Marseille

I left Tampa in the evening of November 8. The flight from Tampa to Detroit to Paris to Marseille went without a hitch, but I was anxious about arriving. Scott had promised to meet me at the airport, but we had a backup plan in case anything went wrong. Who knows – maybe after 6 months I would not recognize him.

As it turns out I would have known him anywhere and it was so wonderful to see him.

Scott got a late start leaving to meet me and when he checked on a taxi found out it would cost over 100 Euros (about $150). The airport was not near the town. With no idea of how to get there he started following a man carrying a suitcase – figuring he must be going to the airport. After following him down into the subway, Scott finally confessed what he was doing. The man spoke English and was indeed going to the airport. The subway took him to the train station, from the train station - a long bus ride brought him to the airport.

Backtracking – bus to train to subway, we ended up back at the boat. The beautiful thing about traveling by boat is that you end up in the best part of the city. You can see Severance above, right in the center of the city with medieval castles on all sides.

I was exhausted so we went back to the boat and I fell fast asleep. When I woke up Scott had made a beautiful meal which we enjoyed. The weather was rainy and cool so it was nice to just nestle into the boat for the evening.

I should mention here that after suffering and freezing all the way down the Rhone with the Mistral screaming down the valley, after Armando left, Scott finally broke down and bought a heater. They had resisted buying one, hoping the weather would warm up when they reached the Med, and not wanting to have something that big take up precious space on the boat. Since this was only the beginning of November, the warming up part did not seem likely and Scott knew what I would think. It turned out to be a very wise purchase that nobody regretted!

We wanted to spend a day or so in Marseille and then head east down the coast (the Cote’ de Azure). We met a German couple on a boat next to us. They gave us recommendations on places to visit and even marked Scott’s charts for him.

Before we could leave the boat needed some work. Scott and Armando had barely gotten to Port Saint Louis in time to have the mast stepped before they had to leave to get to Marseille in time for Armando’s flight to Brazil. Armando left for a visit home just before I arrive. The boat was a mess and needed additional rigging as well as a good cleaning.

Monday morning we headed into town. I believe that our mission was to find a hardware store and get cleaning supplies so I did not take my camera. On our way back from the hardware store we passed the open air fish market which is set up on the waterfront daily.

The fishermen go out very early and catch fish and then sell it on the quay until noon. I wish I had my camera because I saw some of the ugliest sea creatures you could ever imagine. After that I always had my camera, but we were not to see anything quite as ugly again!!

We decided that cleaning could wait, so I grabbed my camera and we took off sightseeing.

Viva le Collins!!

This fort was opposite of where our boat was docked. It was at the mouth of the harbor and there was another fort on the opposite side. This was a very important seaport at one time and was well protected.

A museum.

Like the Azores, the cities in the south of France are built into the sides of mountains. Streets are irregular and very narrow, especially in the old parts of town. These streets were built well before the advent of the automobile.

This isn’t a very good picture, but I wanted to show the number of people that were out shopping that day. It was a national holiday (something to do with the end of WWII). It must have been like our Friday after Thanksgiving. The streets were crowded with shoppers.

We stopped at a street café. They are everywhere in France. It could be 45 degrees and people would be sitting outside drinking coffee or wine. As it was, it was a pleasant (if dreary) day in the mid 60’s.

Next to the café was a fish market which inspired Scott for that night’s dinner – molle and frites!! Molle is mussels and frites – French Fries!!

Note the Bulots above. I’m not sure what they are, but they figured into a meal we had a few days later. Scott says they are not the classic escargot, but they sure look like some kind of snail to me. By the way, they are not bad.

As we headed back to the boat with the mussels, we saw a large department store/ grocery store (a rarity in the downtown of a large city). Based upon our German friends’ advice, our next stop was an island that may not have provisions. We needed to stock up on enough food for at least 3 days.

Scott was very excited to see a sign that seemed to indicate free delivery (as best we could make out not speaking or reading French!). That would be perfect for us because we needed a lot of supplies and there was only so much we could carry. We entered the store and asked the manager about the free delivery.

Yes, Yes!” he said, “we have free delivery.” “Do you deliver to boats?” asked Scott. “Oui, oui, we deliver to boats!” he replied. “Great!” says Scott, “we would like to have our groceries delivered to our boat.”. “We have free delivery - but not today.” he replied. What can I say – they are French!!

That night we had beautiful steamed mussels and crispy French fries with a beautiful Rose. Roses are the wines that the Provencal and Cote regions are known for and they were all very lovely.