Marseille and Aix-en-Provence: Bonjour!

From Barcelona to Marseille

From Marseille to Aix-en-Provence

MARSEILLE/AIX-EN-PROVENCE

Day 9

Places Visited in Aix
– Market on Cours Mirabeau
– Town Hall Square
– Pavillon de Vendôme
– Saint-Sauveur Cathedral
– Cézanne’s Studio

Places Visited in Marseille
– Le Vieux Port

So, the night bus was absolute hell. Never again. Forget the fact that there was virtually no leg room to the point where I had the pattern of the seat imprinted on my knees, the bus smelled so horrifically like body odor, rotting cheese, and death that I actually felt nauseous. Having my mother’s sensitive nose, it was clear that the next nine hours were going to be fantastic. I managed to get some rest, but every hour or so I would wake up, get blood to whatever part of my body had fallen asleep, and rearrange myself into the next least uncomfortable position.

When we arrived in Marseille, we were awoken to a “random” customs interrogation by the French police. I say “random” because I’m sure the overwhelmingly large amount of North Africans and Middle Easterners that were on the bus had nothing to do with it. They had all of their bags inspected, while they didn’t even ask me about my bag. That didn’t, however, make the interrogation any less terrifying. Needless to say, we made it off the bus exhausted, a little shaken up but fine.

(View of Marseille from train station)

We couldn’t check-in to our hotel until 3:00 p.m., and as the point of being in Marseille was to get to Aix-en-Provence, we left our bags, had breakfast, and went to the train station to go to Aix.

The train-ride through Provence was beautiful, and Aix was that much more stunning. Aix is your typical quaint, French, Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque, provincial town. Walking through the town, I was waiting for French folk to begin singing about the morning gossip and errands, but alas, I guess that only happens in Disney movies.

(Place du Général de Gaulle)

(Quaint town)

We went to the markets first because they were right there. They primarily sold clothing and jewelry, none of which I really wanted to buy, but it was charming anyway. Lunch was next on the agenda, and we went to a cute café next to the center of the town. Like the croquettas in Spain, my mission was to consume as many crêpes as possible, so for lunch I ordered a crêpe with sautéd vegetables.

(Market on Rue Mirabeau)

(Café for lunch)

From there, we walked around the entire town. There were a few key sights that we wanted to see, but as the town is quite small, walking around didn’t take very long. We made our way to the bell tower and main square where we went inside the Hotel De Ville, a hotel built in the 17th century. After, we went to the Pavillon de Vendôme, a French garden that was very serene and peaceful, I went to the main cathedral, Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, and walked around inside for a bit. In the baptistry, they had seven paintings depicting each of the seven sacraments, which was different from the other baptistries that we had seen. The church in some form or another has been around since the 5th century A.D. and was built on a former Roman forum.

(The Town Square and Bell Tower)

(Kelsey with the fountain)

(Hotel De Ville)

(More town)

(Pavillon de Verdôme)

(Center of Pavillon de Verdôme)

(Interesting sculptures of men on poles)

(Facade of Saint-Sauveur Cathedral)

(Inside the Cathedral)

The last point of interest we saw in Aix was Cézanne’s Studio. It was a bit of a hike up the hill to get to it, but it was definitely worth it. After Cézanne died, they preserved his studio exactly as how he left it, with bottles, wax fruit, and books scattered about the room. We weren’t able to take any pictures of the studio, unfortunately, but I was able to get a shot of what his studio overlooked.

(The outside of Cézanne’s Studio)

(The view from Cézanne’s Studio)

As the day was drawing to a close, we walked through the Gothic section of the town back to the train station. We arrived in Marseille in the evening and decided to go Le Vieux Port (The Old Port) for dinner. We ate a restaurant right along the harbor, which was quite pretty. For dessert, we went to a creperie where we ordered crépes with nutella. Delicious! And we spent the rest of the night walking about the city, enjoying its subtle charm.

(Le Vieux Port)

(The Préfecture)

Marseille is an interesting town. Being a port city, it isn’t the nicest of cities. Walking around at night, it seemed like some areas were nice, but overall it was a little seedy. We may have had that impression just because our hotel was right next to the Moroccan Consulate, thus attracting an interesting crowd, but even still, I didn’t get an overall fantastic vibe. Aix on the other hand was fantastic, very cute and quaint. I would have loved to spend more time in Provence and enjoy more of the natural beauty, but there just wasn’t time. Avignon is supposed to be really nice too, so definitely a place to come back to.

Prochain Arrêt: Nice