SuperDave's Adventures in Eastern France's Wine Country COMPLETE!! 6/13 About This Page:

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Great updates Dave! What a busy day!

Heather,
All good fun and food! Glad you enjoyed it!

Just returned from Disney on April 4! A great time as usual for a week at Riverside. Should have contacted you on this board beforehand, so we could have perhaps met up! My fault!

Hope you're enjoying your relocation as Cam mentioned it in her PTR! I kept hoping to cross paths in DTD, but didn't realize your change, until after my return!

Will always remember the Margarita meet (Studios Canteen near LMA) for the DOD in 2009 for PP's 10th and of course the ducks! That was a fun meet and gathering for all and I still have my duck...well at least somewhere as I moved recently and can't locate it at the moment..but, it's around!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Will always remember the Margarita meet (Studios Canteen near LMA) for the DOD in 2009 for PP's 10th and of course the ducks! That was a fun meet and gathering for all and I still have my duck...well at least somewhere as I moved recently and can't locate it at the moment..but, it's around!

Can you believe it's almost five years ago to the day now since that trip? Where does the time go? It really doesn't feel like that long ago, although then again, I think about everything that's happened since then and all our travels and sometimes it seems like a lot more than five years!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by chezp

Can you believe it's almost five years ago to the day now since that trip? Where does the time go? It really doesn't feel like that long ago, although then again, I think about everything that's happened since then and all our travels and sometimes it seems like a lot more than five years!

I can't believe it as well, but as you said, some things that have happened in the last five years seem longer than five years while others don't!

[SuperDave]

Friday, 17 May (Aix en Provence and on to Marseilles; Part I)

Regarding, my teaser of this upcoming post. It’s a bit misleading as I forgot about the upcoming day stop, that’s in this post. It will be in the post after this one.

Can’t believe this trip is winding down as this is my last full day in France on this trip. It’s day 16! Even better as it’s my birthday as well! What a way to spend your birthday! I didn’t even mention it to any of my tour colleagues until later this evening, while at our farewell dinner in Marseilles!

Woke up fairly early at about 6:45 am. We would be leaving for Aix en Provence and Marseilles at 8:45 am. So, I made sure to give myself plenty of time to have breakfast and get my things ready for the bus ride.

Had my usually boring breakfast of coffee, orange juice, two croissants and a strawberry yogurt. After breakfast, I returned to my room and gathered my bags and brought them down to the lobby, so I’d have them ready for the bus ride. A few of my group were hanging out in the lounge area in a very relaxed way. Still had about twenty minutes or so, before we were to leave, so I took a walk outside for a while. It was raining a little, but not too hard to not take a walk. The weather in Provence has not been too cooperative the last couple of days, but still had a great time!

When I returned, pretty much most of my group were gathered in the hotel lounge, ready to leave for our final destination of Marseilles. At just after 8:30 am we left the hotel and walked down into the lower town of Vaison La Romaine, where Hilde was waiting with our bus. It’s in the car park in town, where we were dropped off three days ago. The walk was a bit better now as it wasn’t raining at all. It’s about a ten minute walk, with the first half of it being extremely downhill to the lower town. The rest of it is quite level.

We spotted Hilda, who was waiting on the bus for us and boarded. We left at just about 8:45 am for a day stop in Aix en Provence and on to Marseilles for our final night in France on this tour! Some of us would be heading home after Marseilles, while others would be continuing with their adventures in Europe. One couple would be heading to Paris for a week, another to Nice for a few days and another would be flying to Italy and driving through the country for a few weeks!

I didn’t spend much time looking at scenery out the window this time as I indulged in some needed nap time! At 10:20 am we arrived at one of the Autoroute stops for a bit of a break. I had a double expresso, to wake me up. We left for Aix en Provence at 10:40 am. It was a pretty short drive to this destination and arrived there just after 11 am.

Aix en Provence is a pretty big city with a population of around 142,000. It is known for it’s fancy looking banks and buildings as well as the tree lined boulevard of Cours Mirabeau. When we arrived it was still overcast, but at least it wasn’t raining at all.

Our tour director Toni, gave us a brief tour of the city center of where certain things were and some of the main streets, attractions and restaurants were. After that we were on our own to do whatever we chose for the next couple of hours. I walked the city center and Cours Mirabeau for a while, before deciding to look for a place for lunch.


