Marseille

Marseille and the adjacent area was explored over four days.

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Just as the dust of travel settled from the shoulders with the extended stay in Carcassonne the next destination called out. A little tidying of the VRBO and I walked the few blocks to the Carcassonne rail station under grey skies with water pooled on the cobblestones and a damp breeze. The train was running 10 minutes late announced as 'retarder' on the monitoring screens. The approximate 240km distance saw the countryside change from green and lush to dusty and dry upon reaching Marseille. We passed salt flats with people bicycling raised pathways. The wind whipped seriously blowing from west to east carrying dust while buffeting trees and bushes. The fields of vineyards slowly vanished. The area next to the tracks increasingly became dominated by industrial and shipping businesses. We passed perhaps two oil refinery and storage facilities. The train stayed on the flat land, but rocky mountains loomed in several directions.

Listening to the announcements on the train, I realized that it is one thing to know the French words and completely different in how to pronounce it. "Marseille-Saint-Charles" did not sound to me at all like I would pronounce it. In fact, I could barely recognize it when spoken by a French person. It made me appreciate that my primitive attempts at speaking French are likely unintelligible to a French person because of my Anglicized pronunciations.

Marseille has at least two train stations. I arrived at Saint-Charles. I could take the Metro or simply walk. According to the map software, both would take the same time so I decided to walk the slightly over one mile to the VRBO. The walk brought me close to the city. Kind words describing the city may come, but thus far the city screams out with graffiti, homeless, panhandlers, blowing piles of trash, and a lack of parks. Identifying a business name through the neon fluorescent multi-color spray paint covering virtually everything to the untrained eye not possible. I walked for blocks unable to ascertain which stores were shuttered or a going concern. It feels trash and graffiti form a core culture of Marseille. The Marseille citizens like some growing teenagers do not see the squalor they live in. It is how life is in this city. The contrast to Carcassonne and Toulous stands strikingly. Those latter cities swept the streets daily. Marseille, hmm, one wonders if the government has even discussed cleaning the streets. There were the occasional sidewalk cafes, but almost all kept me walking completely uninterested in stopping for a drink or pastry.

I did eventually stopped along the way for lunch. Finishing up, the VRBO host who'd been completely silent up until I desperately obtained their phone number and called, decided to call me wondering where I was! As we clearly weren't communicating, I took Carol's advice handing the phone to my waitress who spoke excellent English. Some uh-huhs on her side, a little French, and then me telling her "5 minutes" and off I went to meet the host. Standing outside the door to the building, I tried calling the host as I thought we'd arranged. The call kept going to voicemail - great! Then a man brushed past me, opened the door, went in, and let the door close behind him. I tried calling a couple more times and finally the host answered. I couldn't understand him, but the door buzzed open. Geez, you'd have to start laughing now! I opened the door, but could barely keep it open and haul my two pieces of luggage in because of their distance! It felt like a Lucille Ball skit with me stretched out, a toe in the door, grasping at air trying to reach my luggage! Inside, the host on the phone said 'trois' so I figured the apartment must be on the third floor which called for climbing 4 flights of stairs - floor number starts at zero around here. Huffing as I reached the 'third' floor landing there was the guy that had brushed past me leaving me standing on the sidewalk! He turned out to be 30'ish, rather friendly, and good with the translation app on his phone. Disturbingly, he won't tell me his name.

I took a loop around the area to see if I could temper my first impression - not much. I do like experiencing the diversity. Perhaps my view will change as I explore the city more over the next few days.

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A metamorphosis of the city took place during the night. All the trash from yesterday was - GONE! Many people must have worked very hard through the night to clean up the mess.

You've read about those days with abundant difficulties. Today ran like a finely tuned Swiss watch. Reaching the Castellane Metro station and slipping underground, I purchased a 72 hour transit spied the sign indicating the Metro exit for the bus I needed, climbed the stairs, walked the short block and rounded the corner to see the number 78 bus! I jogged to avoid missing it, stepped on, the driver pointed where to the transit card reader, it flashed green, and the remainder of the day was a cruise.

The bus carried my about 10 miles up and past the Parc national des Calanques. Cyclists were challenging themselves with the climb. The park is beautiful and dramatic from the road with its scrubbing brush, limestone/marble white rocks, and striking cliff faces. the bus deposited us in Cassis, a small fishing/tourist village east of Marseille. Today was forecast to be the last sunny day for a week. A day at the beach seemed more fitting than touring about a city. The square was jam-packed with a market in-progress although not many people yet. I did a loop through the small village, walked along the beach, and then headed west out of town with a few other scattered folks.

