{"id":542,"date":"2023-10-20T11:41:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T09:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/?p=542"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:20:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:20:58","slug":"research-stay-in-marseille","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/2023\/10\/20\/research-stay-in-marseille\/","title":{"rendered":"Research stay in Marseille"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_542 social_share_privacy clearfix 1.6.4 locale-en_US sprite-en_US\"><\/div><div class=\"twoclick-js\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\njQuery(document).ready(function($){if($('.twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_542')){$('.twoclick_social_bookmarks_post_542').socialSharePrivacy({\"txt_help\":\"Wenn Sie diese Felder durch einen Klick aktivieren, werden Informationen an Facebook, Twitter, Flattr, Xing, t3n, LinkedIn, Pinterest oder Google eventuell ins Ausland \\u00fcbertragen und unter Umst\\u00e4nden auch dort gespeichert. N\\u00e4heres erfahren Sie durch einen Klick auf das <em>i<\\\/em>.\",\"settings_perma\":\"Dauerhaft aktivieren und Daten\\u00fcber-tragung zustimmen:\",\"info_link\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.heise.de\\\/ct\\\/artikel\\\/2-Klicks-fuer-mehr-Datenschutz-1333879.html\",\"uri\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\\\/intern-abroad\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/20\\\/research-stay-in-marseille\\\/\",\"post_id\":542,\"post_title_referrer_track\":\"Research+stay+in+Marseille\",\"display_infobox\":\"on\"});}});\n\/* ]]> *\/<\/script><\/div><ul>\n<li>Chemistry M.Sc<\/li>\n<li>France, Marseille<\/li>\n<li>Aix-Marseille Universit\u00e9<\/li>\n<li>06\/2023 \u2013 09\/2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The possibilities for doing an internship abroad are endless. This made it difficult for me to decide, so I had to narrow down my choices. Thanks to my professor, I got in touch with iSM2 at the University of Aix Marseille in France.\u00a0 It was a dream for me to live by the sea for once in my life and improve the French I<\/p>\n<p>learned in school. I emailed my contact person at iSM2 and she was happy about my interest and offered me an internship right away.<\/p>\n<p>I found my accommodation through the website &#8220;La Carte des Coloc&#8221;. For a room of about 14 m^2 in an 80 m^2 apartment with 4 bedrooms I paid about 530 \u20ac per month. The start was difficult because there was no wifi and no electricity when I arrived. We had no electricity for 3 days and I had to sign a contract with EDF myself. Luckily my contact person at iSM2 helped me with a 30 minute phone call and we had electricity. But the tale of woe with this apartment and the agency &#8220;Colivers&#8221; would not fit into this report. Short conclusion: I do not recommend &#8220;Colivers&#8221; to others&#8230;. The apartment was located in Castellane, a very good area to live. From Castellane there are two metro lines, one of the three streetcars, many buses going to Cassis, La Ciotat and Marseille beaches and 15 minutes walk to the city center &#8220;Vieux Port&#8221;. A lot of restaurants are also nearby: McDonalds, Burger King, Vapiano, Go Ramen (5\/5!), Shuriken Sushi (5\/5!), \u2026 The boulangerie is also across the street and open 24 hours. To buy food, there are the supermarkets: Monoprix (super expensive), Franprix (close, small and expensive), Carrefour and Lidl (further away, 10 minutes walk). Compared to Germany, food is more expensive: in the supermarket and in the restaurants. In a bar, beer costs 6-8 \u20ac (50 cl) and long drinks for the same price. For a meal in a restaurant you pay between 15 \u20ac (cheap) and 23 \u20ac. The younger people go to Cours Julien and La pleine. Here there are many bars and restaurants at a cheaper price.<\/p>\n<p>A lab day was always between 9\/10 and 17\/18. I took the metro and then the bus, which took about 30 minutes. Unlike in Germany, the entrance to the university is guarded.<\/p>\n<p>The PhD student I was allowed to work with introduced me to her research and soon I was working independently. I was working on the catalysis of the degradation of cellobiose with LMPO-like catalysts. In a short time, I collected a lot of data using UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and HPLC. During the group meeting on Friday, I presented my results. The group was mixed with French, Indians, Brazilians, Spanish, Americans and probably more, everyone is welcome, and I felt very comfortable. Since I was there in the summer, the lab was pretty empty, and so was the campus. Everyone was fleeing the heat. I was able to try touch rugby on campus during a couple of practice sessions. It was a lot of fun, and I was sad that the practice was discontinued during the hot summer months. For lunch, you could bring something and eat with the others in the break room, or you could go there while the cafeteria was still open.