2 On the Road: Marseille, France

Our first port is Marseille, France. A daily newsletter is left in our stateroom every night with information about the next day's events.

Marseille is the second largest city in France, with a population of 855,000 (the metropolitan population is over 1.7 million, making it the third largest metropolitan city in France after Paris and Lyon). Under the name Méditerranée Project, instigated in 1995, Marseille, has spent billions of euros into revitalizing the city including new museums and civic attractions.

We did the Scenic Marseille excursion - Relax on a panoramic drive through Marseille and soak up the atmosphere of this historic port city. Begin your tour by motor coach through the area known as the Vieux Port, or Old Port, where the Greeks landed in 600 BC. Continue along the Corniche du Président John Fitzgerald Kennedy, admiring lovely views of offshore islands and the shimmering Mediterranean coastline. From the comfort of your coach, take in the splendor of Notre Dame de la Garde, the most magnificent building of its kind in southern France. Built in the mid-1800s in Roman-Byzantine style, this basilica displays a statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of its bell tower. Back in downtown Marseille, you can enjoy some free time among the numerous lively cafés, restaurants and quaint streets of this famous bustling port. Feel the welcome of the Marseille locals, or Marseillaise, and leave with wonderful memories of this glorious city.

When we wake up, the ship is already at the dock.

We're at the Marseille Provence Cruise Terminal a couple miles from downtown Marseille. The smaller island off the coast is home to the Château d'If, François I's 16th-century island castle and former prison, setting for The Count of Monte Cristo.

The breakwater extends for quite a ways.

Sharing our pier is the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.

Aircraft on the carrier.

As we start off on our bus tour, we see there are loads of new cars sitting at the dock. This is primarily due to supply chain disruptions and logistical challenges. The ongoing dockworkers' strike at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports had a significant impact on European automakers, causing delays in shipments and leading to a buildup of cars at various ports, including Marseille

This sculpture of two sumo wrestlers holding up a blue shipping container, is called "It Take Two to Tango". It's an advertisement for the Dafei Shipping Group.

At the Cosquer Méditerranée visitors can see a replica of the Cosquer Cave, a prehistoric cave discovered underwater in the Calanques of Marseille. The original cave, found by diver Henri Cosquer, contains ancient rock art dating back around 30,000 years.

Behind the Cosquer Méditerranée is the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations. It is attached to Fort Saint-Jean, a 17th-century fortress via a pedestrian bridge.

Fort Saint-Jean is also connected, via a bridge over the highway, to the street in front of Église Saint-Laurent, built the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth century.

This is a photo of the area of town we visited. I have circled some of the places we visited or that I mention in this post.

Marseille Cathedral or Cathédrale de La Major, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and a national monument of France. It has been a basilica minor since 1896.

The old port as we follow the road around it.

The Vieux-Port (Old port) fish market was still operating as we passed by. It's been a fresh fish market for centuries.

As we gained the south side of the port, we checked out the boats with the buildings of the north side in the background.

A forest of masts.

The Château d'If sits on a smaller island in front of two slightly larger islands, Ratonneau and Pomègues, that are connected by a causeway built in 1822. Ratonneau is capped by Fort de Ratonneau, built in 1886.

This is the "Monument Aux Morts Des Orients" at the Cornice Viewpoint. This massive gateway symbolizes the North African presence in Marseille, as well as its position as the leading maritime city where ferries from Algeria dock. It is also a more historical tribute to the Second World War squadrons who enlisted on the French side to help protect the city from the Germans.

Running for almost 2 miles, the Kennedy Corniche (promenade), was named after John K. Kennedy. In this photo you can see the Banc de la Corniche Kennedy, or Cornice Kennedy bench, that was built in the 60's. It's supposed to be the longest bench in the world.

The Memorial to the Repatriates of Algeria is in fact a huge boat propeller with impressive measurements: Almost 30 foot high and weighing 20 tons! Why a boat propeller? Simply to symbolize the crossing of the Mediterranean that all French people in Algeria had to make in 1962 to return to Marseille and/or France after Algeria's declaration of independence.

On the way back to town, the bus stopped near this wall. Birds were roosting in the holes.

We had stopped here to see the part of the Kennedy Cornice bench that was covered in tiles. The mosaics have been added gradually over the years by local artists and symbolize Mediterranean culture.

Only a small section of the bench has tile on them, the rest are bare concrete. As you can see here, from left to right, bench, walking path, bike path then road.

Next the bus left the main highway and started up a hill on much narrower streets. Cars sometimes lined both sides of the road. The cars were parked half in the road and half on the sidewalk.

View of some of the city as we climbed.

Notre Dame de la Garde, built in the mid-1800s in Roman-Byzantine style, is a basilica on a hill that displays a statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of its bell tower. As you can see, it was hard to get any photo due to the position of the sun.

We were told there are 105 steps to climb to the basilica.

But the viewpoint from the foot of the steps gave us a great view of the town.

And my sister's phone could even zoom in far enough to see our ship.

Now the driver faced the challenge of getting up back down the hill, navigating sharp turns and narrow roads.

Here we can see one of the sharp turns and how the cars have overtaken the sidewalks.

I imagine it is hard on the tires to jump the curbs like this all the time and to have them sit on the edges.

We passed by the Triumph of Amphitrite fountain which was commissioned by Henriette Étienne-Albrand in honor of her father, shipbuilder Joseph Hippolyte Étienne. Made in 1906 of Carrara marble, the fountain has a statue of Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife in Greek mythology. Her arms are raised towards the city, at her feet a triton blows the conch shell to announce the goddess of the seas. The base of the pedestal sports four ram's heads surmounted by a cartouche showing the names of ships belonging to the shipowner Joseph Etienne.

The street was partially blocked in front of the Radisson, and a firetruck had its ladder extended to the top.

I saw lots of McDonald's during our trip and none of them were in standalone buildings. Most occupied very old buildings.

The bus dropped us off on the north side of the old port where this Christmas tree had been erected.

Small boat being lifted out of the water.

They were cleaning barnacles and such off the bottom of it.

The city has a little imitation train tram for tourists.

The Children's Village was being set up in the city hall plaza.

It contained large snow globe type decorations.

Across the street portside, the Santon Market was set up for its 222nd year. These vendors create and sell small figures for nativity scenes.

There was a crowd even for this Monday early in December. Sorry if some of the people look a little funny, I was trying to blur their features.

The Church of Saint-Ferréol les Augustins occupies a lot on the NE corner of the old port. Founded in 1447, Pope Clement VII married his niece, Catherine de' Medici, to Henry II of France in this church on October 28, 1533.