You and Me and the Deep Blue Sea

For Thursday, July 30:

Slept late again. Geez, we’re going to have a big adjustment to our schedules next week when we get back to real life. We had breakfast at our hotel this morning since it was actually covered in our room rate. It was typical European fare with poached eggs, “bacon” that’s really thinly sliced circles of ham, baguette bread with yummy spreads and really good butter, prunes & dried apricots, odd juices, odd yogurt, “stewed fruit” which looked like applesauce, sour cream-type stuff for cereal maybe? and lukewarm coffee. The bread and bacon/ham were pretty good. We sat in a sunroom which overlooked the garden and pool…..very nice.

We took a cab to the old, original part of Marseille built around Vieux Port, “harbor bobbing with pleasure boats and fringed with restaurants”, and we realized how far our hotel is from the main part of the city. This is the oldest city in France, dating back over 2,600 years! The Greeks first settled here, so there is a lot of Greek inspiration in the architecture and décor of the oldest buildings and landmarks. According to our cab driver, this city is larger in area than Paris. No wonder we had trouble finding our way here yesterday!

The first thing we did was buy tickets for a boat ride out to an island where all the locals apparently go to the beach. The water is the most amazing shades of blue. The beaches aren’t what we are used to, rocky not sandy. People sit and lay on big rocks to picnic and tan, looking like sea lions sunning on the big rocks off Pier 39 in San Francisco. We walked around the cliffs and “beaches” and then enjoyed a cold drink (it’s hot!) at the cutest little outdoor café….one of a string of cafes with colorful umbrellas dotting the harbor. On our way back to Marseille, we passed a 16^th century castle prison that was the inspiration for the Count of Monte Cristo…..it’s the Alcatraz of this area!

Next we walked around several neat streets, grabbing a panini along the way, then roamed through the old Greek part of the city. There are scores and scores of ancient apartment buildings in this working-class neighborhood, with laundry hanging out to dry on this beautiful day. We went in La Vieille Charite which had a beautiful domed chapel. Churches here are much more ornate than previous ones we’ve visited.....you definitely can tell we’re closer to Italy and Greece.

We went to the Vieux Port Cathedral which is just huge and very ornate (think: My Big Fat Greek Wedding). It’s just amazing how beautiful each cathedral is…..I never tire of going through them. After a long walk back to the harbor, we took a tram through a very hilly part of the city, all the way to the top of a small mountain overlooking the city and the sea. There perched on top is Notre–Dame-de-la-Gard. The view of the city, the Mediterranean as well as the inside of the church were breathtaking. The interior of the cathedral is very ornate (the Greek touch) and the importance of shipping is clearly represented in the décor. There are framed pictures along the walls depicting various ships at sea, seafaring artifacts are everywhere and there are several vertical strings hanging from the ceiling with little boats dangling from them, kind of like mobiles over a crib. This was just too cool.

We “trammed” down the mountain through teeny, tiny winding, extremely steep streets…..guess the past couple of days of driving through extremely narrow streets in Avignon and going roundy-round the mountains yesterday on our lavender scavenger hunt were preparation for this experience….I didn’t even flinch! We took a cab to our last landmark from the “Top 10” book which was Palais Longchamp, “the greatest expression of Marseille’s 19^th century golden age”. The early evening sun (it’s still sunny at 7pm) shining on the Greek columns, arches and fountains of this structure with the incredibly deep blue sky as a backdrop was just incredible. Ahhhhh!

We took a cab back to the harbor. As many cab rides as we took today, we still managed to walk over 20,000 steps, according to Jeff’s fancy dancy pedometer! We found a group of restaurants on a side street just off the main drag. At the intersection of two pedestrian streets were four of the neatest restaurants, one on each corner. I picked the most appealing (using my criteria of appraising décor, crowds and table settings which has worked every time except “Morocco in Avignon night”) and I picked a winner this time with Le Mero Bleu. OMG, this was the best meal I’ve had in ages. I decided if I’m eating two blocks from the Mediterranean Sea, I best try something the area is known for, so I went with the waiter’s suggestion of Bouillabaisse (marmite des delices de la mer) ….. essentially fish stew, which was a huge bowl of three kinds of fresh fish (pretty sure they were swimming in the sea earlier today), mussels, shrimp, scallops (the sweetest, best I’ve ever eaten) and buttery potatoes in the most delicious stew, topped by a cute, petite crab. It was served with grated Parmesan cheese and croutons like at Sandy McGee’s. I definitely out-ordered Jeff who had, well I don’t even remember what he had. Our coffee was served in such tiny cups (no, it wasn’t espresso) that we finished in a couple gulps, and then we took a walk around the harbor at night. The city was lit so pretty on one side, and to the other side, the dark water of the sea had the glow of the half moon reflecting on it.

Initially, we were unimpressed with Marseille on our way into the city yesterday, granted it was after the harrowing mountain drive, the dead GPS experience and the fact that we entered the city on the seedy side. So the unexpected fun and beauty of today made for a totally great experience for us.

Click here for today's pictures. Click on Slideshow, then click on Full Screen in upper right.