Tochi's Hut

Marseille.  Legend has it that 2600 years ago, sailors from Phocea in Minor Asia, led by commander Protis landed in Lacydon creek.  It just so happens that the native tribe of Lacydon shores was having a festival to allow the tribal chief’s daughter, Gyptis, to pick her husband.  Gyptis offered the bowl to Phocea and the northern part of Lacydon was given as a wedding gift.  Marseille is born from a love story.

We arrived into Marseille in late evening and took us a while to find our hostel, the Vertigo.  The hostel was very clean with a pretty lively lobby.  Internet actually costs money here.  BlueOrca and I got separate rooms again (though we should have asked for the same one).  My room consisted of three bunked beds, and by the time I got into the room, two of the girls were asleep already.  Wtf.  It was just 9pm!

We went to a nearby restaurant, Sur Le Pouce, for some Couscous and two platters of MEAT (as some would say).  The couscous was okay, but the meats were just what we needed after a day of practically no food.  yum.  There were fans watching an UEFA Champions League match at the restaurant.

After dinner, BlueOrca was tired and wanted to retire early.  I wanted to go out to the Old Port area to grab some night shots.  Dropped BlueOrca off at the hostel before I headed out.  She ended up having a most interesting experience spending the night with her fellow countryman/druggie. :)

The area around the hostel / train station was kind of sketchy.  There were some weird people doing something against a window or half hiding in the alleyways.  I sped through this area and finally got to Cours Belsunce, the outskirts of Vieux Port.   Vieux Port at night was definitely quite a sight, with many historical buildings all lit up along La Canebière.  This is the France that I expected to see. :)

I made my way out to the Vieux Port harbour area, which is essentially a rectangular inlet into the heart of the city.  The harbour is guarded by two forts at its entrance: Fort St Nicolas and Fort Saint-Jean.  All the yachts and sailboats are docked neatly in rows inside the harbour. Here's a view of Quai du Port side of the harbour.

I set up camp at the end of the port, which happens to be the location of the first stage of a multi.  Some officers were randomly pulling over cars near while I was taking pictures of the Fort St Nicolas.  During one of the lulls, one of them came by for a chat.  Fort St Nicolas, while not Carcassonne, is still quite beautiful at night.  It just has such a presence above the gentle sway of the water and boats.

Spent quite a bit of time roaming around Marseille, taking photos of her many cooly lit up buildings.  Managed to grab the cache minutes before midnight (timed perfectly), to keep my streak alive.  Perhaps it was because this was a weekday, but the city seemed very quiet at night.  Where are all the party goers?!?  Little did I know, the party was going to be…

The next morning, we got up and decided to head to train station (since it was only a few minutes from our hostel) to reserve our train tickets to Nice later that day.  I mean, for once, we are not going to leave this to the last 30 minutes! :D  Now, this gare is my favourite of the entire trip.  A very modern, open-concept design, with trees inside! :P 

Anyway, we got to what we thought was the ticketing office, only to find that it was closed, despite its business hours being 24 hours / day.  Yeah right.  A fairly long line was spilling out of the information centre, so I presumed that’s where they were selling tickets.  While BlueOrca waited in line, I scoured the rest of the station to see if there were other ticketing counters.  BlueOrca came back saying there’s only ONE train to Nice and it’s at 11 something.  WTF?!?  They were running only limited trains today, apparently. 

Well, what were we going to do?  We haven’t explored Marseille yet.. it was 9 something… we would have at most an hour in downtown before coming back to the train station.  We fooled around with the ticket vending machines to no avail (well, I know my CC won’t work without the PIN).  Ended up getting back in line at the info centre to double check the train schedule.   Got to the front and BlueOrca started conversing this guy in French.  Now, BlueOrca is quite fluent in French.  While I can follow a little, but I could hardly speak a word.  We were having trouble understanding the answer to our ultimate question.  WTF is going on?!?! 

As BlueOrca was conversing, I noticed the unmistakable UNION JACK icon on his name tag.  DUDE!!!  He can speak English!!!  The guy’s English wasn’t perfect, but it was a heck a lot better than our French. lol.  Long story short, there was a national strike today (aka public holiday), hence, very limited train service.  BlueOrca came up with the brilliant idea of taking a bus to Nice (it was not that far) and to our great fortune, the buses were still running!  We scurried along to the bus ticket counter and grabbed tickets for an afternoon/evening ride to Nice.  Woot.

Now that we had our day in Marseille back, our first stop was back to Vieux Port and its fish market.  Maybe it’s the Hong Kong influence, but I just love visiting fish markets.  As we got near Vieux Port, we ran into the procession of union workers on strike - essentially a parade of people cheerfully marching along to music, chanting some french slogans, waving colourful flags, setting off a few flares.  Quite the party!  Really resembled more of a carnival than a strike.  There weren’t really any picketing signs. lol.

Contrasting this to the strikes in North America, the Frenchies definitely know how to do it.  This is more or less a national holiday, as if they don’t already get enough.  The union workers were apparently demonstrating to protest changes to the state pension system.    The people marching in the street were cheered on by folks on the balconies of nearby buildings, including the Chamber of Commerce!

