Marseille



Beautiful views of Marseille from the ship before our tour this morning. (Dave is enjoying his coffee on the balcony) But then we covered many of these landmarks that we could also see from the ship:


At the top of the mountain is the Church of the Madonna (Good Mother). The dome and cross are being refurbished, expected to be finished in December.


The Major Cathedral is named for the Virgin Mary.
There are 3200 sq meters of mosaics. 
860,000 people live in Marseille. The 2nd largest city in France, 2x wider than Paris, the 1st largest.


Napoleon built this house but never lived in it. It is now a government building.


These are called the Catalan islands. One housed a hospital for those with Yellow Fever (today it’s a museum), the other held a prison. If you had enough money you could get a bigger cell, possibly even with a fireplace!


The guys are talking about coming back in October to run the Half Marathon along this route, (after all they’ve been training this whole trip!) 21 km through the mountains. A guy from Uganda won last year; finished in 1 hour. I think they can beat that!😂 
We’re seeing the back of what is the world’s longest bench that they are currently covering with mosaic. The next photo shows some of the mosaic.



Here are our heroes now! At the Memorial for soldiers who lost their lives in the war in 1819.


A replica of Michelangelo’s David stands in the square, This one in a T-shirt that doesn’t quite cover what it intended!


And at least the guys are standing while not sight seeing here (Dave Scroggie bugged out altogether!)


Beautiful downtown shopping area. With a double-decker carousel.




Other fun facts:
  • Over half the population was lost to the Plague in 1720.
  • A special product of Marseille is soap made from Olive Oil (72% is the real deal). At one time there were 96 soap factories; today there are 4.
  • Lavender is big here too. Lavender and olive trees grow outside the city.
  • We find Cicadas annoying in the states but they are good luck here. People hang ceramic Cicadas over their doors for good luck.
  • Top industries today: 1) shipping containers, 2) helicopter manufacturing and 3) tourism 
And that was just the morning!



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