Day out in Marseille

Today was a public holiday, which was pretty good timing given the fact that Janne and Katja are in the neighbourhood. My hope had been to take them off the beaten track to show them some of the amazing local nature we're blessed with in this part of the world.

But alas, the weather decided to stay poor, so we decided to go for a more urban destination - Marseille. It's one of those places that has more to offer than meets the eye - it's a "proper city" with its own distinctive character where there's plenty of stuff to see and do, in spite of the bad press the place sometimes unfairly gets.

We decided to stop off at Aubagne, since it's kind of conveniently located on the way, nice stop before an early lunch in Marseille. Unfortunately, there wasn't really much to do in Aubagne on a rainy day like this (the main tourist attraction, a museum dedicated to the famous Provencal writer Marcel Pagnol, was shut) - we were treated to the rather unique spectacle of the foreign legion (their HQ are actually in Aubagne) parading around the main square (today was a public holiday in honour of the the armistice that was signed to end World War I).

We arrived in Marseille just in time for lunch. I'd booked a restaurant I found on Tripadvisor conveniently located in the port, named La Table du Fort. Quite a good choice again, even if the place had a bit of a pretentious, wannabe feel to it. Quite different from the little, cozy restaurant where we'd eaten in Peillon the other day. Still, no complaints about the food - all excellent stuff (if a bit pricey).

Our appetites sated, we headed off to explore Marseille. We naturally started with the port, walking along the newly renovated quays (Marseille was a European capital of culture last year), checking out the cool mirror construction by the fish market, making our way all the way up to the Fort-Saint-Jean and the newly built MUCEM (an architecturally impressive but otherwise somewhat disappointing museum dedicated to the Mediterranean). We were quite happy in that the constant rain had finally stopped.

Still, we didn't have to wait long for it to start dripping down a bit again, which lead us to the decision to jump on the touristy train, which took us up to what cold be considered the main touristy sight of Marseille  -  Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. Rather aptly named (translated into English, Our Lady the guard), this basilica perched at the highest natural point of Marseille at 149 meters, literally watches over the port and the rest of the city. The views are quite simply astounding, especially since the sun finally decided to reveal itself! The neo-Byzantine church is quite impressive as well, unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to explore it, as the little train was waiting to take us back to the port ;-)

Before heading back towards the Cote d'Azur, we decided to have a walk around one of my favourite parts of Marseille, Noailles, just off Canebieres, the main street of Marseille (which, even though it's a word for Cannabis, refers to the hemp rope that was once made here). Walking around Noailles is really like stepping onto another country or continent, the place feels more like Cairo or Marrakesh than a major French city, with its street sellers, shisha bars and tea shops.

That brought an end to a most interesting day out in one of the most fascinating cities of France!