Fountain at the beginning of Boulevard Cours Mirabeau


Tree lined Cours Mirabeau. Love how this looks!


This Patisserie shop looks rather decadent and quite upscale. It wasn’t cheap at all. Reminds me of those in Paris.


Another fountain along Cours Mirabeau


Statue on boulevard


A view inside the Cathedral de Saint Saveur in the city


I think this may be some sort of hospital or even a hospice in town from the rear.


World War II monument in Aix en Provence, regarding the liberation of the city by the French and American forces in 1944.

It was about noon time, so I looked for a place to have lunch. It was raining again a bit, so I didn’t want to spend too much time looking for a place. I checked a couple of menus on eateries in the area and settled on Le Coquet Brasserie. It looked quite nice in the inside of it. Ordered a glass of Chardonnay, which I liked. Just went with a soup for lunch, which seemed to me it would be enough. I had a fish soup with various shellfish in a light saffron broth with Emmenthaler cheese on top. It was accompanied by mini French baguettes and a potato salad with saffron. It was very good, surprisingly filling and hit the spot. It was a bit expensive, but certainly worth the money. The fish soup was €14. I know, I picked the right place for lunch.

Still had about thirty minutes till I had to meet up with our group for our bus to Marseilles at about 1:30 pm. I headed back to Boulevard Cours Mirabeau, which was about a five minute walk. But before meeting up with my group I stopped at Café La Pause along the boulevard for a double espresso. It was quite good and had it outside, which I try to do as long as the weather is cooperative. This is a very busy part of the city so I had a great view for some people watching. Always, a good thing!


On Cours Mirabeau, near Café La Pause


Same fountain as before on the beginning of Cours Mirabeau.

After, leaving the café it was just merely crossing the boulevard, where some of my group was waiting to walk back to the bus. A few minutes later, everyone was accounted for.

We left for Marseilles at just after 1:30 pm, which sadly is the last destination of this tour and my trip to France!


NEXT: I definitely wasn't expecting to do this in France or anywhere!

This time for real!

[Cam22]

You are definitely keeping us hanging on with that teaser. I really like the looks of Aix en Provence, so lovely and very French.

[chezp]

Now that's what I call a great way to spend your birthday!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by Cam22

You are definitely keeping us hanging on with that teaser. I really like the looks of Aix en Provence, so lovely and very French.

That was my mistake with the teaser! Aix en Provence was quite a nice town and liked it a lot during our short visit there!

Thanks for updating my thread Cam!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by chezp

Now that's what I call a great way to spend your birthday!

It most certainly was!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start to your day in Aix en Provence!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great start to your day in Aix en Provence!

It certainly was a great beginning to my final full day in France on this great trip! A bit overcast and some sprinkles of rain, but nothing to complain about really!

[SuperDave]

Friday, 17 May (Aix en Provence and on to Marseilles; Part II)

I definitely wasn't expecting to do this in France or anywhere! Well, this time it’s for real and will be part of this post!

We're driving for about an hour or so, when we started to enter the northern fringes of Marseilles. The port area, where we would be staying is quite nice, modern and well kept. This part of the city is completely different. There are a lot of slums, poverty and is quite gritty to say the least. Some of the areas north of Paris can be like this as well.

The population of Marseilles is quite diverse with a lot of North African and Middle Eastern folk making up a good chunk of its’ population. This is because it is a big port on the Mediterranean and is basically a gateway for many into France and Europe. It is the third largest city in France at 853,000 behind Paris and Lyon. Once you get away from the port areas and go a bit more into the city, it can be a bit dicey there as there are crime problems.

As we entered the outskirts of Marseilles, there seemed to be a lot of construction going on within the city, so that’s a good thing. I guess they want to build it up and make it much more inviting to tourists. There was a lot of traffic, so it took us a while to get near the port area.


Port area of Marseilles, with a large congestion of boats. We would be staying a bit further away from this part of the port area as it will be much nicer than this.

Before, checking into our hotel on the port area, we’d first make a visit to the cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde. It is quite elevated above Marseilles and there are some spectacular views from up there as you’ll see!


Notre Dame de la Garde taken from our bus, while en route there. We were just a few minutes away.

