After a late arrival to Marseille from Barcelona, and one forgettable night in a coffin-like hotel room within a seedier pocket of Marseille, mom and I checked out early and decided to meet Jackie at the train station rather than have her meet us at our hotel.  Jackie flew into Paris that morning and took a train straight to Marseille for an affordable cost of $50. Mom had rented us a car, as our next destination was Provence countryside, an area that demands independent transit if desiring to tour more than one town.  Once we met up with Jaquita Banana and had a hug-filled reunion, we discovered our rental car was unfortunately not at the train station, but at the airport.  Therefore, we had to take a 25 minute bus ride to the airport to get our rental.  Let this be a lesson to any future travelers, make sure you double check where you are picking up your rental car, and you may even want to speak with a representative to fully confirm that the pick-up location is convenient for you and accessible by public transit if you’re without personal transit entirely as we were. Anyhow, we got our rental and with slight apprehension we hit the Marseille highway, heading for the Old Port, known as Vieux-Port.  We only had the day in Marseille, as we had a reservation at Canto Cigalo in St. Remy, Provence for that evening.  Before I detail the highlights of our day very well spent in Marseille, I’ll conclusively describe Marseille as I saw it.  My time in Marseille was brief, and of course I did not see it all, but Marseille appeared very seedy and very poverty-stricken.  The drive through the city was lackluster and gritty, but not as much in a pleasant, archaic gritty that some European cities project, it was more of a scary and sinister gritty.  However, the areas of Vieux-Port and Calanques National Park provide a stark contrast of life, art, culture, and natural beauty.  The Old Port is a gorgeous area with stately 19^th century built hotels combing the backstreets, and turquoise waters edged by rocky cliff sides beyond the marina.  I highly recommend visiting the Old Port if you visit Marseille.  Additionally, on our final day in Provence we drove back to the Marseille area to visit one of the local beaches called Les Lecques, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  All in all, Marseille has a vast variety of tourist attractions, I would just be sure to do your research if staying overnight in Marseille.  Alternatively, I also would recommend staying in Provence, getting a rental car, and making Marseille a day trip rather than an overnight.

Our lovely friend, Amine, who helped us with our luggage, taught us some key French vocabulary, and impressed us with his knowledge on just about everything. We got to enjoy his company for the duration of our 3-4 hour long train to Marseille.

Highlights and moments:

-Taking a boat tour through the Calanques.  The Calanques are inlets made up of limestone or dolomite, and they ribbon along the Mediterranean. Unfortunately the tour was entirely in French, but our friendly boat skipper provided us with an English brochure that commented on each Calanque we bobbed past.  This was a wonderful way to welcome Jackie to France, though the sea did get a little choppy.  The water was that deep, almost fake looking blue as far as the eye could see, and splashing against the sun-bleached limestone inlets and rock formations made the water appear even bluer.

Marina in Old Port

Jackie posing just outside of The MuCEM

View from The MuCEM bridge

Mom on the boat tour

Calanque

Calanque

-Dining at a fun outdoor café in the middle of a café lined square amidst the zig-zagging backstreets behind the Old Port, near La Panier.  Live performers doing flips and high kicks entertained us as we sipped our vin blanc and chowed down on fresh seafood and warm camembert. Lost in the typical trance of a three hour European dining experience, the sun began to set and we forgot about the hour long drive we had to make to get to our next destination. European dinners can do that to you, make you forget your worries and your strife and send you into a euphoric state of leisure.

-Ringing in Bastille Day with the locals at the Old Port Marina. Once we walked down toward the marina from dinner, we realized that we were not going to get our car out of the garage anytime soon, as the one street that lines the entrance into and the exit out of the Old Port was fully blockaded and bustling with people. Locals and tourists filled the outdoor cafes and spilled out into the streets and sidewalk, everyone eagerly awaiting the fireworks show.  We forfeited our attempt to get to St. Remy at a reasonable hour and posted up with the locals to ring in their independence.  The fireworks show that erupted around 9:30 was the best fireworks display I have ever seen in my life.  Mom and I agreed that the French put us Americans to shame when it comes to fireworks.  Over the marina there were ceaseless sky-reaching fountain fireworks that complimented the simultaneous mortar launched fireworks that exploded into shimmering blooms of palm trees above the Palais du Pharo.  All of it synchronized seamlessly to patriotic music. The show lasted nearly a full hour! Luckily, immediately following the show we were able to book it to our car, follow behind a car full of teenagers making haste, and then with their help, were able to barrel through to the exit road and make our way to St. Remy.