Marseille: And the Winner Is...

I decided to organize Marseille, France into a Top 10 Countdown of people, from great to greatest. Enjoy.

#10 - Enormous Mary and Baby Jesus. atop Notre Dame Catherdral (not THE Notre Dame). Just think about this - Baby Jesus' wrist alone is 42 inches around. Sorry blogger did not upload this vertically.

#9 - The Man who preached at church who looked like Lionel Richie. (Thank you, Dell for bringing that to attention. For more on 'Dell' read below.)

#8 - Paul and Marie. ages 5 and 2.5 for whom Betsy Gatewood is au pairing in Aubagne, France.

#7 - YoYo Guy. I met three Swiss guys on my train who are big time YoYo-ers. They happened to be leaving a big toy expo and I charmed them into doing some tricks for me! This was certainly a great surprise and a big boost to my day. For them, a shameless plug: http://www.yoyonation.com/

#6 - Joanna and Dell. Friends of Betsy's. High quality, good humor, good looking, good. Well, 'bon' really. (I think I gleaned that 'bon' means 'good' in French?)

#5 - PePe. (OK his real name is Antoni) Our enjoyable, English-speaking waitor for dinner at this great seafood place on the harbor. He gets #5 because he FOUGHT for us - to be our waitor, elbowed the mean girl out of the way and proceeded to spread his French charm, and also because he gave FREE dessert! Keep the free stuff coming.

#4 - Ann and Julien. Betsy's employers and current Family in France who are altogether wonderful people! They take great care of Bets, are funny, good looking, bought Betsy a Ford Fiesta (love it), and presented me with more hospitality than I could have asked for - to the point of inviting me to live in another house on their property for free for as long as I would like. Hey, I like the French.

#3 - The Baggage Claim Guy at the train station! Oh if there has ever been a clueless American who doesn't even greet you in your own language but smiles a big goofy clueless grin, that was me and this man went above and beyong the call of duty as a citizen of the world to come out from behind the pane of protective kiosk glass and do all necessary steps to stowe my luggage. I mean, I was ridiculous and had NO CLUE. I nearly hugged him when it was all said and done. I refered to him as my baggage claim boyfriend and gave him an enthusiastic wave when I came back to claim said baggage before my train left.

#2 - This guy. I like to call him 'Ankles' because well, you can see his. This man, I would like to point out has a cane, a video camera, is wearing manpris, and striped socks and man I loved 'im. I was kind of obsessed with him and followed him around for a little while, sneakily snapping pictures of him and also his wife, a potent combo, if you ask me.

# 1 - (I know you have been dying of anticipation as you stared at your computer screen for this loooooong post)

The one, the only, some of the best Mount Sidney has to offer......

BETSY GATEWOOD! It's true people, Betsy wins! We have officially been friends now for (count them) EIGHT years. She is a delight, a good friend, showed me unprecedented hospitality and was even willing to pose for a picture in my ridiculously oversiyed new sunglasses. Also note that she is playing the two-tierd air keyboard a la restaurant musician in the other photo. It is for these reasons and hosts of others that Betsy wins Marseille's BEST OF #1.