After a week in our lovely cottage, it was time to say goodbye, and so after a lovely last evening, we finished off our packing. With the new soft toy additions to animal corner safely stowed away amongst our clothes, along with all the electronics and drone paraphernalia, we loaded up the car.
I caught some final drone footage that I wanted, and re-created a helicopter aerial photograph that the owners had had taken of their house shortly after it was built around 25 years ago. They were very appreciative of this, and they are also looking forward to my final edited video.
The journey to Marseille was smooth, and only included 2 tolls, totaling around 13 EUR.
There was a car that was seriously on fire on the motorway on the opposite carriageway at one point. Handled very differently than at home, as people just sailed past, and no emergency services to be seen; crazy!
We had cleverly planned to check-in to the hotel first, dropping off our luggage at the same time, before then returning our hire car to the drop-off point.
Luckily, our room was ready, and so we didn’t have to leave our luggage with reception. With everything dropped off, we set off in the car to return it.
The drop off point was conveniently just up the road, but as we pulled in I remembered that we hadn’t refilled the car with fuel. As we didn’t want to pay the hefty premium per litre cost if you let Enterprise fill it for you, and we had enough time until our official drop off time, we went looking for a petrol station.
After a couple of failed locations, we found a petrol station, ironically in-between the hotel and the car rental place! There was a large coach trying to manoeuvre its way into position, which was causing chaos both in the forecourt, and on the adjoining road. I managed to navigate us around it, and we filled up the car.
Returning the car was a smooth operation, and they didn’t find any imaginary damage, so we were free to go, with deposit re-imbursed.
We aimed for the port, and had a lovely walk down a long narrow street, lined with shops. You immediately feel the African influences in the city from the shops, mixture of cultures and general feel of the place.
As we neared the bottom of the street, I spied a row of kebab shops, and so after confirming that they served falafel, we sat down and ordered.
I went for a meat based kebab wrap, and Lois had the falafel. Both were very generous in size, and also came stuffed with lettuce, tomato and onion, along with the obligatory garlic sauce. An unexpected surprise was that they also came with a portion of chips, so they definitely filled the void from not having breakfast, and it being about 2:30pm by this point.
After we finished those off, we shared a drink made from the juice extracted from sugar cane from a shop next door. It wasn’t too sweet, and was delicious!
After a further potter seeing some of the sights, we decided to find a tour of some sort.
As we reached the port, we searched for the bus tour stop, and headed for that. After waiting around 20 minutes in the baking heat, we abandoned that idea, and decided to get the river boat across the port to go to the bus tour main office, and also take a look at the Petit Train option.
The ferry boat across only costs 50 cents each, and we managed to get the prime seats at the front of it.
Safely across, we headed to the bus tour point, but after seeing that the last bus was at 5pm, and it was after 3:30pm by now, we scratched that idea. Heading down to the Petit Train point, we opted for the 8 EUR per person return ticket up to the Notre Dame Cathedral.
We were soon underway, and although there was no running commentary as we’d had on the bus tours, it was an entertaining journey through the narrow and steep streets of Marseille. You also went along the coast, which gave us an idea of more things that we could do when we visit in the future.
Arriving at the top, you were spoilt to amazing views all around the church, which was free to enter. After picking up some goodies in the gift shop, including a selection of 3D postcards for Lois’ brother Rich, we headed up to the church itself. A mass session had just started, which we sat in for for a while, but sneaked off after 10 minutes or so.
Unfortunately, as it was mass, we couldn’t explore the church fully, so returned outside to catch some more of the views from around the church. It was truly spectacular.
Jumping back on the next Petit Train back down the hill, we chose a spot a bit closer to the front, as being in the rear carriage on the way up was a bit like being on the tip of a snakes tail; it felt like that anyway!
One road in particular that we went back down was particularly steep and narrow, with the commentary saying something along the lines of “although the driver looked after you on the way up, he cannot guarantee the same for the return journey”. Thankfully the brakes were working, and the driving safe!
Arriving back at the bottom near the port, we headed for a bar called Havana Club that Lois had spotted earlier, so she could enjoy a final mojito (or two!).
I opted for a large Afligem beer (one of my favourites), which hit the cooling spot perfectly.
We then went in search of food, and in true fashion, ended back up at the first restaurant we’d take a look at, called La Galiote.
After a quick call to my sister to check up on her and my mum, we ordered our food. I went for the set menu, which included a choice of starter, main and dessert for 25 EUR 90. I chose the mixed seafood starter, then steak et frites for my main.
Lois opted for a deep-fried cheese salad.
My starter came out very quickly, and I was impressed by the size and quality of it. It was nice to finish off our trip with some stunning sea food. The plate included octopus, king prawns and squid, all of which were cooked perfectly, and the aioli was yummy as well.
After finishing that, our mains arrived and were both delicious! This was all washed down with some red wine for me, and some rose for Lois.
As the sun set, the views out over the harbour were stunning!
We shared a pudding, and went for the chocolate fondant, with a scoop of chocolate ice-cream. The fondant was nice and gooey, and the ice-cream and cream were the perfect accompaniment. I also had an espresso to truly finish it all off.
After paying the bill, which was very reasonable considering all that we had, we headed for the bus stop. After a bit of waiting, Lois also found that you could rent the electric scooters that we’d seen whizzing around us quite easily through an app on your phone. However, the scooter gods were against us, as it didn’t allow Lois to add any funds to her account.
With our bus arrived, we jumped on and paid the 2 EUR each to take us back to the hotel. The stop was only a minutes walk away from the hotel, so very convenient.
We then chilled back in the room for a while, before going to sleep relatively early ready for the long train journeys back home tomorrow!