Day 5: Marseille
To begin our 2nd day in Marseille, we woke up bright and early to go on our 3 hour hike in the Calanques. We grabbed some breakfast (croissants and baguettes again), then took the metro over and met our guide, Jean-Marc, where we then drove to the mountains. It was cold and windy, and we did not bring warm enough clothes on our trip, so we ended up layering 5 different shirts/cardigans over another to keep warm. We started off slow and began climbing some serious rocks to get to the top of the Calanques. The views at the top were breathtaking! I brought my baguette with me on the hike just in case I got hungry, but it just ended up getting hard and difficult to eat because of the strong winds. During our hike, Jean-Marc told us about the history of Marseille and the Calanques and about various islands near the mountains. There was even a story about Antoine de Saint-Exupery (author of The Little Prince) and how his plane crashed near them. Jean-Marc was very knowledgeable about everything, and really has a passion for what he does. I would definitely recommend choosing him if you plan to take a hike through Les Calanques! He can be found through the Marseille Tourism website.
After we conquered the mountains, we got back into the car and drove to a small village in the Calanques, named Morgiou. There we met a fisherman, and learned that his son had a guest who was from Canada as well. We were going to go meet him but it turned out that he wasn't home at the time. Jean-Marc then suggested that we try a restaurant with really good pizza, where they squirt octopus ink onto the pizza. As cool as that sounded, we kindly passed. Octopus ink? Gross!
After we finished with Les Calanques, we said goodbye to Jean-Marc, grabbed lunch at a restaurant, and then took a bus to go see Notre Dame de la Garde, the cathedral at the highest point of Marseille. Since it was so high up, it was even more windy, and we were literally being blown off our feet. Our hair was crazy and got all tangled but we had the best time with it.
To begin our 2nd day in Marseille, we woke up bright and early to go on our 3 hour hike in the Calanques. We grabbed some breakfast (croissants and baguettes again), then took the metro over and met our guide, Jean-Marc, where we then drove to the mountains. It was cold and windy, and we did not bring warm enough clothes on our trip, so we ended up layering 5 different shirts/cardigans over another to keep warm. We started off slow and began climbing some serious rocks to get to the top of the Calanques. The views at the top were breathtaking! I brought my baguette with me on the hike just in case I got hungry, but it just ended up getting hard and difficult to eat because of the strong winds. During our hike, Jean-Marc told us about the history of Marseille and the Calanques and about various islands near the mountains. There was even a story about Antoine de Saint-Exupery (author of The Little Prince) and how his plane crashed near them. Jean-Marc was very knowledgeable about everything, and really has a passion for what he does. I would definitely recommend choosing him if you plan to take a hike through Les Calanques! He can be found through the Marseille Tourism website.
Cameras cannot capture the beauty of it all!
Casually holding onto my baguette
Don't judge our outfits...
After we conquered the mountains, we got back into the car and drove to a small village in the Calanques, named Morgiou. There we met a fisherman, and learned that his son had a guest who was from Canada as well. We were going to go meet him but it turned out that he wasn't home at the time. Jean-Marc then suggested that we try a restaurant with really good pizza, where they squirt octopus ink onto the pizza. As cool as that sounded, we kindly passed. Octopus ink? Gross!
The dog that greeted us at the end of the road and followed us in
Marjiou
Side view of Notre Dame de la Garde
Inside the cathedral
View from the top
We also wanted to see le Chรขteau d'If, the fortress/prison that Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte-Cristo was based off of, but it was too windy for any ferries to head out so we couldn't go. In the end, we decided to do some shopping and also stopped for a while in a bookstore to watch The Avengers (in French) for a good hour.
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