Shooting the protest gave me a weird feeling as a photographer.  I didn’t want to be too obvious when taking photos, as some people might not be too happy having their picture taken – plus, the mob vastly outnumbered me.  It was also difficult getting a good perspective of the crowd.  I guess this is as close to “embedded” photography as I’ll get.  If I had my P&S, I would have turned on video mode and interviewed Anderson Cooper, I meant BlueOrca, with the protestors marching behind.  I guess I need to find a mic, a helmet and a bulletproof vest too, just to make it authentic. lol.

The protestors continued up La Canebière, while we decided we’ve had enough and headed for the famous Marseille fish market.  I bet it was due to the strike, but the market was very lacklustre.  A dozen stands selling miscellaneous fish, eels, shells and sea creatures.  It was cool to see fishing boats come in to deliver the fresh catch of the day.  I really wanted to buy a fish and if we were staying in Marseille for another night, I probably would have.  Unfortunately, we were taking a bus to Nice this evening and nothing will get you kicked off the bus faster than a smelly fish.

The tourist guide showed us 3 possible routes to explore Marseille. The first follows La Canbière towards the government centre and palace.  That option probably wasn’t the best idea, since it’ll lead us right back to the protestors.  We elected to do the other two, each route covering one side of the port.  Picked the north side first, which is known as Le Panier, the historical section of Marseille.  Along the way, we saw so many seafood restaurants lining the coast. mmm.  We saw some armoured guards outside of some building.  Why weren’t they at the protest? :P  BlueOrca found a sticker for me somewhere along the way too.

Here’s a view back into Marseille harbour.  I just love the architecture of the city, starting from the warehouses along the port to the multi-story trading houses with red rooftops that dot the harbour.  There was a funky little church near where I took this photo.  Location verification pending BlueOrca Research. 

We did a quick loop beside Fort St. Jean before heading to Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseille. For some reason that I cannot remember, we did not bother going into this cathedral.  There is a major avenue that leads right up to the front of the church, which gives it a very strong dominance.

We then cut into the inner streets of old Marseille before reaching Centre de la Veille Charité, which was built between 1671 and 1745.  There is a baroque style elliptical domed chapel in the middle of the courtyard.  Surrounding the courtyard is a three storied building with very beautiful open balconies and arcades. This place was built as a housing project to provide shelter for the poor.   Marseille must have been quite a rich city to afford such housing. 

We stopped at a little restaurant in a “village square” style courtyard.  Got a table outside and I think I ordered some sardine,  which was suppose to be a regional delicacy.  While the fish was definitely good, I’m not a big fan of sardines or any fish with small bones.  I know it’s safe to eat the bones of sardines, but still… :|  Sometime during the day, I had asked BlueOrca whether she wanted to get Bouillabaisse, since it was one of the dishes she wanted to try on the trip.  She told me that she can wait till Nice.  :|

After lunch, we headed over to the other side of the harbour.  Our first stop would be Fort St. Nicolas, the same fort that I took a night shot of above.  We came up one of the ramps to the top of the fort.  At the top, there was a turret with a giant sword in front of the gate.  It had the weathered look of a sword of legend. 

Today turned out to be a beautiful day.  While I’d have a terribly hard time picking out the most beautiful spot on the trip, this view from the walls of Fort St. Nicolas would be my winner.  A visually spectacular vista, a rich sense of history, a mixture of down-to-earth attitude and untold wealth, bustling metropolitan activities, all intertwined by the calm of a sea-side setting.  It’s rare to be able to feel so completely at ease, mentally and physically.   After taking some photos (happens to be where we took one of my favourite group shots. :P), we indulged ourselves to a super nice, super wonderful, super duper nap.

Boy, did we need that nap.  What?  Sleeping on the top of a fort wall, just a few feet from a drop to instant death?  D80’s left by our side, open to any passerby’s taking!!! But dang, did that nap feel good!!!!!!!! (My CPL took a tumble here. >_<)

By the time we convinced ourselves to leave the fort, we continued down the street to Palais du Pharo.  This was a seaside villa that was built for Napolean III, but he never ended up using it.  Now it’s a great public space for families to come and relax.  BlueOrca and I had a different purpose to be here of course.  A young couple on a little used waterfront trail were smooching right by the cache.  Kind of awkward, but after a little while, we just decide to go for it. lol.

A brief and fruitless stop by L'abbaye Saint Victor and we realized we were running really short on time!  We needed to get back to the train station to catch our bus.  We stopped by a supermarket to grab some water.  By the time we got back to the fish market (still a good 15 minutes run to the station), BlueOrca asked whether we should take the subway.  It wasn’t a hard choice, but as we got to the stairs down to the station and saw the closed gates, we realized … stupid STRIKE!!!! argh.  Some French dude, who made the same realization as us, exclaimed “Fermé!!!!” 

We made it back to the station in time and boarded our bus.  Buses in France are no different than in North America.  Some of the folks seated near us were Canadians.  It was kind of weird hearing them talk about 407 ETR and Toronto area stuff.  Not that I really miss home yet.  :P  I also fumbled around searching for our tickets when the staff came by to collect them on the bus.  By the time I found them, she was gone. lol.

Recap.  Marseille is a marvellous city.  Almost a pity that our schedule did not allow us to stay longer.  There were many more attractions I would have liked to visit.  Despite our early misfortunes as a result of the strike, the strike was an experience in and of itself.  Vieux Port was spectacular both day and night.  Words just can’t describe this place.  Marseille gets a well-deserved 5/5. (Don’t worry, not every place I visit will get 5/5, lol.)