A visit to Abbey of Saint Victor - March 30th

Saint Victor was first built in the 3rd century on the tombs of Christian martyrs - the basilica is one of the oldest religious monuments in Marseille.  Saint Victor has played a very important part in the history of the town.  We paid 2 euros to go down in the crypt which the boys thought was very cool.

Lachlan said it was cold, smelly and dusty.  He also said it was a bit scary with lots of tombs and he wondered how he built it.  The crypt was the favourite bit of Saint Victor and said it is somewhere we have to take Uncle Dean, Aunty Emma and Bub.

Connor said it was old and pretty cool.  It was really dark in some places and the bones were a bit creepy.  He said that there were lots of signs in English which were good.  He also noticed that there were lots of pictures of Jesus.  

Saint Victor and the boys

The alter table - white marble made from the 2nd half of the 5th century

The boys heading down into the crypt 

One of the tombs.........

Saint Victor is on the other side of the port from were we live.  There is a little marina just down that is called Vallon des Auffes - the fishermen who moored in here speak a special provincial dialect called Parler Marsillais.

On our way home we decided to take a photo in front of Hotel de Ville - City Hall which was built in 1653. We talk past this multiple times a day as it is on the waterfront and is a central feature.

Local beer - pretty good but 5.5%

Monday 28th March - a day trip to Chateau Borely

Chateau Borely is a 'mansion of Marseille' which was built 1767.  It is renowned for its walks, rose garden, lake and pedal operated cars.

Big fountain at the entrance to the Chateau 

From the chateau looking back toward the entrance 

Karl injured during an epic soccer game.........wish I had the camera out earlier as he was spread-eagled on the ground

Delicious lunch in a beautiful setting - 

Pedal-car craziness for the Frasers

A trip to Aix-en-Provence on Easter Sunday

For the first time since we arrived the day was overcast, showers were forecast and it was cold! We needed a jacket!

We caught the metro to the main bus/train station called St Charles and caught Bus 50 to Aix-en-Provence.  Cost was  €2 return for the boys and €6 each way for Karl and I.  

Aix-en-Provence is a university city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur about 25km from Marseille. It was the birthplace of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, and a walking trail links sites including his childhood home, Jas de Bouffan, and his former studio, Atelier Cézanne. The white limestone Sainte-Victoire mountain overlooking the city and the surrounding countryside were frequent subjects of his works.

Here are some pictures of some of the things we saw:- 

Day tripping - off to Aix-en-Provence

This fountain built in 1756 is decorated with gargoyles spewing water an signifies the area of the town hall, corn exhange and clock tower - taking photos on timer is not the best.............

The astronomical clock which was built in 1661 which is part of Hotel De Ville and part of an amazing square with restaurants and other shops

 This is Hotel De Ville which was completed in 1670 - it is Italian style facade with carved wooden doors and old town belfy with astronomical clock which was built in 1661.

The Cathdrale d'Aix-en-Provence - which includes th Baptistere Saint Jean and Oratore Du Sauveur - the beginning of the church were built in the 5th Century...........while others were added up until the 17th century 

The spectacular chapel inside 

This stained glass window was magnificent and below - us being silly.
Further down you will see the restaurant where we had a very yummy, and very large lunch. Further on down you will see the little cars that are quite common - little one or two seaters - great for the crazy traffic and parking in the Marseille area.

These are the great streets that you can explore - they really are beautiful and unique and so old.
Below is the Eglise de la Madeleine built in the 17th century and another one of the many many monuments and fountains dotted around the town.  The beautiful colours of the squares and building and I can only imagine they get only more beautiful as the leaves grow on the trees.........and lastly the boys outside the chocolate shop - yum! 

And finally a random building with a crazy entrance - just imagine telling someone how to recognise your place if you lived here..............often I have noticed the figures are of  half naked women on the doorways and not men.- whereas the statues are primarily all men.

Yay it's Easter Sunday and the bunny found us!

Phew - the easter bunny found us in France.  We wondered if she/he would - Connor was pretty sure that Terry and Colleen at our Palmy house would let the bunny know where we were - lucky..............it was quite hard waiting for our turn when we could see our NZ friends already had their easter bunny treats.

Exploring Le Panier (around our apartment) - Saturday March 26th

On our return, Connor was feeling much better and ready for a little explore around our local area called the Le Panier district which is right next door to our apartment.

Perhaps the most picturesque place in all of Marseille is the lovely “Le Panier” district.  One of the oldest parts of town founded by the Greeks over 2,600 years ago, Le Panier is known for her charming narrow, paved streets and steps that curve up and down the quaint hillside north of Marseille’s Vieux Port.

