Pont du Gard

Pont du Gard

Monday, April 5, 2010

Marseilles

We have to remember that on Monday, most museums are closed, especially on Easter Monday which is a holiday in France. We took the TGV train to Marseilles, a 2 1/2 hour journey along the coast, quite beautiful with the blue Mediterranean waters, sunshine and, in places like Cannes, the luxury homes and yachts. Although forecast for fog, the weather in Marseilles was sunny and warm, but with strong winds; near Fort St Jean as we went around a corner near the harbor, it was almost impossible to walk. Marseilles has a history of occupation that goes back 20,000 years and a very diverse population.
Known for seafood, the harbor area is full of poisson (fish) restaurants, in the midst of this is a German restaurant(Maitre Kanter)serving food that would sink most sailboats. Not sure what was on the menu in French that described German plates such as large hunks of some kind of beef with either big strips of bacon or perhaps half a pork belly, covered with sauerkraut and gravy. Although starving, we decided to look elsewhere. The city is quite beautiful with impressive churches, old forts, wide streets and government buildings. The harbor is quite spectacular with lots of pleasure craft, ferries, and harbor tour boats, plus the fishing fleet. We watched the start of a sail boat race leaving the harbor which was interesting because of the high winds.

With the national holiday, most of the large stores were also closed, so Barb was not able to find the special gift for sister Bev that she richly deserves. (Really enjoyed the email). After returning to Nice on the train, we decided to take the light rail from the station to the old town instead of walking. The light rail is about two years old and very nice, but because of the holiday, it was running at lower frequency, thus we were able to experience the sardine can approach to public transportation. Tuesday will be a beach day in Nice, the weather promises to be very pleasant and Barb is still nursing her injured foot so this will also be a healing day.

1 comment:

  1. Keep looking for Bev's special gift! Stores can't be closed all the time : )

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