Thursday, March 4, 2010

Marseille – The French Version of California

Yes, I know…I just got back from spending a week in Italy and I left again! Only this time, I stayed in France and went South – to Marseille.


It was my first time going to the Southern Coast of France. And, I’m glad I made the last minute decision. I didn’t have anything planned for the trip, but Rania, the German assistant, told me that she was going to go alone. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she wanted to do some more traveling since her time is almost up. She is leaving on April 10th, so she wants to make sure she does enough traveling to make her stay in France worthwhile.

I didn’t have much money, so that was the only thing holding me back. But, after talking to Rania, I decided to go. I only have about 2 months left in France and since I am already here, why not take advantage of the already being in Europe. I mean, I don’t know if I’ll have the same opportunity ever again. I have plenty of time to plan trips, so there should be nothing holding me back.

So, after getting our train tickets and packing, we woke up early on Wednesday morning to start our journey to Marseille. We had to take the 6:27am train to Lyon and then wait about 30 minutes to catch the TGV to Marseille. Thanks goodness for the high speed trains – we made it at 9:30 am. But, on Friday, to come back “home” we started our journey back at 3:35 pm and made it back to Villefranche at 10 pm.

Anyways, once we got to Marseille, we walked to the Tourism Office, got our maps and information and made our way to Mazargues – a neighborhood in Marseille. Once we made it there and left our stuff, we made our way back into the city center. We started at the Vieux Port and then made our way up to the Basilique de la Garde – its up on a hill and can be seen from the city. But, as we made our way up to the basilica, it started to get windier and eventually started raining. A storm came in and made it difficult for us to enjoy the view from the top. Once were finished there, we took a bus to the Abbaye de St. Victor – an eerie abbey located near the Vieux Port. When we walked out of there, we were ready to call out tourist plan quits – we couldn’t walk in the rain…

But, once we got back to the port and stepped off the bus, the sun was out and shining! So, we continued to the Hotel de Ville and started out walk around the Panier – the oldest neighborhood in Marseille. It was nice to walk through the small streets and look at the old fisherman houses. The best part was turning the corner and seeing the Cathedrale de la Major – a beautiful multicolored church. We also discovered the Chartite – a old hospice that housed people with difficulties. Walking through the halls felt like we were somewhere in Greece – the stone used to build it and the weather made us feel like we were no longer in France.

We then took bus number 83 along the coast and walked back to the city center along the beach. Seeing this made me feel like I was back in California. The weather is what I imagine it’s like back home right now at this time of year. Plus, it was good to see the ocean again. I’ve gotten used to seeing nothing but mountains around me, and having to deal with cold weather. The only thing that helped me snap back into reality was the fact that I had to speak French.

The following day, we left the city and went hiking in the Calanques – a set of mountains and cliffs that are along the coast of Marseille. These mountains were amazing. They were white and speckled with green plants and trees. The best part about them was the views that we would find after hiking up and down along the path. These drained us completely, but once we made it back to the bus stop, we headed for l’Estaque – another quarter in Marseille known for being the place of inspiration for artists such as Cezanne. We did the Chemin des Peintres – the Painters’ Trail to see the views. It was a bit gloomy when we were there, so it wasn’t as great as it could have been. But, it was still good. With the little bit of energy we had left, we went to the train station to try and change our tickets so we could be back home earlier – but it was good that we didn’t do it because we would have not gone to Cassis – my favorite port town.
Cassis is known by many for being a gem along the coast. And, I can’t say that they are wrong. After checking out from the hostel, we took a bus to Cassis and as soon as we got there, we knew we had made a good choice. For the first time since we got there, the sun was out and shining with no clouds in the sky.

Since we were short on time, we just walked around the port and walked to some beaches and were even able to do a little hike along the Presqu’ile – the peninsula. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Since the train station in Cassis was far from the city, we had to leave at 3:35 to get to the train station in time to catch a train at 4:03 back to Marseille. We then had to wait about 20 minutes before we were able to get on the train going to Lyon Part Dieu. That train took about 3 hours – once we got to Lyon we waited for about another 30 minutes and ran into Leigh – the other English Assistant. All 3 of us then got on the train and made it back to Villefranche – to get ready for the last weekend off and get ready for the last 6 weeks of work.

My time is almost up.

1 comment:

  1. Don't worry, from those pictures and that beautiful description you've persuaded me to move to Cassis. You can visit whenever you like! ;)

    ReplyDelete