On Wednesday morning, we headed out of Nice and along the coastal highway to see some more of the small towns along the riviera. We made our way to Cannes because of its fame with the celebrities and as you can see from the first two pictures, its really not all that special. The beach is almost gone due to the over development of high rises and every hotel feeling the need to have a restaurant out on the beach. The people swimming in the sea look like they are right on top of the people trying to eat an over priced meal. Good times.
When we left for Marseille, an interesting problem came up. We texted our next couchsurfing host to check on what time we should arrive and to our surprise, he called and told us that he was out of town and had sent us a message saying he wouldn't be able to host us. We later looked and couldn't find a message so it was an interesting miscommunication. He called us back twenty minutes later and made arrangements with his father to drop the keys by so we could stay at his place without him. It was an amazing gesture and we are forever grateful for the hospitality he showed us. We hope he will come to visit us in Madrid. I know the French have a bad reputation for being cold and mean but outside of Paris, they are really quite lovely.
We met his father around four o'clock and he showed us how everything worked around the house. We spent the rest of the evening organizing, grocery shopping, and relaxing instead of running off for sight seeing. On Thursday morning, we jumped into the car and headed into town. From our experience the day before of trying to make a grocery run, we learned that driving in Marseille is no easy task. I do miss the simpler format of American cities and how easy it can be to maneuver in the grid type cities where as European cities are a mix of winding streets. Take three rights and you not only won't be back where you started but in a place completely unrecognizable as well.
We didn't have a map and spent quite a while just winding through streets thinking we were close to the port area until we finally parked the car and had to walk an hour to get to where we wanted to be. Luckily, the parking garage was next to a metro stop so we wouldn't have to make the long trek back to the car. We walked around the old port area for a while as its always enjoyable to be so close to the sea. Marseille has an interesting spot in French history as its the oldest settlement in the country. There are caves in the mountains right outside the city that have cave paintings that date back to 30,000 B.C. The Greeks set up shop in Marseille in 600 B.C. and the area has enjoyed quite a position of maritime importance. The area has a lot of old architecture like the Hotel de Ville(City Hall) around the port and its quite nice to just stroll along. Around the docks area, we found a lot of different globes painted in different fashions like each country by its flag or different things they're famous for, it was interesting to see all the different representations.
From there, we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe, which was nice but pales in comparison to the one in Paris. Near the Arc is one of the best cathedrals we've seen in Europe, if nothing else for its more unique design. Many of the older cathedrals we've seen all start to look the same after a while but this one had a striped outside that made it more pleasing to the eye. It's called the Cathedral Saint Marie Majeure and it reminded me of the Mezquita building in Córdoba, Spain and seemed to have some Arab influence. The inside was dark because none of the lights were on and no one was inside so we just sat and enjoyed the intenseness of the silence of being in the large building all alone. As we were leaving, more visitors trickled in. Afterwards, we briefly stopped by to see the Vieille Charité, a complex and church built to house vagabonds and orphans.
One of the culture centers of Marseille is the Opera House and the building is in great shape considering that a fire almost destroyed it some years ago. It was built in the classical style in the 17th century and still hosts many famous opera performances.
The heat started to get to us so we headed for the metro and caught a train back to our parking garage stop and got in the car. A friend of ours told us French people don't like artificial air like air conditioning blowing on them but how can you not enjoy it on a day where its 91 F(34 C) and humid outside. We cranked the air and attempted to drive to a couple of the other sites we wanted to see but after a lot of zig zagging through the same streets, we said to hell with it and headed for the last major place we had to see in town, the Notre Dame de la Garde that sits on the hillside overlooking the city.
The style of the church is similar to the other cathedral we saw and because its smaller, its technically called a basilica. The vantage point of the church is incredible and you can see everything for miles around and for this, the place has been very important to many leaders of the area. The idea for the church began in the 13th century and has evolved into the present shape it has today. The church has a plaque dedicated to the visit from John Paul II before he became pope to the church.
After the church, we called it a day and for the first time, navigated our way without too much difficulty back to our hosts' house to relax with some food and a cold drink. If you think Cannes is nice, forget about it and head to Marseille!
No comments:
Post a Comment