Today, Rene leads me on her own tour of the city.
Walking East from the Vieux Port, our first stop on the day’s adventure is La Cure Gourmand, a super cute candy store which excites your senses both with wide swaths of golden yellow color and bins and bins of candies with infinite promises of great tastes.
I purchase several boat shaped pastries (specific to Marseille) along with tiny breads filled with marzipan and chocolate.
Rene picks up a salty caramel block that we later agree tastes out of this world!
Next, it’s on to the old, original chamber of commerce building which now houses the Marine Museum of Marseille. There, we are treated to a vast collection of model ships, and dozens of pleasing 1920’s Posters promoting the city’s shipping trade.
Rene and I take turns posing next to a proto-Iron Man diving suit.
Next, it’s on to what Rene calls the “Champs Elysees of Marseille”, an upscale shopping district. We stop at a few fashionable clothing stores, a trendy thrift shop and the manga and comic section of the Virgin Megastore.
Afterward, we stop for lunch in a public park, sitting beside an urban waterfall to fold slices of emmentaler and rosette onto wedges of baguette. The lunch is satisfying, and the buildings around the square serve as a welcome wind-break.
We head into this chilly wind through new neighborhoods.
Following Rene’s instincts, we turn the corner to discover the great old, Morrish church at the city center. Rene remarks that the alternating white and red brick arches are similar to the mosque that we saw on our honeymoon while visiting Cordova, Spain.
Armed with new knowledge about my camera, I try to think through just the right settings for taking photos. But I find that photography in dimly lit buildings is something of a challenge.
It is getting late in the afternoon, so we duck into a grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner (after last night’s late-night adventure to find a bottle of wine at 9:30 pm only to find that every shop in a mile radius had closed up – I decide that a bird in the hand is fair play – rather than wait on shopping till we get back to our neighborhood). Laden with asparagus, steaks and beer, we make our way back to the apartment. Between yesterday and today, we’ve taken a good look at both sides of the harbor. We settle in for the night to reunite with Alfredo and start a new game of Monopoly.
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Incredible! How fun for you both!
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I love the B&W photo of the arches! Soooooo coooool! Great pics overall, but that one is beautiful. But, I have a weakness for B&W.
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