We visited the city of Marseille while Billy was away on the road. We awoke early and caught the TGV, France's high-speed train. I didn't think much about the train when we booked it, but as we stood on the platform while the TGV flashed past, I was actually terrified. I now know that the train travels at around 280 - 320 km/hour. Definitely terrifying. Thankfully, once you are inside, you'd never know you're traveling at such great speed. Jake was constantly moving on the train, spotting cars out the window and climbing all over us.
As we flew across the countryside, we watched fields of corn turn into apple orchards, plains rise into rocky, barren hills and thick grey clouds melt away into bright blue sky. I don't think we saw a single cloud in Marseille. We stayed in Vieux Port and this was the view half-a-block from our hotel. Boats as far as the eye could see, stretching off into the distance.
On our first day there, we took a little train ride to see a few of the city's sights. The highlight, was a stop at Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde perched atop the highest point of the city. We climbed a lot of stares, gasped at the views and marveled at the ornate Neo-Byzantine style that is so different from the Gothic Cathedrals of Northern France.
At this point you are about half way up. We have already taken two flights of stairs below.
Day two we took a cruise to see the Calanques; a series of steep-walled inlets and coves that are carved out of the rock. It was really beautiful and thankfully the day was calm and warm.
Here we are leaving Vieux Port and soon there was not a boat or building in sight.
Can you see the group of hikers below? There are narrow, steep and rocky trails that stretch along the coastline for kilometers. They are famous for hiking and we would see little specks of color during our cruise that would give them away.
The water was such a startling color of turquoise near the rocky shore.
Jake was a lovely traveler. I'm so proud of how well he adapts to these big changes in his surroundings and routine. He certainly has had lots of practice (and I hope I won't regret typing this when we return to Canada). He ate well at the restaurants, napped well and the only tear shed was one evening when his second molar popped through, which is completely understandable. On our return home we decided to set up the stroller in-between our four seats and he slept for close to three hours - almost the duration of the train ride.
A funny story about our trip... on our last morning, we just wandered around the port to do a little shopping and to take-in the city, and we stumbled upon a Starbucks only three blocks from our hotel. We don't go to Starbucks that often in Canada anymore, but boy do we love to find it while we are here in Europe. We just love ourselves some to-go drinks! So convenient and comforting. In this case though, we had already had coffee at the hotel so we just left with a some Marseille mugs.
