Marseille

During our first week here at La Motte, I had a conversation with the old lady who lives across the road. She told us to go to Marseille on a Sunday as it would be easier to get parked than during the week. Lucien and Christine had already warned us to take the bus as parking in the city was impossible. Jim decided to chance taking the car today, Sunday, and, in fact, it worked out very well for us - no traffic jams and no difficulty in getting parking, albeit expensive. We had time for a coffee and a croissant before the Tourist Office opened at 10 am.  I remember Steph in Toronto telling us that there are 2 seasons in Toronto, winter and construction time. It's construction time in Marseille! This made it difficult to have an uninhibited view of the harbour area and extremely difficult to make our way through as even the smallest journey on foot required various detours. I'm sure, when it is all over, Marseille will look beautiful but there was only a hint of its beauty available to us. I left feeling rather cheated and with a distinct sense of grottiness (dog poo and litter everywhere) which, I'm sure, would not please those Marseillais people proud of their city.

We took our first hop on hop off bus of this holiday as Marseille is very spread out and involves much climbing and descending.

St. Augustin Church, Old Port. Lovely white-washed Church

Vieux Port.

Vieux Port.

Fort St. Nicolas, guarding the harbour on the south side.

Chateau d'If, a fortress, later a prison, on the smallest island of the Frioul Archipelago in the Mediterranean.

Porte de l'Orient.

One of the islands in the Frioul Archipelago.

Helice, sculpture de Cesar, at Corniche Kennedy.

Parc Balneaire du Prado.

It took me a good while to figure out why Jim took this!

Notre Dame de la Garde.

This Church dominates Marseille. City's most well-known landmark.

And again.!

Madonna with Child, copper gilded with gold leaf.

And again!

Mural.

Can't remember!

La Major, Cathedrale de Marseille

Fort St. Jean, guards the north side of Marseille.

Fish Market.

Having completed our bus tour, we decided to take a walk through the old city. This is Notre Dame des Accoules.

This involed numerous steps and hills - as usual!

This cat has ground-phobia and will only travel from car to car!

Le Panier area of Marseille is describes as the Montmartre of Marseille. It is full of character.

Designed to attract attention - and money?

I started counting the corners but gave up after 5.

La Major - the Cathedral

Very impressive!

The old church that had to be compromised to build the Cathedral.

Detail of Cathedral

More detail - actually very beautiful!

It's a massive Cathedral with side altars all along both sides and way behind the main altar. There are many little chapels too. Light not conducive to photos.

Eglise St. Laurent.

Some lovely buildings in Marseille. It probably deserves more time to tour and see more - but put off by construction.