard of a wii, but I hadn't ever had the opportunity to see one. Quite hysterical I must say. I took several videos of Mentanna playing tennis; however, for one reason or another none can be viewed on the blog. Scott, Mentanna's husband, said that I should buy a wii and bring it back to Turkey. It would be the right voltage so we wouldn't need an adaptor. I thought about it and called Brian to see what he thought. He loved the idea. So as a souvenir from my trip I bought a wii plus a couple of extra games since they will be hard to find here. When the kids asked me what I brought them this morning I pulled it out. Erica and Will were especially excited. Will was so excited that he said he was going to cry...and then he did. I think it was because he was tired and missed me and then the happiness of a wii brought it out. Erica almost cried as well. Jacob and Anna Grace were excited, but enjoyed laughing at Will and Erica crying more than being excited about the wii. Here is a video I took of Brian playing the boxing game today. Again...it makes me laugh to see people making fools of themselves playing this game. I also boxed with Erica today, but nobody got that on video, thank goodness!


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My favorite picture!

This is Mentanna...for those of you who were wondering!

Dinner

One of the nights after the kids were in bed Mentanna and I had a light French meal. It consisted of a baguette, duck liver pate, pickles, olives, two kinds of cheese, and sausage.


The sausage was very fatty but tasted really good.


Here I am showing the duck liver pate spread on a piece of bread. Ready, set, taste!


Tasting the pate. It wasn't bad. Not very livery flavored, but I think it would taste better either hot or cold. The room temperatureness of it kind of reminded me of cat food.


Mentanna showing off the sausage and pate which she loves.

Day 2 in France

Hanging out at the old port in Marseille. Mentanna can comment on here with some nice historical information on the port. She told me, but I don't remember it all. Something about being the oldest port on the Mediterranean...


Turning away from the water this is the view.

France Post #1

I know you are waiting on the edge of your seats for stories and pictures from my trip to France. Here is the first of several posts.

I arrived in France on Sunday, Sept. 30. On Monday Mentanna and I went to Aix, France just to walk around and see the city. I handed my camera to Mentanna and she took a series of street and fountain pictures. Here they are in this slideshow. I didn't put any captions on them, because I don't know anything about them. Also, we aren't in any of the pictures. We also ate at a sidewalk cafe where I ate fish tajine which isn't French...but it was yummy!

Bonjour

Just wanted to say hi and all. I'm still in France and having fun! I've noticed that several people have checked my blog in the last few days so I thought I would check in myself. I'll save pictures and stories for when I am home. Au revoir!

Out of town.

In 14 hours I will be leaving my house for the airport. I'm going to France to visit my best friend from high school who also happened to be my roommate in college for two years. We've been through a lot together over the 21 years we've known each other. I can't wait to make more good memories!

So...that means I won't be posting for about a week. Stories and pictures to follow.

Sleeping late.

Tomorrow we start another "season" of soccer at the military base in town. I love that my kids get to play, but I hate having to get up and get ready on a Saturday morning. It's the one morning that we can sleep in...usually only until 8 or so but still! Even the kids appreciate that. We've trained them well. They sleep until they want to get up and then if we aren't up yet they take care of breakfast for themselves...usually just cereal. They don't come in our room so we can sleep late, too. And then there's tomorrow. Our first game starts at 8:45 am. That means we have to leave our house by 8:30 which means we have to get up before 8am...on a Saturday! Oh well...it's for the kids.

Full

I want to write. I feel the need to create. I feel full. The problem I have is that it is just full...not full to overflowing. Many times when I feel this way I start to write and something spills out. I've felt the need to write for several weeks and have spent many moments staring at my computer or a piece of paper and nothing drips over the edge of full. I've written several uninspired messes over the last couple of weeks. Some I shared, but most were filed in the bathroom trash can. I think my muse is emotion...generally a overwhelmingly happy feel good thing...although deep despair does wonders as well. I haven't felt great tides of emotion sweep over me in the last several weeks. I have felt many things, but none to the point of overflow. I go to France on Sunday for a full week. I am extremely excited about that. I find myself almost overflowing just thinking about it. Maybe my muse is there.

Culture

Last night I was looking through the very messy top drawer of my nightstand. I have all kinds of pieces of paper, notebooks, quotes from people, things I've written, and various writing instruments in it. I don't know what I was searching for...inspiration maybe. I did come across this interesting note I made while on a trip to the Black Sea.

A local older woman was telling a young mother with a baby, "Your baby is spitting up so much, because YOU aren't wearing thick enough socks so your milk is getting cold."

A piece of advice for all you new moms out there!

Communication

A conversation between Brian and myself that took place on the balcony last night.

Brian: Chad's going to drive us to Antalya for our golf trip.

