Marseille

I love Marseille ... I really do ... despite the mountain Ashley made me climb.

At 8:20pm, we arrived at our hotel after walking through a "sketchy" section of Marseille. As our luck would have it, the hotel was closed. We're standing around, debating on what we should do when another guy walks up & starts pushing a buzzer. Luckily the night porter unlocked the doors & allowed us in. We explained our situation - we had a reservation & our train ran 40 minutes late. Instead of arriving at 8:20pm, we should have arrived at 20 minutes to 8. The guy found our paperwork & key & allowed us to check in. On the way to the hotel we had noticed a McDonald's up the street. After much debate about going out & looking for a decent meal, we decided to bite our tongues & eat at McD's. Ashley & I weren't exactly thrilled ... but that was our only option as neither of us seemed too enthused to go searching for an actual restaurant in an unfamiliar city. After hot showers & some BBC tv, we crashed into bed ...

We awoke at 9am, got ready for bed, & headed downstairs to the lobby to see if we could check out at noon instead of 11am. The receptionist informed us we could not, but that we could store our bags while we walked around & pick them up before we headed to the bus station. Ashley & I were sold, so off we went upstairs to collect ours bags & head towards town.

Marseille is an old city ... so old that we found a 5th century abbey. Anyway, it used to be a huge shipping port, so the vielle porte, or old port, still stands & maintains some interesting French sites. First off ... loads of boats ... mostly sail boats ... & how we wished we could be on one that day! It was a perfect day for a sail. Much to our despair, the port still hosts a nice little fish market ... with most of the fish flopping around in water, barely alive. And of course the stench is quite strong. We immediately hurried past the fish & gazed towards the small "mountain" we decided to climb. At the top of this "mountain," is a church called Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde which is absolutely breathtaking, both in view & interior.

From the church grounds, you can look out over all of Marseille. The early morning fog still lay nestled on the mountain peaks & it was quiet as most tourists were not up as early as we were.
You could see Chateau d'Iffi (where the Count of Monte Cristo was filmed) in the waters, beckoning boaters to visit. You could see the old forts guarding the entrance to the port.
It presented a picture of a city that you couldn't help but fall in love with.

(yes, I know this photo is blurry ... most of the interior pics are for some reason. :-()

Following our excursion inside the basilica which presented very impressive artwork & typified the costliness of the Catholic church, we headed south ... down the mountain. Needless to say, the walk DOWN the mountain was a lot easier than the walk up! We had every intention of visiting the old forts, but instead found ourselves at the entrance of an impressive 5th century abbey.
The abbey's simplicity, noticeably in its vaulted ceilings & stone interior, made you feel as if you were back in the 5th century awaiting mass. The abbey also housed many relics from various saints. It is amazing to see where reliquaries turn up.

After our visit to the abbey, we realized we needed to head back to the hotel to collect our baggage so we could get me to the bus station in time to catch the bus to the airport.

It was certainly hard to say goodbye to Ashley & to France ... Ashley & I promised to stay in touch & she promised to visit soon. We had already made plans to go to Paris for New Year's together.

It was disappointing to leave France because I love the country. I love the food, the culture, even the language. It was nice to go to a country where I could speak the language a little bit & could understand what people said to me (for the most part). Plus, I do enjoy the French men (I hope dad isn't reading this! :-D) But I really do love the country. I can't understand why some people don't like it ... they say it's because France doesn't know how to fight wars or that they are more worried about preserving their art & culture & are stuck up & snobby. Granted, you will run into rude people, but that is anywhere - NY, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome. Don't condemn the country because you had a bad experience with one of her people ... & don't condemn a country you have never been to.