Day 16 Marseilles and Cassis

After a great BBQ with Britt and Wil we had an early night knowing we would need to be up at 3am to pack and set off by 4am. It was such an unusual drive to the airport and the Avis desk. At that hour there were no cars or people on the streets. Avis ran us over to terminal 3 and with John being a Sapphire member, we were able to go through to the members’ lounge. It was so nice and a real shame that it was so early or I would have had a cocktail. We had breakfast in there, read the newspapers and John was in his element as he had a stunning view of landings and take offs. The flight to Marseilles was quick and uneventful. We came in over the bay. The sun was blazing. We got a Renault this time but they upgraded us again and after some stress about all the electronic controls and the Avis staff reprogramming the screen so that all the information would be in English we set off. It was too early to check into the Marseilles hotel so john planned to take us to Cassis which is something like Noosa. We were ok at the beginning but the car sat nav competed with the I pad sat nav for which direction we should take. We made 3 stressful circuits of the city until John found the right path on to the freeway. Once we were on the way it quickly became picture postcard country. There were craggy mountain sides and ancient wineries falling away on both sides of the roads. Cassis is a holiday destination with the seafront ringed with restaurants. We were spoiled for choice but finally settled on omelets and salad with beer. Then we walked out to the mouth of the bay and then up through the narrow, winding streets up to the car park where we had left the car. Then it was back to Marseilles to find the hotel. This time the stress flowed from finding a car park where we could leave the car overnight. Our hotel was down by the seafront but car parks were not marked on the maps. In the end we parked in the galleries Lafayette car park and carried our bags back to the hotel. It was not easy. We arrived hot and tired. One we dumped the bags, dealt with the wifi connection and changed into shorts we walked around the wide sweep of the Marseilles harbour. We had a big beer and then crossed over to the other side of the bay. There were thousands of pleasure and work craft moored there. A massive church loomed over the square, but high on the craggy hills that surrounded Marseilles, there was an even more imposing cathedral. We did not mean to take a really long walk, but it was really interesting and so we kept walking, past the fortress that has now been made into a gallery, past the cruise boat moorings, past the exhibition spaces set up along the waterfront, to the cathedral Major that is in the process of a full restoration. Tucked behind the 18th century cathedral was another from the 12th century. We walked until the sun set then found a place to eat on the waterfront. Inspired by all the nautical sights I really wanted to eat some seafood, so it was spaghetti with fruits of the sea for me and spaghetti with creamy scallops. It’s been an 18+ hour day so it’s off to bed so we can bounce out of bed for some fun, fun, fun tomorrow. Catch up with you then when we will be driving to Aix. Cheers, Lily