mediterranean sea

today and yesterday I experienced the Toulon seaside.  Two of the Michel's church friends took me to the beach yesterday to a "grotto" called Sainte Marguerite.  To get down there we walked this long path that opened up on a little cove with 6 or 7 houses packed in around it.  The houses were exactly what I imagined of Mediterranean architecture with a light blue finish on the doors and a beige stucco covering the walls.  The beach isn't really a beach here in Toulon, it's more like a rock that has enough room for people to hang out.  One of the girls I went with, Claire, took me swimming around this huge rock structure, mentioning off-handedly before we jumped in that it was a little swim.  I didn't realize how out of shape I was in the water, but I managed well enough.  The water was a beautiful aqua blue, and relatively warm.  We climbed and jumped off some of the cliffs here and there.  It was great to go swimming and be active again, and I slept well last night.

Charles heard us talking about the spot we went to yesterday and told me, "I'll take you somewhere cool tomorrow."  So today we went with fins/masks/snorkels and hit the water again in a different spot.  Again, it was a beautiful, warm day so the water felt great.  Charles took me to some different jump spots on the cliffs, but also took me into this tunnel where the water surged in and out, and I couldn't see a thing.  At a certain point it completely blacked out, so we felt around using the walls and eventually saw a faint green light at the other side.  I was reassured to see the light because it was really getting creepy in there.  When I swam out the other side,  I wouldn't have guessed that there was a huge cave under the rock...pretty cool.  Unfortunately there weren't too many fish to look at, but the occasional small fish floated by us.  The sea is much more salty than I imagined, and I even found salt crystals deposited on the rocks that we climbed on.  I think tomorrow we leave for Bayonne, but I'm not positive.  chow time