I eventually reached two sapphire blue coves: Port-Miou and Port-Pin. Port-Miou was full of parked sailboats and rescue crews practice on the cliff faces. Port-Pin was a beach at the end of a narrow channel. Here I lounged for a hour or two with people, kids, and dogs coming and going. I briefly swam but found the water too cold. Maybe later in the summer the water in these inlets warms up more.

I arrived back into Marseille as a few raindrops fell. This turned out to be a wonderful relaxing and beautiful excursion.

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Marseille has a population of 0.9 million. Founded in circa 600 BC by the Greeks thanks to its protected deep port, it continues as an important trading area. The original harbor, called Viex-Port, now just provides berths for pleasure craft while surrounded by cafes. The oldest portion of the city, called Le Panier, is located immediately west of the harbor. It's narrow streets, shops, and cafes make it a tourist spot. The workhorse ports that include cruise ship berths are further west along with oil terminals. The city has two metro rail routes with more planned. It also has trams and an extensive bus system. These all make moving about the city easy. It became part of France in 1482.

Cars are king in Marseille unlike Toulous or Carcassonne. The walk lights are short and the drivers will honk at you if they're not chasing you down. No manicured parks would be found. There are a number of wide boulevards with trees and sidewalk cafes scattered about the city. The Palais Longchamp and adjacent Parc de Longchamp were built in the 1800's to celebrate the Canal du Marseille which brings drinking water to the city from the Durance river. The dry weed infested park with a zoo displaying plastic statues for animals constitutes the best facsimile of a park I came across.

The Museum of Mediterranean and European Civilizations provides a brief glimpse of the history. The battle lines over the centuries between the Ottoman and the Habsburg Empires was interesting. The colonialism and trading by Portugal and Spain also stood out. The reference to the taking of Africans as slaves going back hundreds of years drew attention. Overall, the history presented of wars and territorial expansion leads one to conclude that Russian's invasion of Ukraine and America's trade tussle with China are simply more of the same - mankind seems destined to conflict out of greed and power.

From the port, bus number 60 carried me to the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde. The bus was an excellent idea as the church sits on one of the highest points in the city. The church is beautiful though far from the largest visited. One goes to take in the spectacular 360 degree overlooks of the city. The walk downhill back to my VRBO turned out to be relatively short and entertaining with its paths and zig zagging stairs.

The rain today kept me splashing from one protected doorway to the next. I stopped at one cafe paying 4€ for a coke in a bottle when the rain fell particularly hard. The 72 hour transit card is working out well as it functions on the Metro, tram, and buses. The area around the Viex-Port and Le Panier neighborhood have turned out to be some of the nicest I've come across.

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At the Museum of Mediterranean Civilizations a snippet reported that most funding has gone to the Viex-Port and the import-export infrastructure to the west and south portions of the city excluding the north and east. This fit perfectly with my experience walking about the city. The 7.5 mile walk today took me back to the east side of the Viex-Port and then along the southern city coast line in what is the 7th arrondissement of Marseille.

Immediately a different character of this portion of the city emerged. It is cleaner with dramatically less graffiti. The residence of the area near the Palais du Pharo are elderly with pharmacies on every block. The walk down Blvd Charles Livon, though lacking sidewalk cafes, had beautiful mature trees providing rich shade. The grounds of Parc Emile Duclaux, encompassing the Pharo Palace, had a large grass lawn and a well visited playground by children and young adults with no graffiti that I saw. The view looking across the port onto the museum area of Fort Saint-Mean and the Viex-Port was well worth the walk. The blvd turns eastward to parallel the coast now named "Cor President John Fitzgerald Kennedy". The cafes emerge in abundance. One immediately comes upon the Plage des Catalans a small active beach. So here I finally found the gem hiding in the rough stone of the city.

A casual walk along the coast brings one to Vallon des Auffes, a tiny fishing village, the Theatre Silvain, an open air theatre, Villa and parc Valmer, Chateau Promicea, an upscale spa and small conference center, and Plage du Prophete, a beach area. The entire walk includes views of Ile d'If, views toward Parc national des Calanques, and, or course, the Mediterranean Sea. Climbing steeply away from the coast up stair after stair, one passes through large beautiful estate homes overlooking the sea. The route back to my VRBO took me to the east and below the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde that rarely disappeared from view perched as it is.

I've come to realize the VRBO I'm staying at lies near a dividing line between the struggling and the affluent. Each brings a distinctive element to the city. A city of diverse cultures and a long long history that reminds one of the short existence of the United States.