While ascending up to Notre Dame, the roads were quite steep and narrow. It seemed a bit difficult at times for our bus to make it around some of these corners. Part of the problem, being that there were numerous autos parked along the sides and corners of these roads, which didn’t make it any easier for our driver, Hilde. While heading up still, she wasn’t able to navigate the bus around a few cars, so she had to back up the bus a few times and turn the bus quite sharply to succeed! Some of these buses and how they are built can maneuver these sharp turns quite well, while other buses (like ours) have some difficulty. I guess it was like trying to steer the Titanic away from the icebergs, but with a much better end to it.

This year our tour ended in Marseilles. This is the first year Rick Steve’s Tours were ending this particular one here. It used to be in Nice, which I would have preferred as I’ve always wanted to visit there. Plus, I could fly direct back to New York from Nice and not Marseilles. Perhaps, on another trip? We were also the first group of the year to do this, so I suppose we’re the guinea pigs! I think they should have done better planning with reaching areas like Notre Dame with such a large bus. This would not be the last time on this visit!

After a few minutes more of driving and relatively easy maneuvering Hilde got us to our destination of Notre Dame de la Garde. We left the bus and went on our own for a while to visit the cathedral and take in the great views from up here. It is located at an elevation of 149 meters or 490 feet. The cathedral dates back to the 8th century.


Quite a view from up here!


The large modern building is the CMA CGM Tower, which stands 147 meter high with 33 floors. It was completed in 2011.


Not sure what this small island in the harbor is for






Gold statue of the Virgin Margin with Baby Jesus at Notre Dame de la Garde


Like the view of the surrounding mountains in Marseilles


I like these tourist trains as they’re kind of cute and well decorated. Saw these also in Colmar and Beaune. This one may be taking the tourists higher up to Note Dame, where I was


Inside the Cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde. It’s quite striking! Sort of has a gothic/Middle Eastern feel in its’ design.


Outside of Notre Dame, which is quite vast






More views of Marseilles from here




More from the outside of Notre Dame

After taking in lots of great views from up here and a short visit inside of Notre Dame, our group met down below in the parking lot and boarded the bus for Marseilles. It was several flights of stairs from the outside to the parking lot. It was quite busy up here as this is a popular spot for the views and the cathedral as well. It was about 4 pm now.

I definitely wasn't expecting to do this in France or anywhere!

We began our slow descent down the mountain to Marseilles. There was quite a lot of traffic, so this would take a while. The road is fairly narrow and keeps winding around on the trip down. We got almost to the bottom and back to the wider roads into Marseilles, when Hilde ran into another maneuvering problem with the bus!

When, she tried to turn the corner, she couldn’t get the bus around a car that was parked there. Cars are not suppose to be parked on the corners, for this reason. So Hilde began to back up the bus little by little, while the traffic was backing up behind her bus. Little by little, some of the cars were able to back up a bit, so she could try to get around the car on the corner. Several attempts were made, but no such luck.

Our guide, Toni had the idea of a few of the male tour members to get off the bus and physically move this car. It was a small Peugeot, which was a good thing! If we were back in the States, perhaps it may have been a Lincoln Navigator! That would be interesting! Well, anyway about five us were able to lift the car a bit and move the wheels of it, onto the curb. This didn’t take long, but it was quite funny taking part in something like this. So, the owner of this car had quite surprise, when they returned to find out, where their car was now sitting! We all couldn’t believe this and joked about it on the bus! Hilde, now had no problem, getting around the corner and we were on our way to our waterfront hotel on the harbor in Marseilles!


Traffic that had backed up behind our bus, while we were moving the car. Wish, I had a photo of us moving it!

NEXT: Seeing and Exploring Marseilles

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from Notre Dame! Too funny about having to move the car so the bus could clear the corner!

[SuperDave]

The photos came out well and the views were spectacular from Notre Dame!

Moving the car was so bizarre and just too funny, when it came up! Well, at least it got us to our hotel. What a way to end our trip!

[Cam22]

The story of moving the car is hilarious! But what a memory, too! The views from Notre Dame are gorgeous. I like the interior of it as well.

[chezp]

Oh my goodness, what a classic story about moving the car! You've brought back great memories of our stop in Marseilles on the inaugural Med cruise on the Magic in 2007 - we visited the cathedral too and I remember how beautiful it was.