We knew we were going to have a long day today, with a lot of time in the sun and a late night football match. We soaked up every last minute of air conditioning in our hotel room and then headed out to catch the metro and then the bus to the sailing venue.

We weren’t sure what to expect, despite Chuck reading everything he could find about the venue. The spectator guide indicated many interactive fan activities, like playgrounds and a swimming area on the beach. We (correctly) surmised that there would likely be a lot of the races that we wouldn’t be able to see live, thus the need to keep the visitors entertained otherwise. When we arrived, we explored the venue for a bit and then headed to the lookout area to watch the mixed dinghies take to the sea. It was interesting to watch the parade move past, but they were quickly out too far to sea for us to follow any of the action, so we decided to go in search of a shady place to rest.

The spectator guide also advertised shady areas where guests could recover from sun and heat. Unfortunately, there was not nearly enough real estate in the shade and certainly not enough chairs for a crowd this size. However, our tickets would allow us to scan in and out during various windows in the day, so we left and headed next door to the fan zone.

Through careful stalking, we managed to get a couple of spots on a shady couch in the fan zone where we camped out for a bit, taking turns saving our seats to order lunch and explore the fan zone. We enjoyed the shade and the lunch (and cold rosé) and watching France triumph in women’s handball on the big screen in the fan zone before heading back to the sailing venue (before our re-entry window closed).

Most of the sailing had been paused due to a weather delay at that point, the delay being on account of not enough weather. The remaining events were mostly moved to the next day. However, because we had booked a “Welcome Aboard” cruise around the harbor, we still had a couple hours to kill before our scheduled departure. We found a spot in the shade to relax and people-watch and eventually went to see if there might be room on an earlier cruise. We were in luck! They were able to sneak us on the one 30 minutes prior to our time, which proved to be really enjoyable – great views and just fast enough to feel the breeze but not so fast that we had to hold on to our hats.

We quickly headed back to the hotel to freshen up and drop off some of the extra items we didn’t want to take to the stadium with us for the women’s football semi-finals. We both started to feel the fatigue of being outdoors for so long, even though we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. But we made it to the stadium with plenty of time to spare.

We were excited to see Marta play for Brazil, but because of some red card activity in a prior match, she was not permitted to play in this match. Nevertheless, it was a great match. Brazil quickly took the lead and we left a little early to beat the crowds to the metro station, since Becky especially was feeling pretty drained. We’ll rest up tonight, do a little exploring in the morning, and then catch a train back to Nice.

Today’s Highlights

• A parade of dinghies and a lot of jokes about the word “dinghies”
• A cold glass of rosé in the shade
• A cruise around the Marseille Olympic harbor
• Women’s football!
• Not getting pick-pocketed

Tomorrow’s Proposed Adventures

• Final sight seeing in Marseille
• Catching the train back to Nice
• Hopefully not getting pick-pocketed