Marseille for the day

So over the past week or so I have had to chance to travel a bit! First, I went to Marseille, one of France's largest cities and about a 30 minute bus ride from Aix. My two friends and I did not do much research at all, but I knew that the old port section of the city was supposed to be beautiful! But the bus dropped us off in the sketchiest part of the city... luckily we stopped in a McDo (McDonalds...) and found a map of the city and figured out where we were and how to get to the old port. We walked along the quais (side of the harbor) and found some really old and cool fortified castles and had lunch right along the Mediterranean!!! It was a beautiful day and we decided to spend our last couple hours at the place with the best views. Notre Dame de la Garde is one of the highest points, if not the highest, in Marseille and has gorgeous panoramic views of the city and the ocean! We were able to see Chateau D'If (from the Count of Monte Cristo) and all the islands right off the coast! Notre Dame de la Garde is most famous for the 9 ton statue of Mary and baby Jesus (his wrist is 42 inches around... and gold!) We spent some time photosynthesizing and basking in the warmth of the sunlight of the South of France.

As we were leaving, we realized that there were a lot of policemen hanging out on the road where our bus was supposed to pick us up to bring us down to where we would catch the bus back to Aix. Now, there are often policemen around... but near bus stations and train stations... so it was unusual to see policemen at the base of Notre Dame de la Garde! We sat waiting for the bus to come pick us up (we didn't know the way back otherwise we would have walked!) for about twenty minutes. After a little while, we decided to find our way and walk down.. since the police population kept growing! We finally figured out that there was either a riot or a strike going on and figured that the buses were not going to come get us! We finally made it back to Aix, and all in all it was a great day!!