Marseilles and the Mistral

This weekend I went on possibly the best excursion so far. We went down to Marseille for the day and with various echos of ‘danger, pickpockets, mafia’ ringing in our ears we weren’t sure what to expect. Of course I kept my valuables close and of course we had no problems at all. It is a big city with a lot of people from all over the world, its one of the biggest port cities in the world. We played tourist all day, occasionally having to explain to people that we would actually prefer to speak with them in French as we are here to learn!

The best part of the day was a 2 and a half hour boat trip out to see the Calanques, basically huge white cliffs rising out of the sea with the occasional little cove or inlet, sometimes with a beach - absolutely beautiful!! The colours were magnificent the blue of the ocean (pale blue closer to the little beaches), the white cliffs and the green shrubs and bushes growing on the steep hill sides.

The trip was also great fun because while it was a beautiful day, the mistral was doing its thing and blowing us all over the place! The sea was pretty big after we left the safety of the harbour and we were tossed about a bit - exciting! Happily none of us were sick and we all enjoyed the ride. The boat took us past the Isle de something or other which was the setting for the famous Count of Monti Cristo. There are tall fortresses on each side of the harbour mouth to protect it from attack and a beautiful church on the hill, Notre Dame de la Garde with a ten metre tall, gold leafed statue of the madonna and child. Pretty impressive!

We also did a couple of trips on the Petit Train, up to the Notre Dame and also over into the old part of the city. It is a beautiful city in parts with tall buildings with any number of beautiful balconies. The city has been here since about 600 BC although it was heavily damaged in the second world war.

After my big day yesterday, just a quiet day at home today with lots of washing to do. Thanks Mistral - it all dried in no time!! Although, not so much thanks for the dust I had to get out of the cabinon!!