Tony and Liz's Travel Adventures: FRANCE: Marseille

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MARSEILLE

Busiest cruise and cargo port in France
France's second largest city and oldest, founded 2600 years ago
Largest group of communes in France with a population of approx 1.2 million citizens.

Eglise de Reformes Cathedral, Marseilles

View to Notre Dame de la Garde, Marseilles

You know when you get that gut feeling? The one when you arrive at a place, city, town or village that you know straight away if you are going to like it or not just by the feel, the welcome or the looks you get from locals.

Honestly, arriving just before 1pm into the central Marseilles district into the St. Charles SCNF station area was like that!! From the moment we hopped off the train we felt that we just DID NOT want to be there.

Gare de Marseille St Charles SCNF

For starters, it was a very, very busy station and main bus terminal and it seemed that we were being sussed out ie. all eyes on us. But seriously that didn’t really bother us because we’d tackled New York subways, Metros and backstreets in Philly, New Orleans and Miami. Not forgetting the many Greyhound stations across the USA, the stations in Paris, and Madrid where heavily armed soldiers in their fatigues were patrolling, carrying their AK-47s, We were also familiar with most station and bus terminals where Maccas and McCafes were a regular feature.

However, what did bother us was when we walked out of the station and saw groups of Romas, Gypsies, Romanians gathered around the bottom of this most beautiful historic railway station…and these groups were comprised of perhaps 4 generations of one family, sickly looking babies in prams to crippled grandmothers sitting on the ground holding paper cups in their hands – begging at you all the while rattling the cups the held a few coins. It was a sad sight and probably the most “in-your-face” begging we’ve seen yet in all our travels. Besides Los Angeles and San Francisco that is! But the fact is that these people work in groups and have scouts that look out for where you pulled your money out from. When you are distracted they use tactics to pick-pocket. We were very wary all the time and hence to say we didn't end up as victims.

But yet again it so happened we were staying in perhaps the most populated Muslim district in Marseilles. One thing was for certain .....we knew that the food would be good but this would only happen after 8pm because Ramadan was still being observed. In the evenings we could have wandered into other areas outside of the district however the chances of being mugged or assaulted rose from 80% during the day to about 90% at night....and if at all possible we would veer away or ignore the gypsy groups that hung around the area. And so it goes that we didn't venture too far from our accommodation (by night) in Marseilles BUT we found a nice little Tunisian eatery, called "Restaurant Ghomrassan" a couple of blocks down the road - and that was our limit after dusk....and a quick run back to the hotel if we didn't feel safe. The restaurant served up a 3 course meal for only 10 Euros and one of the dishes was so delicious, the 'Chorba' soup, that I promised myself I would make it as part of our "F N F F F F" (Friday Night Family Foreign Food Feast) menu. It was also at this restaurant where we observed Muslims ending their daily fast during Ramadan by eating dates with a glass of milk before the evening prayers begin.

TGV - France's fast train travelling up to 322 kms per hr

When it came to food during our travels we would rarely buy Mc Donalds and if we did it was only because nothing else was open and only if we were starving. That didn't happen to often because we always carried some type of snack food for long bus or train trips. Alternatively we would buy the French staples such as Baguettes and cheese, and they were fairly cheap too. Sometimes they were ready made up with extras ie salad.

At St Charles Station there was no way we wanted to hang around let alone buy Maccas there even if it was just a short walk away. The thought of having a meal/coffee with AK-47s marching past almost made us choke just thinking about it.

But just one morning we spotted a different Maccas near a main intersection on one of our self-guided mystery tours. We just couldn't believe what we discovered .... it must be the first ever McDonalds that DO NOT, I repeat....DO NOT serve Bacon on their Bacon and Egg McMuffins - would you believe?? False advertising? Was it because we were in the Muslim district ??? Why don't they just call them Egg McMuffins....and TJ wanted argue the toss with the counter staff while I've done a quick pirouette heading for the door. And here I am ...grateful to say the least....that this wasn't happening at the St. Charles station Maccas with an AK-47 staring you in the face. Phew!!!

During our travels we had become very good at finding markets selling fresh food, fruit and veges, ones where you could "try and buy" samples of cheeses, breads and fruit and vegetables. We did find some markets on Capucins and bought some fresh fruit for our train trips, but as far as offerings go - definitely NOT particularly when you see animal heads hanging in windows with the smell of garbage wafting up your noses whilst you are trying to step over it !!

As far as safety goes, it wasn't until later in our adventures we would hear stories from other travellers about just how unsafe and dangerous this city was and could be. A statement of fact drawn from our experience of being in other unsafe places we had travelled to, some of those mentioned earlier.

To give you an idea on one of our train journeys through Italy, we met a family from Columbia who told us of their friend who had his mobile phone stolen at the St. Charles Maccas by someone who ran past and snatched it....stolen while he had it up to his ear talking on the phone.

Then at Charles De Gaulle airport on our way to Hong Kong we had a "situation" where we met a French Police Nationale Officer, Fabian, who trained and served in Marseilles....but that is another exciting story and blog later.

Then while staying in our hotel one night we watched a TV segment about the European Space Agency which developed a satellite program (GMES) for the purposes of monitoring the environment and the effects of global warming. But this system was found to be so good it is now used primarily as a global security system whereby law enforcement and border security agencies monitor the Mediterranean Sea for illegal boats entering into southern France and Italy carrying cargoes of illegal immigrants, drugs and other contraband. Marseilles is a hot-spot for this activity and a target for the watchdog.

Then , as if that wasn't enough, there were 'just a couple' of murders reported during our stay in Marseilles. That didn't even get a "Top Story" mention on the news. That gut feeling huh !! We knew it.

