A first glance at Marseille

I'll admit it, I spent most of my day in Marseille on the beach, so I don't have a proper feel for the city yet. Ask a local and they'll tell you France's third city is dirty, dangerous and full of rude people, though I'm sure the Marseillais would say much the same about Aix. The rivalry between the two sister cities puts me in mind of that between Bristol and Bath, or Edinburgh and Glasgow- the smaller city pulling tourists in with its looks, the bigger with its personality.

Still, Marseille does make the effort. Making one's way out of the la Gare St Charles, the first view of the city is nothing but stunning, and the city's success as a port has made for some breathtaking architecture through years of development and eventual rebuilding after the second world war.

And so to the beach, where we spent several hours lying on tiny pebbles and getting a little bit sunburnt. Two metro trains and a bus took us out to the coast, and the deep blue waters and white-hot pebble beach we were promised was there with bells on. Or, kites, to be more accurate.

There are few things I love more than unexpected displays and blazes of colour, so the Fête du Vent really won me over. Kites filled the air in their hundreds, either tethered and stationary or flipped about in time to music, while elsewhere children could design their own paper cerfs-volant or get their parents to buy an elaborate oriental design.

Unfortunately, stumbling upon this kind of thing is not a feeling that can be properly communicated through pictures. From a cramped bus and a dark train we stepped out to a bright sky, and the effect was enchanting. The personality of the city makes this possible, its looks make it a soaring success.

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The "9ème art" of the Graphic Novel

Images from the Cité du Livre website Festival de Bande Dessinée, Cité du Livre, Aix-en-Provence For some reason I've never been here before. For some reason it's taken this bibliophile seven months to figure out that there is a place in Aix-en-Provence devoted to literature, a place whose name in Google Translate produces variations on the theme of Book City, Book Estate and Book Ghetto. The books, they are huge. We have discussed before how I feel about books. Books which I recently blabbered about in a vlog are here reproduced in thirty-foot-high concrete form and act as a simple external wall to the Book Ghetto. They are huge. I felt a few tears when I first saw them. Hidden unjustly away behind the gare routière , the Cité du Livre played host this month to a graphic novel festival whose speakers ranged from authors to graffiti artists, and whose slightly shabby walls were transformed into booths full of first drafts, coloured panels and authors' not

Wild and Free!

Well, perhaps not strictly free, I'm yet to ask the owners' permission... I've mentioned before the abundance of weird and wonderful fruit growing around Aix- while at home we're surrounded by blackberries and maybe the occasional sloe, the South of France's climate and soil mean the local flora are just about as strange and foreign as the University system. First up is the humble fig. These are a long way off being ripe, but I always check them anyway on my way into Uni. The tree is in someone's garden but hangs over onto the road quite a bit, and, as my good friend Steph pointed out, for some reason smells like coconut. Both this and all the chestnut trees around make me a little nostalgic of my days as a Wwoofeuse near Alès. I think these are walnuts, although I don't have my Kernel Identification badge so my quick Google search will have to suffice for now. These were spotted on my way to the supermarket,

Writing CV

Let's talk: jenni.ajderian@gmail.com Mild-mannered professional Linguist by day, crime-fighting writer and editor by night. Currently protecting the mean streets of Dublin from bad content. "She's one of the good ones" - FringePig "Best. Review. Ever." - @ObjectiveTalent "This interview has won #edfringe" - @FredRAlexander "I think this is the nicest review I've ever received." - @DouglasSits "Do you give lessons? Jus askin..." - @RockyFlintstone FedEx Digital Infinite Beta blog - 2017 I worked with FedEx Digital as a Technical Copywriter (more info on my LinkedIn Profile ) and produced sassy content for their Infinite Beta blog. The tone here is informal and personable, the aim being to show some personality and attract future team members to the company. How to explain your job title Automated content checkers Technology predictions for 2018 (I wasn't too far off) 3di Technical Commu

Jenni Ajderian

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