Monday, July 14, 2008

Marseille


Founded in 600 b.c. Re-found by us July 11th, 2008. Wow what a place the Olde Port area is! That's where we had a room at Alize Hotel for Friday night and another one at Tonic Hotel for Saturday night before picking up (!!!) The Gate a distance away on Sunday. The trip down was pretty easy though it appeared every other car was either from the Netherlands or Belgium. They must be empty of people by now. All gone south for the heat. All I want to do is stay cool. And warm it was, not too warm but certainly warm enough to enjoy the air conditioning in the car. Traffic along the freeways flowed quite nicely all day and though we left Lignieres at 8:30 am we arrived in Marseille about 3:30pm. Not bad at all. Our trusty Bonnie the voice behind/inside our Tom Tom had guided us nearly to the quai where our hotels were located...but not quite. You see sometimes the GPS instructions given are not as clear as what I require thus I make mistakes...silly sometimes, not so silly at others. So as I turned down the lane beside the broad-treed boulevard I discovered that I was the ONLY CAR thereon. Oh shit. Nothing to do now but to slowly proceed to that busy street just ahead about 1/2 a block and turn right towards the olde port. Sure. Forward we went, very carefully, very, very slowly...sneaking through...quietly so no one would notice, at an idle. Looking left I spied two nice police officers, both staring at me like I was a ghost ship apparition. Oh shit again. Then a wave from the male officer and I stopped my trek as he walked towards my window. I asked him for directions to the old port AFTER I appologized for my current latitude and longitude on HIS sidewalk. He grinned and I summoned the courage to blame the whole error on Bonnie! He laughed and took the Tom - Tom GPS in hand and looked at the map display and saw the error of my ways...I told him I was a lost American thanks to modern technology. He then asked the lady cop to help us onto the street, so I slowly followed her across the sidewalk and trolley tracks to the end of the bollards blocking our way and with a sharp turn to the right and a "Merci!" and a wave we were back on track.
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The P sign adjacent to our hotels indicated Public Parking but a block away underground, good!
The milling crowds of tourists, residents closed it all around in the heavy port traffic but with a bit of patience we found our way to the entrance and pulling a ticket from the billet machine we entered the parking cavern. We circled down to the 4th level and found a spot midway along the long corridor and parked. Unlike our trips to the US and to France aboard aircraft we had but one small bag with a couple of changes of clothes apiece and a bag of books, snacks and reservation notices for our 2 hotels. Out, bags in hand we were off soon across the plaza to the Alize to take a short rest then out onto the streets of Marseilles to see what all the excitement was about.
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Out on the streets of Marseille I felt alive and safe, maybe a foolish feeling but compared to Richmond, California where my daughter lived for a while or Oakland where our best friend lived for many years, it seemed quite safe. We wandered the streets looking for the restaurants we had selected from the internet so we could learn their current menus.
It was a walk, a walk among the throngs. Probably the Dutch and the Belge that we witnessed driving at breakneck speed on the freeway coming down. It's never easy to ID a throng. Europeans being europeans often look and behave similarly. The Dutch speak many languages, as do Germans, Swiss, French and Italians. It makes for great inquiries. Who are these people? Where do they come from? Why are they here? We stopped at a nearby pub for a beer and gawked at the passing crowds before going to our restaurant choice for dinner. The port beyond was filled to the brim with fishing boats and sailboats of all sizes. Then off to dinner at a nearby fish specialty restaurant. The menu was simple and extraordinary at the same time, raw or barely cooked shellfish dominated the menu as large platters. A wonderful array of items gathered from the waters surrounding Marseille, fantastic! We orderred a 40 Euro platter for two of the freshest of these wonders, crab, clams, shrimp, moules, oysters, welks...all in their shells on a bed of ice. Spectacular!