Today was one of the 300!

Friday 1st June

Our last day in Marseille today and we woke up to clear blue skies. We took our time this morning as we had a latish start, and assumed we would not make the 11am cruise, but would aim for the 3pm one. Well the stars all aligned, buses and trains gelled nicely, and we were at the dock by 10.45, even with a brief stop to buy a hat (left mine in the car).

The cruise went out of the port, between the forts on either side, and headed east along the coast and to the Calanques National Park. Calanque is creek in French. We had a book of explanation of each of the spots of interest but there was also a staff member on board who took the time to come and explain some of the points of interest to us. He pointed out a lot of the German bunkers from WWII, and forts for protection along the coast. He also told us about a great spot for scuba diving where there were a lot of boat wrecks. There are also a lot of plane wrecks in the area for diving.

There were some beautiful secluded bays along the coast and in almost every bay there would be a boat or two. Some of the spots along the coast appeared to be so isolated but in some of them there were quite a number of people enjoying the sun. How did they get there? We couldn't see any roads through the rocky coastal hills, but every now and then there was a car or two. Apparently one of the universities was 'just over the hills' from one of the popular bays.

As we left port for our Mediterranean cruise. 🤗

The Palais Royale. Built by Napolean but never lived in.
Given to the city by the empress Eugenie after his death.

One of the beautiful isolated bays in the national park.

The rock formations along the coast.

View from the cruise.

The fort on one side of the entry to the port.

A german watchpost on one of the small islands.

Another thing we learnt from the staff was that Jacques Cousteau was from Marseille and his first documentary was filmed on one of the islands we passed. This guy had some great information - there were a number of other English speakers on board but I'm not sure if they got the same service. I like to think we got special treatment!

Rob visited a Degas and Cezanne exhibition.
Apparently all the paintings are owned by one British man
and are in lone to the Cantini museum in Marseille.