Enough of these city breaks - let's take an actual vacation. Where better than the French Rivera where language for me is no problem and our biggest responsibilities are to eat as much as we can (olives, duck, fruits, French pastries and maybe even scary cheese) and enjoy the Mediterranean sea.
Cities visited: Marseilles, Hyères, Porquerolles, Nice
All in attendance: Jason and Kristen
Jason and I flew into Marseilles on Wednesday night. What was eerie was being the only people from the airport to take the shuttle to the train station and off to Marseille. I guess it was because it was a weekday. We receive several stern warnings from our colleague Paul, who is from Marseille, about dangerous communities and crime in the city. We were lucky that in our dazed and lost wandering to our hostel, we avoided all of this.
MARSEILLE
We stayed at Hello Marseille hostel and shared a double bed in a dorm for a steep 20 euro. I can already see many hot sweaty hostel nights ahead because all we had this night was an un-moving fan and even in June, sleeping in would've been an impossibility. Hello Marseille is by le Vieux Port. There was lots of construction going on but we managed to find a cozy cafe to take a coffee + brownie to fuel us for the day ahead.
We walked through the old town (cue: narrow streets) and stopped inside Cathédrale La Major (also called by its shorter name Marseille Cathedral or its crazy long name Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseille). Feeling lazy and overheated, we took a bus from this church to see Marseille's basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde which overlooks the city on a tall hill.
You get a great view of the the city from above and a great view of the gold Jesus on top of the Notre-Dame. You can see Château d'If which is a church on an island not too far from the mainland. Inside the basilica is a bit unique because small models of ships and boats hang from its grand ceilings. It's also bright and colourful inside, not scary and foreboding like Gothic style cathedrals can be.
We left Marseille to go to Hyères, another town on the French Riviera taking the 18:38 train. We ended up missing our connection and having to take a bus into the center of Hyères where we set off to find out hotel without any maps or any clue.
HYÈRES
Hyères consist of a small town on the main land and a few islands (Îles d'Hyères). We attempted to find a hostel, campground or a Couchsurfing host but found no success. We ended up staying at Etap Hotel De Hyères, a hotel not to far from the old town for 24.50 euros each in a private double room. A room fitted with a television, private shower and AC - what luxury!!!
We took it easy the first night we arrived and settled down to an evening of fancy oven fired pizza and 2 euro wine while watching fear propaganda on CNN and Fight Club dubbed in French.
The next morning we woke up and found out we missed all early bus connections down to the port to take us to the islands. While waiting for the next bus connection, Jason and I wandered through the beautifully commercialized old town (shops and shops and more shops) and paid too much for fancy tea in a small cafe. Two islands are of interest in this area, Porquerolles and Port-Cros. Paul told us that Port-Cros has as astounding fish population which got us really fixated on the idea of snorkling. It is, however, much father than Porquerolles and when push finally came to shove, we ended up just going to the large island of Porquerolles for the day.
We rented bikes - and something I am not proud of but probably needs to be stated is that I really don't know how to ride a bike. Having never owned one (and never learned as a child) I can't really do more than really offbalanced straight peddling and dangerous and questionable turns. Wipe-outs and embarrassment in front of posh French vacationers ensue.
Cue: lazy days on beaches, reading books in the shade, snorkeling with over priced plastic equipment.
Snorkeling here was nice, a few fish here and there but probably nothing thrilling for anyone who's done it before.
We took the ferry back and then the bus and settled down for a share-no-expense fancy french dinner. I ordered duck and it was so tasty that I am certain that I will think of it many times in the upcoming future when I am eating greasy fast-food back in Canada.
MARSEILLE II
We were brainwashed by the over zealous hostel worker in Marseille about les Calanques - an impossible beautiful bay with limestone cliffs right near the university in Marseille. A few seconds on google was all it took to convince Jason and I that it was absolutely necessary to go back.
We woke up early and went back to Marseille, dropped our bags in a left luggage locker and off we went on a bus towards the University. We followed the small crowd who got off at the University parking lot and it was just a short walk before we could see the edge of beautiful light grey cliffs and impossibly blue water.
A whole day of picnicking and lying around in the shade. We should've brought shoes or watershoes because the cliffs were pretty rocky. Jason did more snorkeling while I ate olives, snoozed along the bay and read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
NICE II
See my previous visit to NiceWe didn't stay the night in Marseille but got our stuff from left luggage and took the train to Nice. We both went in February for carnival so it was a revisit to a town we love instead of visiting a new city (such as Cannes). We spent the last night and last day of our trip in the Nice food market (buying lots of fancy sugars, dried tomatoes and crazy colour mustards), eating mussels and relaxing by the water. Cozy shisha bars on rainy French days.
This trip was the first one all year that truly felt like a relaxing vacation.
Things I liked:
- Beautiful weather, beautiful food, beautiful sights and relaxation
- Go to Nimes, Cannes and Port-Cros
