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FRANCE 2012
Day 15, Monday, September 17
Marseilles
It is hard to believe that we have been in France for 2 weeks. We
are taking a little late afternoon rest now. I am sitting out on our
balcony looking at all of the boats and the Notre Dame de la Garde, on
the hillside opposite. (# 16 on map is our hotel) This is a very noisy area with all of the
construction/revitalization of the port area taking place. This morning
during our breakfast a pile driver started near the hotel in the water,
everywhere there are jack hammers, concrete saws and other loud sounds.
No 16 is our hotel.
No 10 is Notre Dame de la Garde. No. 8 is St. Victor
Our first experience today was a boat ride. We had wanted to
go to Chateau D’If, the island castle of the Count of Monte Cristo
fame.
It was closed on Monday, so we took a boat trip to Des Iles du
Frioul which i
s about ½ hour out into the Mediterranean. The ferry
boat runs every ½ hour so everyone got off and explored the island,
which had a village area with a lot of little places to eat, and a Greek
Temple above the main street.
There were a large number of
interesting rock formations. Note Notre Dame de la Garde in the
background in photo on left. We walked about for about an hour.
We did pass
the castle on Chateau D’If on our trip. We hope to take that trip
tomorrow. As we passed throught the exit an
d
entrance to the Vieux Port, we passed two landmarks- the Major
Cathedral,(#1 on the map) which we will visit tomorow and Fort St Jean.
Fort St. Jean defended the north gateway. In the 13th century the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem took possession of the site, developed
it and found it St. Jean Chapel. In the 15th century, the large square
tower and the light house tower replaced a former tower. In the 17th
century, the complex was incorporated into fortifications at the time
when St. Nicholas Chapel was built.
When we got back, we were near where we parked our car. Because we
parked ‘in desperation’, we wanted to know if we could find the car,
easily. We finally found the entrance with the elevator and found our
car. We just wanted to be sure where it was when we leave on
Wednesday. We spotted a McDonalds and decided that is what we needed
for lunch,we must admit that it did taste good. We want
smaller, simpler
lunches as the normal French lunch is a big meal, and we want our bigger
meal for dinner, not lunch.
After lunch, we followed the map to the Abbey of Saint-Victor.
(#8 on the map) We
had wanted to see it because of its association with John Cassian (born
365). During the Wednesday Lenten services at Saint James, I talked
about the “Saint of the Day”. One Wednesday was John Cassian,who
created a monastic order there.
The Abbey was located down on the other side of the port—and up a
long steep street. It was not until 1943 that St. Victor Abbey was
awarded the honorific title of Basilica. First built in the third
century on tombs of Christian martyrs, including that of St. Victor,
martyr of Roman persecutions who died around the year 304, the B
asilica
is one of the oldest religious monuments in Marseille. Apart from its
cultural role, St. Victor has played a very important part in the city's
history. In the fifth century St. Jean (John) Cassian and establish a
monastery on the martyrs tombs. In the six century, construction of the
upper church began and the development of a cult of t
he martyrs, Saints
and the Black Virgin, our Lady of the Confession. The 12th and 13th
centuries saw the building of aisles which can still be admired today.
The 20th century the city of Marseille and the Ministry of Cultural
Affairs undertook the excavation and restoration of the church to his
present-day glory .
I went down in the crypt –Kathleen decid
ed it was too many steps. A
lot of interesting tombs were down there.
Back up stairs, we found the
relic case that contains the front of the skull of John Cassian.
There is a ferry boat that crosses the port, which cuts down on the
walking, but alas it was not working today. We had to walk the complete
circuit around, back to our hotel.
After resting, catching up on writing and the identification
of our photos, we started out to find Jack Daniels, we found him last
night. He is hard to find! We notice that many of the cafes along the
street were closed.
Dinner tonight was at Au Bout du Quai which Kathleen had made
reservations for months ago. We chose fish soup (which Kathleen
wanted to try), which was served with croutons and cheese. It was
delicious, then gambas for me and risotto with asparagus and scallops
for Kathleen. In other journeys, we have been shy of these many fingered
and headed gambas. But tonight, I decided to tame the gambas, cut off
those heads, and enjoy! They were the biggest “shrimp” we have ever
seen!! We had a bottle of Rose from Provance, a wonderful meal!
