Marseille

Today we made a trip into Marseille for the day and it was amazing in every single way! We took a bus into Marseille this morning and got there around 10:30. Marseille is the 2nd largest city in France. (Paris being #1.) Our day was exhausting but every bit of it was spectacular. 

When we first arrived we went to Vieux Port (Old Port). There were tons and tons of boats. The water was beautiful. Cafés lined the streets in every direction along the water here. It was a beautiful day to tour the city but it was VERY windy. Remeber "le Mistral" I mentioned earlier? Yeah, well it definitely made itself known today. 

 Which made it very difficult to take pictures..

Vieux Port was a really neat area. There are were quite a few tourists around. We saw someone spray painted "Tourist go home." I can imagine that they get tired of having so many tourists around in their hometown. Quite a few cruise ships come in here and stay a day or two so there are always tourists around.

On our agenda for the day we wanted to go to Notre-Dame de la Garde which gives you a panoramic view of all of Marseille. Despite the wind, this was by far the greatest adventure that I have been on so far! It was freezing but more than worth it. Nothing could have prepared me for the sights that we saw at the top. It was breathtaking! 

Notre-Dame de la Garde

Château d'If is the prison on the little island in the middle. The Count of Monte Cristo was filmed there!

I had a great time wondering around Notre-Dame de la Garde. It was amazing to see the city from so high above. The city is so dense with buildings but it isn't like a city in the US. The buildings are all much shorter and more concentrated in the area. 

We grabbed lunch after Notre-Dame. We had lunch as a pizza place which ended up being quite comical. We were all eating pizza, with our hands. Until, we realized that everyone in the restaurant was neatly cutting their pizza and eating it with a fork and knife. We began to do the same in order to blend in...

I am exhausted after a great day of sight seeing, laughing, eating yummy food, and taking lots of pictures! I signed up for a free trip to Nice next weekend so that will be my next big adventure after another week of classes!