<\/p>\n<p>In my free time I spent a lot of time at the beach. My favorite places in Marseille are Vallon des Auffres, Prado (very beautiful sunset and many different beaches), Maldorm\u00e9 and Plage Catalans is nice because it was only 15 minutes from my apartment. I spent a lot of time in the Calanques, especially in the Calanques of Cassis. And there, the Calanque Port Pin is my favorite place. Once you reach the beach, you hike and climb a bit on the right side and then you reach a rock where you can lie down. The calanques of the C\u00f4te Bleue are also very beautiful. There my favorite place in La Redonne is<\/p>\n<p>the port and the Calanque des Anth\u00e9nors. To visit this place you can use the TER and with the Pass C\u00f4te Bleue you only pay 5 or 6 \u20ac and you can take the train all day. Many people also like Niolon, but I haven&#8217;t managed to go there yet, but I will on my next visit. Since I am very interested in sports, I tried climbing for the first time. I did it three times in the Calanques and I also bouldered in Arkose. It was so much fun and it is definitely a sport that I will continue to do in Germany. With Monde Vertical I discovered the Calanque of Sormiou and the one in Cap Canaille. The view of the different types of rocks and the sea was fantastic!<\/p>\n<p>Since I was in a shared apartment, it was easier to make friends. But I also met some people through Bumble and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). Unfortunately, the ESN didn&#8217;t offer any activities during the summer. But Marseille is so friendly and open that it&#8217;s easy to make friends even when walking around the city alone. I was also allowed to invite four different visitors so that we could explore the city together. I also had the opportunity to travel a bit. With a friend we went to Nice and Gordes du Verdon. Gordes du Verdon was fantastic and the Aqua rando where you float through the gorge was a lot of fun with an amazing view. Nice was a nice smaller town, but you could feel the different atmosphere. People were more well dressed and seemed more arrogant. We never had any really friendly service in the restaurants&#8230;. After our trip, we were very happy to return to Marseille. That&#8217;s what I love about Marseille. You can be who you want to be, and people don&#8217;t judge you. Some other tips in Marseille are: Bouillabaisse TURFU for a delicious<\/p>\n<p>and small portion of bouillabaisse, Flashback at Vieux Port for a drink, co-working, lunch&#8230;, Green Meal for vegan and vegetarian food, Friche la Belle Mai as a nice event location, generally the metro card &#8220;la carte&#8221;, a visit to Cassis: a very cute little town, L&#8217;Art Hach\u00e9: a hidden bar at La Pleine with jazz music (when we were there) and they only accept cash.<\/p>\n<p>Feedback: Before I came to Marseille, I seemed very happy in Germany and didn&#8217;t want to leave. In the first weeks I could not imagine life in Marseille. Compared to Germany, it is very chaotic and disorganized, rules have less importance, and it is very dirty (the city has a big garbage problem&#8230;). But once I got used to the city and the lifestyle, I started to love it. I had a fresh start and could be who I wanted to be. I made some friends and the scenery with the Calanques is just amazing! I was very sad to leave Marseille and the lab, even though I didn&#8217;t quite like the topic in the internship. I gained a lot of valuable experience, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be in Marseille and in the iSM2 lab! I am very sad to leave and if a new opportunity to come back to Marseille arises, I will be very happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chemistry M.Sc France, Marseille Aix-Marseille Universit\u00e9 06\/2023 \u2013 09\/2023 The possibilities for doing an internship abroad are endless. This made it difficult for me to decide, so I had to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"c2c_always_allow_admin_comments":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,87,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein","category-chemistry","category-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1431,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/intern-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}