Photos from Marseille

Looking through my photos now, I have the enjoyment of remembering special sights and moments from our trip.  At the time, it felt like I was taking too many photos, but now I wish I had more to look through.  Today I'm sharing some of my favourites from our day in Marseille, France.

We started at the Old Port, where I was intrigued by the eels being sold fresh off the dock.

We had planned to visit Chateau d'If, which is like a mini Alcatraz.  The military fortress was a prison for 10 years, and the setting for the famous Alexandre Dumas "Count of Monte Cristo" novel.  Unfortunately, even though the seas did not look rough, they were apparently too rough for the ferry to dock at the island, so we were unable to visit.  But we were able to view it from Notre Dame de la Garde (literally, "our lady of the guard").  See the photo below, the island of If is in the center, with the larger islands in behind.

We had our workout visiting Notre Dame de la Garde, since the Catholic basilica was built on a fortress at the highest point in Marseille.  Here we are, walking up.  We had told ourselves that we would walk up, and take a taxi to the next site, but the only taxis at the top were ones waiting on tourists for the return trip.  So we ended up walking all the way back down the hill also.

It is hard to see in the photo without clicking to enlarge, but there is a ferris wheel at the bottom of the hill, and that is at the waterfront where we started.

Almost the whole way up, we continued to see the church, but it remained elusive - always just a little further.

Finally we were there.

I loved this stone statuary of the sufferings of Christ just outside.  Such agony.

In one direction, there was the Chateau d'If.  Looking down to the port, we could see our cruise ship in the distance.  Also, this beautiful (must be turf!) soccer field just down the hill.

Outside, the basilica was already beautiful.

I love this detail on the door.

Inside, the basilica was very beautiful.  

The church also had a lot of artwork on display.  For some reason, I was drawn to this painting.

After our big walk, we had planned to visit the Palais Longchamp, but perhaps were discouraged by not seeing any taxis until we got back almost all the way to the waterfront, so we decided just to walk along and see what we could see.  The architecture everywhere was beautiful, anyhow.

As you can see, the weather was quite beautiful, cooperating with our visit.

We ended up at this building, some sort of museum.  It also had a good view, and a really cool sculpture of a shipwreck.  I tried hard, but couldn't get an angle which captured it fully, only shots from various sides.

I was amused by this sculpture of a deer / elk upside down.

Finally, here are a few more architectural shots.