Tag: france

I decide to take two excursions into the Mediterranean today. The first – a boat cruise of the Calanques. The Calanques is a large national park to the southeast of Marseille, home to many water-side cliffs and some natural bays in which little ports, apparently mostly hotels with beachs, have grown up.

The views leaving the port of Marseille are wonderful. I see where my hotel sits right on the shore. The Basilica of Notre Dame de la Guarde sits on a towering hill in the center of town, making it clear to me why I was so exhausted walking up there earlier in the morning. I also get some nice views of Chateau d’If and the Friouls, which I intend to visit later in the day.

Not a lot to say about the Calanques, other than it is a relaxing boat ride seeming them and it is nice to be out on the water, with beautiful views of both the park and the Mediterranean. Continue reading “Marseille by Sea”

After a long, and very beautiful, train ride up the Mediterranean coast, I arrive late in Marseille, France. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to see here, other than Chateau d’If a minor fort on an island turned into a prison which is unremarkable except that it was made famous in Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. I just finished watching Gankutsuou, an anime remake of The Count of Monte Cristo, which has a lot of references to Chateau d’If and Marseille in general, so I’m excited to be here for mostly fictional reasons, but the beauty of this part of the Mediterranean will make this perhaps my favorite stop on my travels.

I don’t see much on my first night with my late arrival, Uber to my hotel, and right to bed, however in the morning I’m greeted with a fantastic view of the Mediterranean out of my hotel room window, including the Chateau d’If on a little island in front of more of the Friouls, a small island chain and national park. I take pictures of the sunrise every morning…

Continue reading “Marseille by Land”