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Friday 27 July - Aix-en-Provence - 34C
We had a leisurely morning before setting off for Marseille. This city is not far away (about 40 minutes) but as always the journey seems to take longer than the distance travelled, or perhaps it's vice versa. We have perfected getting lost, missing turnoffs, etc on the Aix one-way system although we (all 4 of us) are all experts on deciding on the (usually all different) direction to be taken. Today is no different as we approach Marseille. There are a couple of back seat navigators and our driver (who is given to occasional attacks of independent thinking) may sometimes take directions contrary to the advice being freely given. However, it is what it is, so we arrived in Marseille this morning only to take one wrong turn and we were back on the auto-barn heading out of town. Once we had taken yet another exit and roundabout we were back in town and parked.
Marseille is a very large city (the 2nd largest in France after Paris) and with so many things to see the easiest option was to take a tour on a "petit train" which took us to some of the major sites and provided an entertaining commentary on board in 4 languages. It went something like this – talk in French for two minutes, then in English, German and Spanish for around 15 seconds each – I guess it loses a little in the translation……
Marseille is currently under construction around the waterfront getting ready the Boules World Championships later this year, then an International Conference on Culture sometime next year, Expect it will look truly wonderful when complete – bit of a building site at the moment though.
We stopped at the Basilique de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde which is set high on a hill about 500 feet above the city. It was a very impressive Basilica from the outside as it’s very large, once inside you realise the importance of the seaborne trade industry with models of many old cargo ships, yachts and container ships hanging from the ceiling. We thought these were probably in memory of craft that left Marseille and had been lost at sea.
Marseille is a very expansive city and seems to stretch for miles, the views from the Basilica were amazing although the day was a little hazy. We returned in the “little train” back to the port area. We wandered around the old part and visited the Cathedral de la Major which is very impressive from the outside and inside has a lot of pink marble and flags handing from the rafters. We had lunch at a Salon de The (tea room) then walked around the shopping centre before collecting the car and heading back north to Aix.
Dinner tonight was at a restaurant suggested to us by our landlord and the restaurant was excellent. The waiter explained the menu in Franglish (most of which we had already guessed) but it was very helpful and appreciated. Our meals were delicious (Osso Buco, lamb and beef), the wine excellent and we arrived home in time to see the last of the opening ceremony of the Olympics on TV.
This was our last day in Provence and there is so much to see that we have only just scratched the surface. We didn’t get to see a lot of Aix except for the ring road and a few wrong turns that took us into the centre, however we did walk down the main street where market stalls open at night and sell the usual jewellery, French soaps, clothes and paintings. The lights come on and the fountains, major buildings and streets are lit up. The house we chose was excellent with everything you could want, Rebecca and Paul Engles were very friendly and helpful and we would recommend La Pistache to anyone wishing to visit Provence. We visited most of the major areas of Provence, but another 4 weeks would have been useful to really do it justice.
We had a leisurely morning before setting off for Marseille. This city is not far away (about 40 minutes) but as always the journey seems to take longer than the distance travelled, or perhaps it's vice versa. We have perfected getting lost, missing turnoffs, etc on the Aix one-way system although we (all 4 of us) are all experts on deciding on the (usually all different) direction to be taken. Today is no different as we approach Marseille. There are a couple of back seat navigators and our driver (who is given to occasional attacks of independent thinking) may sometimes take directions contrary to the advice being freely given. However, it is what it is, so we arrived in Marseille this morning only to take one wrong turn and we were back on the auto-barn heading out of town. Once we had taken yet another exit and roundabout we were back in town and parked.
Marseille is a very large city (the 2nd largest in France after Paris) and with so many things to see the easiest option was to take a tour on a "petit train" which took us to some of the major sites and provided an entertaining commentary on board in 4 languages. It went something like this – talk in French for two minutes, then in English, German and Spanish for around 15 seconds each – I guess it loses a little in the translation……
Marseille is currently under construction around the waterfront getting ready the Boules World Championships later this year, then an International Conference on Culture sometime next year, Expect it will look truly wonderful when complete – bit of a building site at the moment though.
We stopped at the Basilique de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde which is set high on a hill about 500 feet above the city. It was a very impressive Basilica from the outside as it’s very large, once inside you realise the importance of the seaborne trade industry with models of many old cargo ships, yachts and container ships hanging from the ceiling. We thought these were probably in memory of craft that left Marseille and had been lost at sea.
Marseille is a very expansive city and seems to stretch for miles, the views from the Basilica were amazing although the day was a little hazy. We returned in the “little train” back to the port area. We wandered around the old part and visited the Cathedral de la Major which is very impressive from the outside and inside has a lot of pink marble and flags handing from the rafters. We had lunch at a Salon de The (tea room) then walked around the shopping centre before collecting the car and heading back north to Aix.
Dinner tonight was at a restaurant suggested to us by our landlord and the restaurant was excellent. The waiter explained the menu in Franglish (most of which we had already guessed) but it was very helpful and appreciated. Our meals were delicious (Osso Buco, lamb and beef), the wine excellent and we arrived home in time to see the last of the opening ceremony of the Olympics on TV.
This was our last day in Provence and there is so much to see that we have only just scratched the surface. We didn’t get to see a lot of Aix except for the ring road and a few wrong turns that took us into the centre, however we did walk down the main street where market stalls open at night and sell the usual jewellery, French soaps, clothes and paintings. The lights come on and the fountains, major buildings and streets are lit up. The house we chose was excellent with everything you could want, Rebecca and Paul Engles were very friendly and helpful and we would recommend La Pistache to anyone wishing to visit Provence. We visited most of the major areas of Provence, but another 4 weeks would have been useful to really do it justice.
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