Apres une matinée pluvieuse passée dans les rues d’Aix en Provence, nous arrivons finalement a Marseille… juste après de grosses manif paralysant la ville. Toujours couvert, le temps nous permet quant même une petite visite ; on fait un premier tour en voiture, la Corniche, la Plage, le Prado, puis on se gare a Endoume (souvenirs, une place pratiquement devant mon ancien appartement !).

On descend au Vieux Port, passage devant l’église St Victor, ballade sur les quais, puis on remonte la Canebiere. Les Réformés et enfin le Palais Longchamps. C’est ouvrage du mi – 19^eme a été réalisé en complément du canal de la Durance pour alimenter en eau potable la ville de Marseille. Magnifique château d’eau :D

Pour revenir sur le Vieux Port quoi de mieux que le nouveau tram ! J’ai subit des années de travaux sans en avoir vu l’inauguration.

Le temps est toujours trop nuageux pour monter a Notre Dame de la Garde, visite remise au lendemain.

We left Aix en Provence under the rain. The loop in town was quick, just to appreciate quickly the old buildings, the small streets and the market. We went to the St Sauveur church a strange architecture with a melting pot of style from the Roman to the Renaissance.

We arrived in Marseille, near the coast, 30 mn drive. Marseille is the 3^rd city in France, with the suburbs we should be around 1 million inhabitants, a busy city with its traffic jam. I was used to spend hours in my car…. There are bad suburbs; we can’t deny that, but also some really nice buildings, most of them from mid 19^th century. The city council try hard to renovate them. I show some to Darren during this afternoon.

Still cloudy, we left for later the spectacular view from the Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde, up the hill, the symbol of town.

I drove Darren around for a while through suburbs I lived 3 years ago, the beaches, well known boulevard as “The Prado”.
We finally left the car and just in front of one of my old apartment! Amazing to find room here!

We enjoyed the walk down to the Vieux Port, the old warf in the center. On the way, we saw the old church of St Victor, the buildings around the port and the “Vieux Port”. We went up the Canebiere, THE famous boulevard in the city. Arrived finally to the “Palais Longchamps” a spectacular water tower built in the 1850’s. It collects the water from the Durance canal to provide enough drinking water in town. Amazing work!

We finished the day with a tram drive. I couldn’t avoid it, I suffered from the tramwork too much during few years!