Stairs of the Gare de Marseilles St Charles (opened in 1848)

Streets of Marseilles

Architecture of Marseille

By day the gypsies would sit along the streets and at night get together, drink, dance and party, probably with the proceeds of charity or theft. We suspect the latter and they would leave their garbage strewn in the streets. And in the still of the night you could hear them partying until all hours. The authorities or council didn't seem to care much and turned a blind eye - probably for good reason because they would be set upon by the large group numbers. But early one morning we saw council workers using high pressure hoses (borrowed from Pamplona perhaps?) to clean off the areas where they had camped. But the beggar groups were back the next day in full view of the authorities again. (News article which relates to some of the gypsy issues - http://www.france24.com/en/20120928-marseille-residents-force-out-roma-gypsy-burn-camp-france-valls-sarkozy-repatriation )

But we made the most of the time we had to enjoy the more pleasantries of Marseille and the southern France region by taking the train on short journeys.

When we boarded the TGV from Perpignan to Marseilles via Avignon on Saturday morning 11^th August, we took in the views of the Mediterranean where the beaches and bays were dotted with camper vans and holiday makers, mostly northern Europeans travelling to the south and heading to the beaches for the summer holidays and the Super Yachts cruising the bays. And the beaches along the Mediterranean looked so inviting.

Arriving in Marseille our plan (Plan A) was to spend 4 days/5 nights in sunny Marseille but we had our reservations about this so we come up with Plan B because instead of sitting back and thinking – “this will be 4 awful days we will never get back” we decided on Plan B. There was NEVER really a Plan B, but it was hatched not long after on our arrival at St. Charles. So here were the plans......

Plan A:

Have a look around Marseille for a day or two – do a walking orientation using our trusty map and try to avoid the seedy areas, make use of the public transport system, visit some of the historical sites, get down to the wharf and Vieux Port, Abbaye de St-Victor, take in the view of Fort St Jean, and generally get to know something about Marseilles. Sounded OK and we did most of that.

Plan B:

Keep our accommodation, but get the HELL out of the city every day – and that’s exactly what we did.

And “Hell” is probably the exact the description of the accommodation too! The temperature was about 40 degrees inside with the windows open – NO air-con! Not only that....when the room had been closed during the day we were sure it felt as hot as Marrakesh (51 degrees). The hotel staff were kind enough to supply us with a small personal fan, big enough to cool off your foot - and it wasn't my foot either. Our room was on the first level, there were Romas partying all night and we weren't game enough to leave the windows completely open. There was one option and that was to open the windows and fasten the outside shutters to allow a breeze in. Sort of defeated the purpose because even the slightest breeze was hot. The downside to having the windows open was that you could hear everything going on outdoors ... all night......and to the sounds of hotel guests fornicating somewhere in the vicinity or from the nearby buildings. They had obviously left there windows open too. Would be safe to say we didn't have any comfortable nights in Marseille. FYI - the name of the accommodation was Hotel Terminus. We thought a more appropriate name was ...... Hotel Terminal. Be warned - do not stay there!

We did get out of Marseille and went to Cannes (pronounced…Cairns ...very much missing home now...), famous for the International Film Festival just to spend the day at the beach. The next day we would travel further along the coast to Nice making the most of our free travel with our Eurail passes. Ahhh! The beach, the Riveria, palm tree lined streets and promenades…and did I mention the BEACH. Both Cannes and Nice reminded us more of the northern Cairns beaches than we realised.....imagine this....Trinity Beach with its small waves but with as many beach goers as Bondi Beach and just as many beach umbrellas. Sure is like nothing we had seen before.

Just getting back to day 1 we spent time walking and seeing around some of Marseilles city where we found an antique/bric-a-brac market on Boulevard de la Liberation/La Gambetta which had some of the most beautiful old wares - nothing like we would see in Oz. One would think some of these pieces were out of Versailles palace or other French castle - just beautiful. But there is a logic in our reasoning about why we don't see any of these antiques in Australia, or the styles of buildings and architecture for that matter - by comparison to Europe, Australia is still a very young country.

Over the next day or so we ventured into the Old Town, Arc Place Jules Guesde and down to Vieux Port where it was not that exciting because what is usually a large pedestrian walkway had been ripped up for renovations and people were side-stepping everywhere and traffic jams caused by closed streets. Absolute Chaos! But hey! we imagined it would be nice when it is finished. The whole area was being rejuvenated in time for a multitude of cultural events called the Marseille-Provence, European Capital of Culture 2013 (http://www.mp2013.fr/). We were trying very hard to think positive about Marseille.

Marseille Vieux Port

We wanted to check out the Centre Bourse, a large department store housing some of the finest French stores. Question? Where in the world does a Shopping centre close on a Sunday? Yep….Marseille. And still into Ramadan many of the stores were closed until early evening when cafes and restaurants would start preparing for the "Break-fast" after 8.00pm.

It seemed as if nothing was going right for us here and to top it off, Visa had put a stop on any of our On-line purchases - much needed for our advance travel and accommodation bookings. So that had to be sorted here too and very quickly because there was no way we were going to spend any longer than we needed to in Marseilles.

We had to find a reliable phone service where we could make a call to Visa and have the 'stop' lifted. We were given advice about the "Phone Taxi". Basically a bank of telephone booths in a store where cheap direct international calls can be made without too much hassle. Things were finally starting to look up and we needed this little positive boost to prop us up.

So Cannes was definitely on the cards for tomorrow – and an early start at that (to dodge the beggars plying their trade - ie. trying to rob you).