Above - La Corniche - Anse des Auffes
Above - Looking out to sea towards Les Isles de Frioul and Le Chateau d'If
Above - it could be Monaco, it is infact Marseille
Above - La plage de Prophet in the 7e arrondissement.
Above - La Corniche - walking from La plage des Catalans to Prado.
Above - looking towards Prado in the 8e arrondissement.
Above - Le port de Prado
Above - again, it could be Monaco. It is infact Marseille.So this afternoon I went on an adventure. A couple of weeks ago I asked my class of Seconde at Lycée to write me a news article. One pair wrote about tourism in Marseille and mentioned 'beautiful beaches like Catalan'. I remember at the time making a mental note that I must go there. I'd completely forgotten until the other day at Lyceé when the receptionist said she'd seen me at Catalan. Impossible! I'd never been! So today, I got my tourist book out (actually it's Louise's, she left it for me) and saw that bus number 83 goes from la Joliette to Rond Point de Prado passing through Vieux Port, up towards le Palais de Pharo and on around the coast - la Corniche, to the statue of David and up the Avenue de Prado to Rond Point where the métro is.
After lunch at about 14h I took my camera and walked to Joliette where I got on the number 83. I got off just after Catalans because it was looking very very pretty and I wanted to take some pictures. I ended up walking the rest of the bus route! You can walk around the coast, it's beautiful. My only complaint was le mistral. It was really really really windy and quite chilly (because of le mistral) but gloriously sunny. I just kept walking stopping every now and then to take the odd photo and admire the view. I could see Prado getting nearer so I just kept going. I then walked up the Avenue de Prado with the idea of getting the métro back to la Joliette but instead I got on the number 83 at 16h40 which took me back around the coastline, where I'd just walked, and back to la Joliette. It took much longer than the métro but I was able to see the sea and coast again.
For an Easter Sunday it was quite busy - people walking despite the wind, people using the bus, tourists. I was surrounded at one point by a japanese or korean family, a girl reading a german book (presumably she was German) and a man and woman speaking a language I didn't recognise - it was neither French nor English, it wasn't German or Spanish, nor any other Latin based language. I eventually decided they were Lithuanian or Estonian. Quite what led me to that conclusion I have no idea. They just looked Lithuanian or Estonian, not that I'd know what Lithuanian or Estonian people look like!
Yes so I've been exploring today. La Corniche is in the 7e arrondissement which is the 'rich' arrondissement. And yes, compared to la Joliette where I started off (at the south of les quartiers nord - the poorest of the poor quartiers) it is rich. It was hard to believe I was still in Marseille as the Marseille I know is a poor Marseille, a dirty Marseille, beautiful but nevertheless not without it's problems. I spend the majority of my life walking between Le Panier and métro Colbert which involves le Passage de Lorette. It's not the nicest of routes. I also spend a lot of time around my Lycée out in the 13e arrondissement - again, not the nicest part of Marseille. And then when I go out with les Restos du Coeur it's the poor parts - les quartiers nord. So to go to the 7e or 8e arrondissements is quite an eye opener. It becomes easy to see why the people here voted right right right.
And here is another video I took. It's La Corniche. It was REALLY windy - that's why it's so shaky - I hadn't been drinking, honest! Just listen to the wind and watch the waves and the blue bin bag at the end - look how it's blowing!
