The McKenneys: Then Marseille

The next day we drove further south to the port city of Marseille. Marseille was founded by the Phoenicians in 600 B.C. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe. A famous saying states that Marseille is the first Arabic city in the Paris-Dakar race, because it has a very large population of North African immigrants. It is also said that there are more Comorian people in Marseille than in Comoros! Indeed, the people of Marseille have varying ethnic backgrounds, with a lot of Italians and Spanish having immigrated to the area after the second world war.
Some of the more popular areas of the city are the Calanques (a natural area of big cliffs falling into the sea - Calanque means fjord), the Panier area (the oldest place of the town) the Vieux-Port (old harbor) and the Corniche (a road along the sea).
Upon arrival, we visited Notre Dame de la Garde, a big church which overlooks the city. Old fishermen used to have their boats blessed in this church. You can still see many boat models hanging around in the church. From there it is one of the nicest view of the city including the Chateau d'If. In the late 17th century became a prison for political prisoners and Hugenots. The Man in the Iron Mask was kept here, as were other political prisoners. Alexandre Dumas set one of his great novels here, the "Count of Monte Cristo." The hero was imprisoned in the Chateau d'If, dug his way through a solid stone wall, and escaped. No such person existed (sorry) but you can still visit the Count's supposed cell, and see the tunnel he supposedly dug out.

We jumped on a bus tour around the city and learned that Napoleon's family took refuge here after they were exiled from Corsica.
We also visited the city's Cathedral built in the Byzantine style - it is called "the pajama" by the locals because of its stripes.
We went to see "Palais du Pharo", a palace built for Napoleon lll, but it was closed for renovation. We also tried to get on a boat to see the Calanques (the cliffs overlooking the seas), but the three hour trip was more time than we wanted to invest. We instead drove back to Avignon for an early dinner. An additional consolation was the beautiful sunset we saw on the way back.

A different view of the new port