Marseille France

As a broad brushstroke statement, I'm not a fan of France, mostly due to the French. I know that's harsh. I'm sorry. I'm a people person and I tend not to be shy engaging people; but in my experience as early as 1984 and still true today, they are a difficult group people to engage if you don't speak French. More on that in a bit. But that aside, we really did like Marseille. It was a very provincial town, not too much modern architecture sans the Mucem museum, which was beautifully connected to the St Jean fort.

But I'm ahead if myself. We were in port early and were able to disembark by 8:30 am. The general sentiment of many passengers almost 100 days into this adventure is that they are "tour'ed" out. It's to be anticipated especially after so many consecutive port days. Sometimes, you just need a day "off" to explore at your own pace and not be on a schedule. And that's what many passengers planned to do. In some ports that's as easy as walking off the ship and you're "in town". But in Marseille, downtown is 5 miles from the port, too far to walk. The ship was promoting a 16 euro pp shuttle but in my research, there was a free shuttle. Maybe my research was out of date?? Were pre covid and post covid shuttle options different??? Upon exiting the terminal, we found there was in fact a free shuttle. There were only a handful of passengers who knew about it. Hmmmm, another demerit for Princess. We took it to town and it dropped us off by an exquisite church.

We've seen many many churches on this voyage and this one was in the top 10. Like Ravenna, the art work is mostly mosaics, floors, walls and ceilings.

Then we were in hunt for the petit (little) train to take us to Notre Dame, not the Parisienne version. It is a beacon of the city, high on a hill over looking the city and port. Notre-Dame de la Garde (literally: Our Lady of the Guard), known to local citizens as la Bonne Mère (French for 'the Good Mother'), is a Catholic basilica and the city's best-known symbol. The site of a popular Assumption Day pilgrimage. It was built on the foundations of an ancient fort at the highest natural point in Marseille, a 149 m (489 ft) limestone outcropping on the south side of the Old Port of Marseille.

Here's a pic of it from a distance.

And views from, in and at the basilica.

The petit train is a tram and the ride up this hill was wonderful, very scenic and enjoyable. 9 euro pp was a great deal.

But purchasing the tickets was....well.... a bit of a negative experience. I inquired (in english) to the Frenchman behind the counter which route went to Notre Dame. He responded with something in French. I said befuddled "don't you speak english?", at which he rolled his eyes, gave a loud sigh and responded "yes". I repeated my original question and he begrudgingly answered in English. This is a guy whose job it is to sell tickets to tourists. I find it so odd that French people in public service roles are so consistently adverse to speaking English. Oh well.

After returning to town, we went in search of lunch. It was a much warmer day than anticipated and had me wishing I'd worn shorts. But it was clear that the eateries were still in cold mode as the al fresco dining options were limited. We selected an unassuming pastesserie with cheese bread, onion & cheese bread and pizza. 3 euro each. It was warm and delicious and just what we wanted. Simple, fresh and delicious.

We meandered back toward the ship with lots of little stops along the way, including a chocolatier. After hunting a geocache whose goal was to take us to a scenic overlook, we headed toward the Fort Saint-Jean via the convenient foot bridge over the main road. It is a fortification in Marseille, built in 1660 by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port. Since 2013 it has been linked by two foot-bridges to the historical district Le Panier and to the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations; the latter being the first French national museum to be located outside Paris.

Both provided wonderful views of the city. Here are a selection of pics from those sites and the walk there.

After that, it was an easy walk back to the Suttle and the ship. We had time for a dip in the hot tub before dinner and it felt great. We did over 7 miles of walking and lots of stairs.

The show was a comedian and he was pretty funny. Worth making the time for and I may have some new material as a result.

Tomorrow is Barcelona, a favorite of ours. We will do the HOHO with our friends Scott and Anita. It will be nice to be in a country where we speak the language (and that's all I have to say about that) .