Wednesday 22 March – If we wanted to see something interesting, you could count on this.

Again, a glorious day in Marseille.  We wandered down to the Old Port, past the daily fish market where the locals pick up their seafood direct from the trawlers,  and jumped on the ferry for the twenty minute ride across to the small island of If, on which is situated the infamous Chateau d’If, constructed between 1527 and 1529 the orders of King Francis 1.  Although built for defence purposes (from there, access to the port of Marseille could be controlled), it essentially served as a prison for its 400 years of official use.  It was made famous by the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Christo, a fictional story based on real events.  We walked through the many cells and took in the spectacular views back to Marseille, observing the plump seagulls who obviously feed well off the surrounding sea.

After catching the ferry back to Marseille we caught a bus to the Palais du Pharo, which sits on small  hill and overlooks the entrance to the port Marseille.  It is not open to the public but we were able to access the grounds and gardens and take in the wonderful views. 

We then walked the kilometre or so (including, of course, many steps and a sustained uphill path) to the Saint Victor’s Abbey, a dark, austere church.  Nonetheless a fascinating place; evidence suggests that the quarry over which it is built was used as a necropolis around the 2^nd century BCE. The abbey itself was founded in 415CE and has suffered from invasions by Vikings and Saracens.  From the entrance to the crypt we went down several levels to deep underground, to see several sarcophagi from the different eras.  We were intrigued that its also seemed to serve as an art gallery, with many modern works on display.

We walked back down the hill to the port and caught the small  ferry (maximum 10 passengers, cost 50 cents each!) for the brief ride across the harbour. From there was walked to the Musée  d’Histoire and wandered through several large inter-connecting buildings – truly a massive site blending historic old and contemporary new buildings – looking at their vast collection of curios and artworks dating back to the birth of European civilisation.

We were lucky enough to catch a bus that took us close to our accommodation, saving us a long uphill walk – and we had certainly done enough of that over the past couple of days.  On the way home we took a moment to buy some health food from a local pâtisserie (we were assured by the young girl serving us that our purchases did not contain calories).