We decided to visit Marseille today as it was forecast to shower. We drove the trusty Peugeot to the main train station in Marseille using the GPS. We had a little more adventure than we wanted, however, we were able to find safe parking in the train station parking garage. Street parking in France is quite the adventure, it’s as crazy as it gets.
Marseille is a very, very old city, founded by the Greeks in 400 BC. It became a Roman city around 400 AD, as it is the main port in the area and Frances largest port. It’s had lots of different leaders and many a battle was fought for the harbor.
The Black plague was a total disaster here and a large part of the population died in the 1400s.
Marseille is a melting pot of culture as it is the shipping port for Frances connection with its former colony’s in Africa and its former colony Vietnam.
The city is transitioning, but once you leave the tourists areas it’s pretty gritty 😳 You ain’t in Idaho here bro!
We took the metro from the train station to Vieux Port, or Old Port and did the 5 hour Rick Steves walking tour. We saw some wonderful sights and walked 10 miles. This is a big cruise ship stop so lots of cruise customers. Five hours was plenty, so we hopped on the metro and picked up the Peugeot and returned to lovely Aix-en-Provence. Ahhh space and quiet and vino 😎👍
Tomorrow, we are off for a driving trip through the Luberon region, small hill towns in the area, with hope of some winery’s on the way. We will pack a picnic and a bottle of Rose, just in case. This is the Rose wine area of France.
P.S. The French Connection with my old buddy Gene Hackman was filmed here in the 70s. It’s much cleaner now. Man, I loved Genes acting 👍
Showers are in the forecast. Good thing we are from the Northwest🍷🥖👍
Au voir!
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