A day in Marseille

Beautiful warm sunny day with temperatures that were just right. We had not booked any tours and just decided to explore Marseille on our own. Shuttle bus dropped us in town and we walked a couple of km to the Palais et Parc Lonchamp which is basically a monument to celebrate water. Very pretty area with fountains and statues and gardens. On our trek up the hill there was a massive protest going on which seemed to involve unions from all public sectors such as transport, education, health, construction etc. Not sure what they were protesting about but it seemed to be anti-Macron (French President) sentiment. There had to be thousands of people marching / chanting / sirens etc. At one point just as we were walking past, someone had thrown a rather large thunder- bunger under a car and the resulting explosion and smoke really made our hearts race because we didn't know what was happening.

Wandered back along the marina to catch the Petite train which would take us up
to Basillique de Notre Dame de la Garde which gave us a good panoramic view over the city. We also drove past the Castle of If where Jose Custodia Faria was imprisoned and was the basis of the story written by Alexandre Dumas " The Count of Monte Cristo". All in all out was a pretty good day - only spent €16 (on the train) - so certainly not breaking the budget and got plenty of exercise as we walked about 10km. Tomorrow we head to Monte Carlo and we have a full day booked tour which should be good.Read more