The journey was very pleasant and relaxed. I arrived by plane and was met at the airport by my landlords – a very friendly French family. I lived in a two-bedroom apartment on their property. The rent was €500 per month. I was very happy to have found this apartment as it was really great and the landlords were very caring. There are definitely apartments in Marseille that are much cheaper, but you should always be careful which arrondissement they are in – the northern ones in particular are very dangerous.

I used public transport in Marseille, but you shouldn’t use it on your own late at night. The monthly card for all means of transportation (RTM) costs €49.50. However, there are only two metro lines, so it sometimes takes longer to get to places where the metro doesn’t go.

I had very friendly and helpful colleagues. So it wasn’t difficult for me to integrate into the team. In contrast to my home office, I didn’t work in land transportation, but in sea freight. It was a bit difficult at first, partly because of the French language and the completely different systems. But with very understanding colleagues, it turned out to be easier than I thought at the beginning.

I was quickly given responsible tasks. I was responsible for the import, I was given the responsibility for an important major customer, which I accompanied completely from the first contact to the arrival of the ship. This meant customer service, order processing, customs document processing, contact with the respective shipping lines and finally organizing the transport of the container from the port to the customer.

As I had the pleasure of living there in the summer, I spent a lot of time on the beach. For me, the best things to see include the Vieux Port, Notre Dame de La Garde, MuCEM (a huge museum with lots of different exhibitions), the Chäteau d’ lf, the Frioules islands and the Calanques massif. For the evening, I highly recommend the R2 Rooftop Bar – it’s wonderful, especially when the sun is setting.

Marseille offers many different shopping centers where you can shop very well. You pay about the same for food as in Germany. You can manage very well on €400 for food and free time, especially if you work for a company in France that gives you so-called “Ticket Resto”. These are 20 €8.80 vouchers that you can redeem in all supermarkets and restaurants during the week. You only pay €3.30 for each ticket, which is deducted directly from your salary.