Natalie: I am so excited I'm going to France on Sunday!

Brian: I bet Chad is going to whip up on us.

Natalie: I need to get my pants back from the terzi so I can pack them.

Brian: I hope Chad drives his car better than I drive a golf ball.

Natalie: I can't wait to have bacon and ham...bring on the pork!

Brian: Greg got a new driver that's bigger than Eric's head!

Natalie: I wonder what the weather in Marseille is like this time of year.

Brian: I think it's going to be hot in Antalya.

2 people + 2 trips + 2 conversations = 1 funny story!

Ramadan Drummer Update

A couple of nights ago the drummer came to our door wanting us to give him a tip for his services. I looked through the peephole and decided I didn't want to answer the door. I wasn't about to give the guy money for waking me up in the middle of the night when I didn't want to be awake!

One of our friends pretends like he doesn't understand what the guy wants and offers him 20 lira for his drum. People come to the door selling stuff occassionally so he just "assumes" the drum is for sale. I would love to see the drummer's face when he realizes that someone wants to buy his drum! And I wonder how much money it would take.

My blog

From an adoring fan...

"I love your blogs! The Swindoll one was just a kick, and the smells you talked about was poetry. You should write a book or your memoirs when you get home. Seriously, it would be a great read, and some people still like paper in their hands."

Actually it was from my mother-in-law who is an adoring fan of my blog.

I used to scrapbook, but that was before Turkey. I tried scrapbooking for the first two years I was here and realized I didn't enjoy it as much as before. Maybe because there were no friends to do it with and because it was only pictures and I needed more space to write! I had more to say about what was happening! (I know...I could have written more in my scrapbooks, but I didn't want to...they were more like photo albums with captions than a scrapbook.) Then in February of last year I started blogging. It was like a combination of scrapbooking and journaling on my computer! I loved it. I would love to have my blog in book form just for the memories and to show unsuspecting grandkids how cool their grandparents were back in the day! I wonder if there is any way to have it printed and bound.

One party after another!

Our most wonderful and truly delightful friend, Derya, is moving! Actually she is just going away for a few years to get her doctorate, but it feels like she is leaving for good! 3 years is a long time! So to celebrate Derya we had a weekend of parties. Brian calls them "kiss off" parties!


Party #1 - Derya (green shirt) worked with most of these people at some point during the last 5 years! She put together marble mosaics with 3 of them, taught Turkish to 6 of them, cried with 4 of them, fought with 4 of them, but loves all of them! Just look at the smile on her face...maybe she's happy to be leaving this mixed up, messed up group! Hmmmm....


Party #2 - Friends...notice Brian and I made it to both parties! We did a great job of weaseling our way into Derya's work and friend circles!


For party #2 Liz made these great shirts with Derya's face on them! I love it! I almost wore it to church the next day. Now anytime we have a get together and miss Derya I can just wear my shirt and send her pictures! It will be like she's celebrating with us! Brian just thought we were getting rid of Derya with these "kiss off" parties...but he was wrong!

Anna Grace and Jacob

Anna Grace and Jacob are 19 months apart in age. Jacob is in 4th grade, and Anna Grace is in 3rd grade. They could be good friends, but instead they choose to do whatever it takes to get on each others' nerves most of the time. Here are some pictures of them getting along...






And one picture of how they really feel!

Actually they do get along most of the time, but they do tend to be the ones at each other the most as well!

Caramel Apples

I love them. But even better than eating a caramel apple on a stick is melting the caramel in a bowl and dipping apple slices in it. That way you get lots of caramel with every bite! Yum!!!

I was eating apple slices dipped in caramel last night when our friend, Adam, was here. I mentioned my absolute and complete love for them, and he said "blog it". (I even shared a slice with him - which my husband would be proud of me for since I tend to be stingy when it comes to things I can't get in Turkey...caramel!) (Oh, thanks to the Adam SS class at CFBC for the bags of caramels...I'm enjoying them!) (Wait...how appropriate is that?!?...the Adam SS class sent them, and I shared with Adam here!)

I must also mention that before my caramel apple I had a BLT for dinner! A great group of guys arrived from the states on Wednesday, and they surprised us with bacon and ham. We ate the entire box of bacon last night and enjoyed every bite of it! As Will was making his sandwich he clinked the knife in the mayonnaise jar and said "I love the sound of a knife in a mayonnaise jar". I love that! He is his momma's boy!

So, all in all, it was a great food night!

Let's celebrate!

Ahoy, me heartys! I just thought I should pass along some interesting news today. I have just been made aware of the holiday that is today...International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I do feel somewhat frustrated at the fact that my day is almost half over. I didn't get to celebrate it for the full day, but there's always next year! Because I know you will want more information on this international holiday I have included the wikipedia link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day