Marseille

Marseille and the Mediterranean.

The port of Marseille. We hiked up the hill to the basilica.

The statue of Mary and Jesus on top of Notre-Dame de la Garde. To give you an idea of how big the statue is, Jesus' wrist is 42 inches around.

Inside the colourful basilica.

The Arab markets.

The busy side-streets of Marseille.

On Monday we drove into Marseille. This city was described to us as "an untouristy, semi-seedy-but-vibrant port city with 2,600 years of history." Sounds good to me!

I learned that Marseille is France's oldest city (600 B.C.) and is its second largest.

Marseille seems a world apart from France's other leading cities such as Paris and Lyon.

The influence of immigrants is huge here. More than a quarter of Marseille's population comes from countries in North Africa. We heard more Arabic spoken than French.

Our first order of business was to get some exercise, so we hiked up the long, steep hill to Notre-Dame de la Garde. This basilica is Marseille's landmark sight and looks out over the Mediterranean. Holy Hannah! Did we ever sweat getting ourselves up that road! But the views from up there were gorgeous and it was well worth the effort.

Molly and Paige wanted to shop for clothes (what else?) so as soon as we got got back down to the city we split up. The girls headed for Galeries Lafayette, and Joe and I to the Arab market. Joe quickly immersed himself in buying foods from Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian sellers. We bought some delicious Egyptian wraps full of apples and ground round; and chicken and scrambled egg. We grabbed some Tunisian sweets and a couple bottles of fresh pressed juice.

When we met back up the girls, we headed for the port for a picnic. We just plunked ourselves down on wharf and devoured our North African lunch.

This is why I love travelling.....