MARSEILLE, FRANCE--
Bustling Marseille, with more than a million inhabitants, is the oldest and second largest city in France and the country's premier port. It has been called France's New Orleans. Its population is a real melting pot of different cultures. The vast majority of residents are descendants of the waves of immigrants that arrived at the port in the early 19th century. Among the ethnic groups are Armenians, Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Arabs, Jews, Russians and North Africans.
NOTE: There's an interesting article published in the March 2012 National Geographic entitled "Marseilles Melting Pot" if you are interested in reading more.
The city is ancient, founded by Greeks in the 6th century BC. Marseilles became independent in the 13th century and passed to France in 1481. It has seen wars and much destruction, but trade has always been its important industry.
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Longchamp Palace--
Longchamp, not a true palace, but a monumental water tower to commemorate the building of the Durance Canal in Marseilles.
The monument is joined together by a colonnade with the two wings of the Palace housing the Natural History and Fine Arts Museums.
The grounds are open to the public to be used as a park with beautiful waterfalls, ornamental lakes, fountains and numerous sculptures.
War Memorial of those fallen in the "orient" wars on the Corniche Road.
Chateau d'If is built on a small island--Frioul Island--(to the left of the war memorial) that was used initially as a defense structure, but was later used as a prison. It is most famous for its place in the novel, "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas.
Driving along the Kennedy Corniche Road, which runs along the sea. With over 300 days of sunshine per year, we were there on a rainy morning!
View of the "Petit Nice" on the Corniche with Frioul and Chateau d'If in the background.
Beautiful old chateau along the coast
NOTRE-DAME de la GARDE--
A beautiful and unique cathedral set high atop the hills above the Old Harbor. From the "landmark of the city," you have a panoramic view of the city, coast and surrounding mountains.
The basilica was built in the 1800s on the walls and foundations of an old fort, and it replaced a church of the same name built in the 13th century.
The basilica's belfry (bell tower) is topped by a huge gilded statue of the Virgin and child that stands 27 feet. (FYI: The Angel Moroni on the Salt Lake Temple stands 12 feet high.)
The Upper Church--
The basilica is made up of two parts: a lower church and an upper church. This is the main entry door of the upper church of Neo-Byzantine style decorated with mosaics.
The interior is finished with multi-colored marble, mosaics and mural paintings.
The altar
Above the altar is a mosaic medallion of a ship on an agitated sea. On the sail of the ship is the monogram of the Virgin. Because Marseilles was such an important port there were many sailors, and they sought the blessing of protection from the Virgin Mary on their voyages.
Large cupola in the middle is decorated with a gorgeous mosaic with four angels raising ground towards the sky to make an offering to the Virgin Mary.
An extensive restoration took place from 2001 to 1008.
Holy ceiling of a vault below
A Mediterranean-style religiosity is expressed here with numerous ex-votos (thanks to divinity) offered to the Virgin to thank her for spiritual or temporal grace and to proclaim publicly a remembrance of such grace.
The bottom half of the wall is marble ex-voto slabs and the top half is ex-voto paintings. You can see different scenes on the pictures: fire, car accident or railway, patient in his bed, shipwrecks and storms, etc. Space has become insufficient for the "thank you's."
Old fishermen used to have their boats blessed at this church. Numerous boat models with their name registered on the stern hang suspended in the church, as well as pictures of boats on the walls. The Virgin Mary has saved them from cruel shipwreck or the fury of pirates.
[Laura, All I did was closely crop one of the pictures you took and found these boat models in the pictures!]
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The Lower Church (crypt)--
The crypt is dug out of the rock on the hill and in the Romanesque style.
Entering the crypt, there is a beautiful, peaceful sculpture of Christ lying in the tomb.
Also, a statue titled Silver Virgin
Statue of Virgin to the Bouquet in crypt
Bronze door to the entrance
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With space becoming insufficient, the latest ex-voto marble plaques have been placed on the basilica's outside terraces. We discovered these when we were looking for the restrooms.
View of Marseille and the Mediterranean Sea from Notre-Dame with Passion of Christ sculpture on terrace below.
Drawbridge to Basilica
The best view of Marseilles
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We then drove to the Old Port (Vieus Port). This picture shows the Old Port with Fort Saint Nicolas Fort (one of two fortresses built in 1660 at the entrance of the harbor) in the background. We were dropped off here to walk the nearby streets and do a little shopping. We didn't buy anything, but just had fun window shopping. Here are a few pictures of what we saw:
Fisherman's market (just ending)--the famous fish market where fisherman sell their fish caught in the wee-hours of the morning.
George with shallow blue tray of freshly caught fish and a scale to weight the catch. Geronimo, as seen on the side of the blue folding stand, is the name of the fishing boat.
Famous Canebiere Avenue goes straight down the harbor. We walked there and also on another street, Rue de la Republique.
La Samaritaine is an exclusive department store on the Rue de Republique.
We even found a Rotary Club in Marseilles (Laura's and my father has been a Rotarian for over 60 years)!
C&A Clothing store
A small church facing the Old Port
A double-decker carousel
It seems like every major European city has one.
Chamber of Commerce building
Modern Mango Retailer in grand old building
Just like the "La Lola" store in Barcelona reminded Laura of her granddaughter, this "Jennyfer" store reminded me of my daughter! Jennifer, I was thinking of you!!!!
Laura and I with our cruise lady, Peggy, on a side street. She was wonderful and so much fun.
Beautiful dessert presentation in a steet windows.
Doug said, "Forget the desserts! Just give me a Coke Light!"
Awesome way for a store to display colorful yarns
Two front wheels on a motorcycle--great idea!
We found "Salt Lake City" even in France!
Colorful display of fresh fruit.
Scenes from our bus ride back to the ship--
Still a lot of color in the countryside even in November...
...and small quaint French towns.
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Well, just as a sunset indicates the ending of a day, I think this final picture is an appropriate way to end my blog!
As I look back on our trip to the Mediterranean with Laura and George, things couldn't have been more ideal! We were able to see some pretty amazing places and learn the history behind them, tour with down-to-earth, good people and travel in pretty comfy circumstances!
Thanks, Laura and George, for being such wonderful traveling companions! You were always so accommodating and willing to see and do everything. Doug and I will never forget this trip and look forward to the future when we can continue to see more of the world together.
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I lied--I am going to post a special entry about George and Doug tomorrow! Then, that will be the end!!!
2 comments:
wow mom, these have been great! I had to do some catch up, haven't checked blogs in awhile! But I love what you've done, the effort you've made. It would be really cool if one of my kids ever needs to do a report on Italy!! Love you!
Chateau d'If used as a prison and Marseille are particularly interesting to me because I recently finished the novel Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. The book was worth the read since it is very different from the popular movie. So many soul-searching human behaviors emerge from reading the book that didn't seem to develop in the movie.
I loved your photos of Marseille and the descriptions given around the area.
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