Marvelous Marseille

The French teachers decided to take an excursion to Marseille today. It was very easy to get to the city since there's a bus transport every five minutes from the station in Aix. We paid our five euros for the trip, and 30 minutes later, we arrived at the 2nd largest city in France.


We got directions to the Old Port from two kind policeman at the train station and walked about 15 minutes to the area. We passed several shops on our way (and might have stopped in a few of them to take a break from the heat). It was 27 degrees celsius today. Il faisait chaud! When we got to the Old Port, the sights and sounds amazed us. It was just wonderful. On the highest point of the city is Notre Dame de la Garde, the Catholic Basilica


The Old Port is surrounded by ramparts to protect the city from pirate attacks. We decided to climb them for a better perspective. From the ramparts, we could see the mountains in the distance. We also planned to visit the Basilica once we climbed down and left the Old Port.


When we arrived at the bus stop to wait for the #60 bus to take us to the Basilica, we ran into Tim from Parkway South and Julien, his host brother. They were visiting Marseille as we were! What a fun surprise to see them! It's such a small world! Tim and Julien told us in French that they had done a lot of great activities since we last saw them, and Julien gave us helpful information about riding the bus (if we returned on the bus within an hour of our visit, we wouldn't have to buy another ticket.) Thanks, Julien! You saved us 2 euros! Hooray! It was great to see Tim and Julien having fun together in the city. They planned to visit the new museum after the Basilica.



The view from the Cathedral was spectacular. We could see Chateau D'If (site of The Comte of Monte Cristo) and all of Marseille. Wow!


Inside the Basilica, the design was stunning. The ceiling had mosaics, and there were beautiful sculptures of Our Lady all throughout the building. What a sight! It was well worth it to ascend to the highest point of Marseille to visit the Basilica. Marseille is definitely marvelous!




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