Mec, where's my car?

We have officially moved to Marseille. We're not quite moved into our permanent place, but one more day of painting and then a day-trip to Paris and back to pick up some of our stuff and we'll be ready to settle. It's great being here and discovering another new place, but it's also great to emotionally exhale, this is to be our home. We're here. It hasn't all been sunshine and smiles though:

Our first day didn’t start quite like I expected.

We pulled into Marseille late and unloaded. I drove around for awhile searching for a parking place on the street and eventually found one, then we hit the hay. In the morning I arose with a full day planned. Step one was to get our apartment keys so that I could get our car off the street and into our apartment's parking garage. Before the meters started counting, I walked out to the the road to move my car plenty early. But instead of my car, I found a bustling morning market on the sidewalk. My car was nowhere to be seen. I’d been towed. At least I could buy some jeans, fresh crêpes, fruit, and CDRs.

[I did not see this sign or any like it by the way. I'm told there's a market day no parking sign. But I'm still skeptical.]

By the end of the day I’d still managed to pick up our apartment keys, buy loads of paint, get our electricity turned on, and reacquire our car, though my wallet left much lighter. I visited a side of town I had no prior intention of discovering that day, but I learned a valuable lesson in city street parking. And then I settled in to watch a fantastic UK-UL basketball game (J-O-R-T-S Jorts Jorts Jorts!)... not an all bad start to our time in Marseille.