Thursday 19th October 2017
Armed with the tickets we sourced the previous day we set off to Istres station to get the train down to Marseille, the second largest city in France. On arrival at the station, the door was firmly locked and notices posted that it was due to the strike. Luckily we noticed a local gent squeezing through a side gate onto the platform and we followed with minutes to spare for our train arrival. The train ride was smooth and, in places, had some excellent views over small towns next to the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived at Marseille-Saint-Charles station and made our way down to the Old Port, one of the things we had decided to see on our short visit.
Within minutes of leaving the station we witnessed a fist fight between a shop worker and an irate chap outside a phone shop. Making our way to the port we passed piles of rubbish in the streets. Very soon after about four or five police vehicles streamed past and surrounded another store. Not a good start to our big city visit. On reaching the Old Port the atmosphere changed and we stopped for a lovely lunch and a beer before wandering past the Town Hall to find the Petit Train.
We boarded the Petit Train to travel up to the Notre-Dame de la Garde, the city’s best-known symbol.
Notre-Dame de la Garde is a Roman Catholic basilica, completed in 1864. It towers over the city and can be seen for miles at around. The interior is stunning.
There are views of all the city from outside the basilica including the old & new ports.
After a brief 25 minute tour we hurried back to join the fun train back down to the city.
We made our way back to the station for the return rail trip to Istres. As the ride progressed it grew steadily darker and we watched a large cruise liner slowly drift off into the Mediterranean as night fell.
Marseille brought home to us that we are not really big city fans. You can only ever brush the surface of what there is to see, and quite often you get to see and feel the darker side of the city in the surrounding streets. I don’t think we’ll be rushing back.
