We were supposed to go to Clare Island lighthouse for Easter, but we got Covid instead.
Would not recommend.
Not a lot of fun having to cancel 2 weeks worth of plans and miss the entire school holidays.
However, come May bank holiday, we were off again!
Our friend Claire turned 30, and brought a crew to Marseille to celebrate. There were 14 of us in total, and it was a very fun weekend.
We flew from Dublin to London, then on to Marseille. The airport in Marseille is quite far from the city and when we arrived at midnight. We just missed the bus while we were waiting in line to purchase tickets for it (should’ve just tried to chance it with cash, but you live and learn) so we ended up splitting a taxi into town with another couple…. €80 later….
Saturday morning was a balmy spring day, and we set about adventuring around town, starting with a petit dejeuner at a local cafe, where they had four set menus that you could choose from.
Jared and I and a few of the others set out on the mandatory walking tour to get the lay of the land.
At this point, we’ve done a fair few walking tours, but this one was decidedly lacklustre in the sense that there wasn’t really too much to see – Marseille was essentially flattened in the second world war by the Nazis as a ‘fuck you’ when retreating.
They purposefully preserved nine buildings, to show they weren’t culture-less heretics, and destroyed the rest of the city.
As such, it has quite a different look about it to other cities in France. It still has the cute little alleyways and wonderful al fresco dining everywhere, but has a modern take on a French classic city.
Marseille is France’s second city, the oldest city in France, and the first to start making wine, due to it’s proximity to the Mediterranean. and being founded by Greek settlers in 600BC. It has quite a different feel to it from Paris or Bordeaux. The food is different, and there are some Mediterranean influences in the food, clothing, architecture, and the weather is decidedly more Mediterranean – complete with dry sandy breezes from Africa.
We learned about how a cash injection from the EU has helped to turn the city around in the last decade, and how Marseille is famous for really nice soap – which we of course then elected to purchase. Marseille used to have a really dodgy reputation, and deservedly so, but it has been changed by a new port and a new museum, and now it feels really safe and lovely. It is one of the cheaper places in France to travel to that we’ve been so far, and was very welcoming.
May bank holiday is the perfect time to travel there – it was 25 degrees and actually warm. So lovely!
In the afternoon, most of our group went out to the island where the movie the ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ was filmed. The island did in fact used to be a prison, but that particular character was made up. It was very cool to see it in person though.
That island that houses Château d’If is one of four in the harbour by Marseille, and with the ferry, you can visit all of them. The next island is Îles du Frioul and has loads of resorts and water sports that you can participate in, or just go for a quick dip – as Hannah and I elected to do – BLISS! The water was beautiful, but the rocks were very stabby! (Recommend swimming with aquasocks or similar on.)
That evening we went out for dinner to celebrate the lovely Claire. I don’t know why but Italian food in Dublin is on point, but Italian food in France is… not great? Mostly it’s the tiramisu. I don’t know what they do to the tiramisu, but it’s terrible!
Sunday we went on a boat trip out to the Calanque National Park. The boat trip was excellent, they spoke great English, even though some of the reviews said they didn’t, and they fed us beautiful food when we stopped for lunch.
The whole trip was 5 hours long, and after lunch we got to have a swim. The water was breath-takingly cold, but it was really clear and beautiful! There was quite an impressive current that we battled against to swim laps around the boat – but battle we did. Did a couple of laps of the boat, and then jumped off the side of the boat a couple of times and by then the hypothermia was starting to set in, so went and lounged on the catamaran trampolines to dry off, as we headed back to the port.
The calanque aspect of the national park refers to the sheer cliffs that come up straight from the sea, and are ridiculously high – great for climbing if you’re into that kind of thing, but quite difficult to scale otherwise.
Jared and I took a detour on the road train up to the top of the hill where the cathedral resides, and did the quickest of quick tours, got a couple snaps of the view, and gapped it.
L’entrecote restaurants are like a French steakhouse, and their main fare is a set menu of steak, salad and chips with a special sauce. I cannot recommend these restaurants highly enough, they are the business.
In contrast, we went to French fast food chain O’Tacos, and that I would not recommend. Very average, no flavour, do not waste your time in France eating shitty fast food. Travesty. Don’t. Do. It! (Life pro tip: as a rule of thumb, do not trust skinny Irish girls for food advice 😉 )
Monday, we broke our fast at the now usual cafe again, farewelled the others who were heading to Nice, after a mandatory ride on the carousel.
Alex, Cormac, Jared and I briefly perused the new port area, and the new museum, the MuCEM (the Museum of european and mediterranean civilisations) which had everything from music to art to videos advocating the mediterranean diet, and if with climate change, we’ll actually still be able to continue farming in the way that we always have and if it’ll need to change soon.
It was too nice a day to be stuck in a museum, so after about an hour we went and got gelato instead, then headed on our merry way back to normalcy.
Marseille was magical, overall I highly recommend. I loved the 5 hour boat cruise, and the view of the sparkling blue Mediterranean from the Cathedral. Jared loved the L’entrecote, Chateau d’If, and the history tour that took us to the few houses that the Nazis didn’t knock down, and learning about how the rest of the old town was demolished.
I’ll leave you with this gem…