Le Panier Marseille is the oldest district in the city, and it is located just north of the Vieux Port. When you come to realize that Marseille is the oldest city in France and you witness the range of historic monuments and attractions in this neighborhood, you will understand exactly why this area is referred to simply as Old Marseille.

Wandering the streets of le Panier

On our walk we found


The Vieille Charite, a place that was built in 1640 to house the native poor and stop begging in the city at the time

We figure some must have been pretty short!

We then started to feel a little peckish

mmm delish ice-creams and sorbets

We then headed home for a quick rest - went to the supermarket and then got pizza for dinner - delish!

It was not cooked by Karl however...........

And so was the end of a fun filled exploring day.  

PS: The lift was also broken down in the apartment blog and so it was walking the stairs today and probably for the rest of the long weekend - we are on floor 5!!!!!!!

Saturday 26th March - exploring!

Morning: As Connor was not feeling 100% it was decided that Lachlan and I would go exploring the areas we had planned.  We had heard that there was a marche in Plan de Cuques and further on a great little town called Allauch.

To get to these places we had to walk to the metro station down on the waterfront - of course we needed some sustenance to get us going

Croissant chocolat

As we walked along the waterfront we passed Lachlan's favourite man who he wanted to give some money too........we also saw the wee tourist train which is very cute.

Then there was just enough time to stop at the fish market before catching the metro - 

Interesting fish = there were lots that were unrecognizable - but we saw some eels and octopuses.

Today we were heading to the end of the line La Rose and then catching the bus to the end of that line!  - then we would be at the marche.

Plan-de-Cuques is situated in the Bouches-du-Rhone (Provence region) in the south-east of France at 9 km from Marseille,  This market was very local - lots of cheese, veges, fish, clothes and soap. I brought a bag; some soap and Lachlan got some pizza.  Definately one to go back to - will remember to take photos next time. 

Then we headed to the town of Allauch.

Allauch is a French commune situated east of Marseille in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Allaudiens or Allaudiennes.

This was a beautiful town in a beautiful area.......on the way there were houses with yards - something we had not seen before in Marseille and then this town was beautiful with lots of little alleyways; a chapel dating to the 12 century, another church with a polychrome bell-tower and ruins of five stone mills dating from the 17th century. 

We wandered around; found some food and then caught the bus - then metro back home - to tell Karl and Connor of our adventures. 

Good Friday - 25th March

Good Friday is not a public holiday in France - who knew! Monday is however.  After a pretty sleepless night with Connor we were up pretty early as Dave and Donna were popping around for breakfast before they headed to the airport.  They requested poached eggs on toast - something they had not had on their trip and what we had had for dinner the previous night! It was great to catch up and hear about their adventures thus far; get some tips and hear about their future plans through Paris and then onto Italy.

Today was a home day with a sick child! Poor wee Concon - hopefully tomorrow will be better!

It was also the day to begin to book tickets for trains and activities......exciting and somewhat stressful for me I must say!!!

24th March - tram tripping

Today we decided to get some school work done early and then hit the trams.  We walked to the bus/tram/metro station and decided to hop on a tram to go to the ends of the line to see where it went.  We hopped on the first one and then it only went two stopped and said there were big delays due to a protest happening.

There was no information in English we worked out there was a big delay when everyone hopped off and we realised that this was probably due to a protest when we saw there were hundreds of people marching and police everyehere!

So we decided to walk and explore:- we walked up the main street - le Canebiere where we found a beautiful old Church - St Vincent De Paul, also known as Eglise Des Reformers which was built in 1855.

 From here we continued up the street, stopped for pizza and then to Palais Longchamp, built in 1862. This is 12 hectare of palais, gardens and surrounds and was built when a river was opened and Marseille got a good supply of water - it is a homage to water.

After this we then hopped on the tram and headed back toward home and further on to see how far the tram went.  It is so interesting seeing all the different parts of Marseille.  We hopped off at La Joliette, where "la docks" a new flash shopping area which apparently used to be the bad part of Marseille before they tore it down the old buildings and accommodation and made it into more of an upmarket tourist dock area.
Here are the boys in the "la docks" sign:- chilling while we wait for our bus to home.  It was only a 10 minute walk home, but with the transpass card we decided to catch the bus to our door! We had walked quite a way to Palais Longchamp.  It was then home to chill and wait to catch up with our friends Dave and Donna who were passing through Marseille on their Europe trip.

 Duh - just Karl got to catch up with Dave and Donna as Connor got a vomiting bug which hit about 4.30pm.  He headed out for dinner and drinks and cruised home about midnight - good night apparently!