Trip to Marseille

Marseille is only 74 kilometers away from our holiday domicile in Mouriés. This enticed to take a trip there by car on June 1, 2014. We could take the autoroute A54 from St-Martin-de-Crau, but we save the "péage" (toll) and use the free D113 running parallel to the A54. The road leads past Salon-de-Provence and near Vitrolles we may use the A7, the "Route du Soleil". It is free until its end in Marseille. For a while with us is the Mediterranean Sea to the right of us. And before us, the sea of houses of Marseille. Now, the autoroute is finished. It migrates in the road network of the second largest city in France close to the main train station Saint Charles . We turn right into a small street in a quarter where mainly North Africans live as we can see. There we find parking between some housing blocks. (Now, we are a little anxious in the light of this fact - but without cause)

Up to the Old Port, the Vieux Port it is not too far. Therefore we can walk there. When we arrive there, a huge turbulences "welcome" us. A cyclist demo is just starting with a lot of noise. They protest against the bad conditions for cyclists in Marseille.U-shapd around the harbor there are many stalls selling freshly caught fish and seafood, confectionery such as traditional "macarons", the famous soap from Marseille, fruit and vegetables and of course many souvenirs.

[Enlarge the pictures by clicking]

The cyclist demo starts

Notre Dame de la Garde

The soap seller

Vieux Port

Bouillabaise ingredients

Macarons

We stroll a little along the stands, go in a café and decide for a ride with the small tourist train , the Petit Train. It heads alongside the beautiful quayside, the so called "La Corniche", where we will meet again the cyclist demo. We receive information about Marseille by loudspeaker, but we cannot understand even the German translations because behind us "frolic" Italians making one heck of a racket . At any time the train turns into a small street winding upward in many curves until we reach the cathedral Notre Dame.

Le Petit Train

La Corniche

Now uphill

Notre Dame de la Garde

Das prunkvolle Innere

The golden dome

Votiv pictures

View of the Île d'If

The port entrance to the Vieux Port

The church itself is an imposing building - built in the 2nd half of the 19th century in neoromanic-byzantinic style. The interior overwhelms us with its golden domes, figures and red and white striped columns. On the walls are votive offerings where citizens thank Notre Dame (Mother Mary) for the rescue of shipwrecked or sick.
The view from this hill is of course phenomenal. You can seee the whole city, the sea with the famous island If with the Chateau d'If, where the Count of Monte Cristo was allegedly imprisoned and the hilly surroundings around the city. Now, we use the train again to go back to the Old Port.

The new museum MUCEM

Shop in the Panier quarter

Front door

Im Pnier

Street view in the Panier quarter

Art in the quarter

Street view in the Panier quarter

After we had a small lunch in a restaurant near the harbour, we discover the old trendy quarter "Le Panier", west of the harbour basin. Many small lanes and squares, cozy taverns, artists ateliers and imaginatively designed shops giving the district a specific atmosphere. Unfortunately, time is much too short to enjoy all of it. But perhaps it is possible to visit Marseille again next year 2015.