Today, we took an Uber and traveled to Marseilles, about a 40 minute drive from the marina. It was a lovely car ride around the Calanques National Park, highlighting stunning sights of white rocky mountains and a lush green treeline. Using Uber is a pleasure, letting you relax and enjoy the scenery while the driver navigates familiar roads and highways.

Marseilles is the setting for the famous book “The Count of Monte Cristo.” The setting, Chateau d’ If, is not a fictional location, but is real. This island prison is off the coast of Marseilles in the Mediterranean Sea. We did not visit the Chateau due to lack of time and we just visited Alcatraz this fall. One prison is enough for now.

The city itself is bustling, the traffic flow makes no sense, and overall is pretty clean. There is a big art presence, complete with framed artwork in alleyways and murals on the buildings. Graffiti is plentiful but usually very high up on the building, not defacing the main entrance ways. We explored MUCEM museum, Fort Saint Jean, the old port, Le Panier (the old quarter), the Cathedral de la Major, and Gare St. Charles (the train station). Some of the streets are as steep and narrow as you find in San Francisco. We are planning to come back this way later in the season to visit Axe de Provence when the lavender is blooming and hope then to go to the Basilica de Notre Dame and take a side trip to Cassis.

The weather, since we have been in La Ciotat, has become windier and colder. We have been wearing foul weather gear because of it! There is a stream of “Mistrial” winds coming off the Rhone River so that is the reason for this wind occurrence, cold weather, and why we are SO grateful to be in a marina. After our stint last year in Ajaccio, we are very cautious with windy weather! In fact, today when we were walking, the winds were so strong you could feel them pushing you…I almost fell! I have a new found respect for the weather folk who stand outside in hurricanes to report the news.