More Marseille with Mom

Update to an early post...which one, I'm not sure

One night while around the Vieaux Port with Mom and Chris, we were looking for a place to eat. There are lots of restaurants around that area, everything ranging from Vietnamese and Japanese, to Provencal, to Tunisian. However, looking for something we knew Mom would like, was a bit tricky. We knew she loves chicken, but it's rare to find chicken on a menu here. So we went from one restaurant to the next, looking at the menus, and trying to find something we knew she would enjoy. We had almost settled on one place, when Chris found the Buffalo Grill. Yes, a restaurant called Buffalo Grill here in Marseille...with grilled chicken, ribs, buffalo steak, all sorts of foods that you would find in America.

Mom really loved the "Kentucky Grilled Chicken." :) I had a buffalo steak that was simply OK, but the platter of food Chris ordered had some really good ribs on it.

The place inside was so funny. Cowboys and Indian pictures an statues, and felt like we were inside a Tumbleweed restaurant. It was fun!

May 21st

Today, Mom, Chris, and I relaxed most of the morning, and then went down to the Vieaux Port to a ceramics market that was only around for one day. There were so many lovely items, that I wish I could have bought more and had a way to easily ship it back to the US. Mom found a little ceramic item that was painted the color of the Mediterranean. I found a cute little kitty necklace that Chris bought me.

Chris took off for home to get work done, and Mom and I hopped the tourist train up to Notre Dame de la Guarde. It was a bit cloudy, but still a beautiful day to go up to the cathedral. Since it was a holiday (when is it not a holiday here in France?), they were having mass. Mom and I stood inside of for a while to watch. Then we walked around outside looking out over Marseille.

We took the train back to the Vieaux Port and decided to shop around at some of the local stores. We had a great time together!

I have a few pictures that can be viewed HERE

Cassis

May 20th

Chris, Mom, and I took the bus from Castellane (just down the street from us) over to Cassis. The ride only took about 4o minutes, and it was a beautiful drive. The bus went up into the mountains and then through the mountain tops over to Cassis. Chris was wise in sitting to the inside of the bus, because looking out the window and down at the edge of the mountain would have really bothered him.

The bus dropped us off a bit oustide of the main part of town, so we walked towards the port (or at least what we thought was the direction of the port) and wound up in the town center. We stopped into a shop so that Mom could buy a hat, then we walked through the open air market admiring the Provencal goodies. We had heard that the raisin bread is the best at the market, but we got there too late. We bought some dried figs and apricots, and then walked over to the port for lunch. For lunch, we had pizzas while watching people walk on the port.

The three of us went over to the beach and Chris & I touched the water. It was pretty cold to me, but a lot of people were out swimming. We went into the office of tourism and got a map of the area and plotted out what we wanted to do for the afternoon. There was a tourist train at the port, and we hopped on. It took us over to Port Miou, let us out for 10 min, then went back to the port. It was worth the ride because the scenery was beautiful! Chris and I had been to Port Miou when we took the Calanques tour boat.

Back at the port, we decided to walk to one of the 12 local vineyards to do some wine tasting. We walked the hill up to Clos Sainte Magdeleine. With the wineries, you are suppose to call ahead and make a reservation. We decided that we would just take our chances upon arrival.

When we got to the door to the winery, there was a couple waiting there. They spoke English and said that they had rang the doorbell and was waiting to see if they could get in. A lady appeared at the door and said that all of us could come in for a tour and tasting for 13 euros a piece. It turned out to be a very sweet deal!

The couple with us on the tour was from South Africa. The woman spoke English and French, and the guy only spoke English. Chris and the lady would translate for the rest of us on the tour. We walked over the vines and the view was amazing. I would love to live there and tend to the grapes, with the mountains on one side, and the sea on the other. We walked over to the cliff and looked down where people were swimming and one guy was holding a huge octopus.

The lady led us inside and downstairs to the cellar to do the tasting. Cassis is known for white wines. I'm not a big fan of whites, but the Cassis wine we tasted at this winery was the best white I have ever had. Even their Rose was delicous! Chris did an excellent job with translating and going back and forth between French and English. Mom was pretty impressed.

After the tasting, we paid the bill and found out that each of us got a free bottle of our choice to take home! So we chose 2 bottles of white and 1 bottle of Rose to take with us.

We didn't have time to explore any other wineries, but the one was perfect.

We went back to the port and decided it was time for gouter (snack). There was a cafe serving crepes, so we stopped there. Mom had a banana and chocolate crepe, I had banana and Nutella crepe, and Chris had creme de marron (chestnut cream). They were delicous!

We shopped around for a while and then headed back to the bus stop. It was a nice ride back to Marseille. Cassis is now one of my favorite places to visit along the sea.

CLICK HERE for pictures of the day

Chateau d'If and Frioul Island

May 19th
Since the weather was so nice, we decided that today would be the day to go to the islands off the coast of Marseille. We went to the mall and bought some sandwiches to eat for lunch, then walked down to the Vieaux Port to buy our tickets to Chateau d'If and Frioul island.

We had to wait about an hour for the boat, but that gave us time to show Mom the fish market and to eat our lunch.

The boat arrived, we went to the very top, and off we went to Chateau d'If. Chris and I had not yet had the chance to go to Chateau d'If and were looking forward to seeing something new. Mom really loved the boat ride out to the island.

We bought our tickets to the Chateau and walked around the island for a few minutes before heading inside. The Chateau was once a fortress, turned into a decent prison, with fireplaces and windows with views of the sea. At one time, there was a rhinoceros kept at the Chateau, but that was a very sad story.

We were a bit disappointed with the Chateau, it was interesting and fun to walk around, but quite small and easy to explore within a couple of hours. Also, there was an entire room devoted to the Count de Monte Cristo and all the different movie versions of the story.

CLICK HERE for our pictures of Chateau d'If

After exploring the Chateau, we took the boat over to Frioul Island to hike. Chris and I had explored one island, so we decided to go to the other one on this trip (Frioul is made up of 2 islands connected by a dam).

It was a hot day for hiking, but we had a blast. For the first time, we saw baby seagulls! They were SO cute! We also saw a rabbit, which was a first for us here in France (outside of a restaurant menu).

We hiked a large part of the island, but there is STILL more to explore!

After hiking, we stopped off in the village for some drinks and ice cream. Chris had Thyme sorbet and I had violet. It felt so good to sit and cool off for a little while before catching the boat back to Marseille.

CLICK HERE for pictures of our trip.

Exploring Marseille with Mom

May 18th

Today, Mom, Chris and I walked around the port over to the Abbey. We took Mom through the Abbey and down into the crypts, which I am not sure she enjoyed very much being that it was underground. :)


Afterwards, we walked over to Fort St. Nicholas, which Chris & I had yet to explore. After hiking all the way up to the entrance (which was quite a walk up the hill), we found out that the fort was closed to the public. So we just walked around the top and took pictures of the port and the sea.


We walked down to the port and took the ferry across. The ferry is free and it only goes the width of the port. A little lazy, but it was fun seeing the port from a different vantage point. When we got to the other side, we found a cafe and sat down to have drinks. Watching the people walking by and the boats coming in and out of the port was great. There was one lady that walked by that really caught our eyes....she was at least in her 50's, and was wearing a red evening gown, spiked heals, and lots of makeup. The way she walked was definitely a "notice me" kind of stride. We couldn't figure out why she was so dressed up, but it was fun coming up with ideas. :) We later saw her walking back with a small bag of groceries. hahaha


We went to a few shops so Mom could by souvenirs. We ended up shopping around the mall too and again, picking up groceries to take home.