Take me away to Marseille

Day 43 - Aix-En-Provence

At 10am it's already 25 degrees and we're on the bus to Marseille, public transport is pretty good around here we've decided to leave the car at the hotel and have a break from driving and parking.

The bus arrived into the back of the Saint Charles station and we exited walking down the famous grand stairs flanked by statues. 

We walked through the city down to the Le Panier area and visited the Vieille Charité, formerly a poor house, and now a small museum with art and artefacts from different cultures. K was chuffed to see a Greek vessel from 600BC that was very similar to one she had purchased at an antiquities auction in Abbotsford last year. She also had other pieces similar to those on display, both originals and copies.

We then walked on towards the port area to admire the Byzantine church before taking the lift to the terrace at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations where we took in the view over the Medditeranean. We could see Fort Saint-Jean to the left, and Notre-Dame de la Gard in the distance on the hilltop, Vieux-Port (Old Port), Pharo Palace.

We left via a maze of stairs and walkways through Fort Saint-Jean, with great views of the huge marina and port below, to where we could take the bus up the hill to Notre-Dame.

Wandered around the Basilica We enjoyed the great views over the red and cream buildings of Marseille, then wandered around inside the impressive Basilica.  

We finished off our sightseeing for the day by getting the Metro to the stunning Longchamp Palace, which interestingly statues of bulls instead of horses as it's main animals.

K's favourite sauce is bearnaise which is very difficult to get in Australia so whenever we're in Europe she buys a jar to take home. We had booked a restaurant so she was really looking forward to having an authentic French steak with real bearnaise sauce, unfortunately the steak arrived cold, thin, gristly and over cooked. Nothing like steaks back home in Australia, sometimes expectations are just not met.