Sunday, August 16, 2009

Beef Crispy Onion Burger!

Chateau d'If, Marseille, France
View from Chateau d'If


Belcodène, France
Calanques de Cassis, France

It’s funny how ad campaigns sometimes get lost in translation. Everywhere….EVERYWHERE…I have seen billboards advertising the “Beef Crispy Onion Burger!” at Quick (a European fast-food chain). How………..not appealing. The greasy picture doesn’t help either. The ad is successful, though. As much as the media tries to make us think otherwise, when French people see English they see cool. They’ve even added the word “cool” (as in the American slang version) to their dictionaries. This reminds me of a story my business teacher told me. When KFC entered the Chinese market, they brought along their “finger-lickin’ good” campaign. It was only after their chicken strips weren’t selling that some smart person realized that the campaign had been lost in translation…in all the Chinese commercials and ads, what in English was “finger-lickin’ good” could only be translated as “so good you’ll eat your fingers off” in Chinese. Yummy!
On another note, I thought the weather here in France would be cooler than what I’m used to in Mississippi; however, temperatures have been just as high. There is less humidity, but my hair is curlier here…I have yet to figure that one out.
Friday afternoon I went to Marseille to pick up my friend Ann. She will be studying in Paris this fall, so we decided to do some traveling beforehand. We are using Oma and Opa’s house as a starting point. Side note: Friday was also the 50th anniversary of the day Oma and Opa met :)
Saturday was very busy. We started at Aix (en-Provence) where we had lunch with Oma and Opa and then went to an exposition of Picasso and Cezanne at musée Granet. The purpose of the exposition was to show the relationship between the work of Picasso and Cezanne. Picasso, a great admirer and collector of Cezanne’s work, found inspiration in Provence and lived in southern France for many years. My favorites were Cezanne’s paintings of L’Estaque (because Oma and Opa live next to it…it’s crazy seeing familiar terrain in famous paintings!) and Picasso’s “Jacquelyn and the Children.” Later that night, Ann and I went to Pauline’s (my roommate from freshman year) country house at Belcodene for a dinner party, but before doing so we headed to Les Calanques de Cassis. We hiked the calanque for about an hour-and-a-half; it is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.
The sightseeing hasn’t ended. Today, Ann and I drove to Marseille, got on a boat to ile d’If, and visited the infamous Chateau d’If. The prison, although it is known for its famous captives, is mostly dedicated to the novel that brought the island its fame: the Count of Monte Cristo. The boat that took us to the island was even named “the Edmond Dantes.”
Tomorrow the real adventure begins: Ann and I will board the train for Nice at Gare St. Charles (Marseille) and make our way to Firenze, Italia! We will spend three days in Florence, three in Rome, and three in Cinque Terre. Ah…la dolce vita!

2 comments:

  1. Are you going to try the beef crispy onion burger?:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. do you remember when you and daddy and your sisters went for a swim off the coast of chateau d'If?

    ReplyDelete

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