9am, Marseilles

au début:

I land in Marseilles at 9am and canter half-crazed to the handicapped WC, next to the luggage carousel where the rest of the passengers wait, patiently. I'm changing my face, my vocabulary and my scarf as quickly as possible without offending the necessary skill of mon maquillage, but it's difficult: the bathroom smells and I'm awful looking in the bright bright halogen light of the bathroom's small enclosure and I've need of tools interred six-inches into my carry-on. Trying to keep things clean and off the suspiciously mottled floor, I splash around in the sink, wash my face, brush my teeth, endure a quick acidic scrub and moisturize before rouging, plucking and lining my eyes for les français qui aiment à regarder meaning, mostly, the airport cabbies who like to look as much as anybody. It pleases me stupid to think that they might mistake me for une vraie Française and I try to act aloof in a way that might suggest it's so.

The airport's recognizable. Two years ago after spending a week with a girlfriend at her apartment in Nice, my flight out of Marseilles left too early to take a train and not wanting to pay the exorbitant price of an airport hotel, (and, indeed, unable to: all surrounding hotels were booked solid for the night,) I made the decision to spend an amphetamine-laden night, awake, en plein air, on an islet of airport lawn.

Marseilles is hot and the cabbies throw me the expected and desired glances that I've prepped my face for, and I commit thoroughly to an imitation-French demeanor, which is best be described as, haughty.

I need to take a bus to the train that will go to Avignon, centre-ville but my card isn't working in the machine (apparently American credit cards are lacking a particular chip that all European credit cards have) and before I have a chance to complain I'm waiting for the bus. The bus arrives, the trip to the train is quick and in the space of several conversations with some english-speaking passengers, I'm off the train and heading into Avignon, centre ville