The day arrived, and off I went to the Gare Lyon train station to get out of this wet weather by traveling to Marseille by high speed train. Cost was 93€ for a 1st class ticket. First class gets you better, less crowded cars, with few stops, and higher speed. It’s a 3 and 1/2 hour trip so I didn’t feel the need to get to the Lyon train station in downtown Paris until 9:00. Train left at 10:37 so I had plenty of time to browse the train station and enjoy some espresso with a breakfast pastry. See those people looking up at something? They’re looking at a huge board with arrival and departure times for the many trains this station handles daily. One of the busiest train stations in the world. Naturally, the day I leave we had blue skies and sunshine. But the weather prediction did show rain later in the day so I didn’t regret leaving one bit. I’d had my fill of rain. There’s something I haven’t mentioned about Europe, there are many, many different travel discounts for seniors and tourists. But you have to get in the habit of asking. Not every place has them, but those that do are happy to oblige, if you ask. They won’t ask you. Took me a while to get use to asking while in Rome, but once it’s a habit, it can save you a bit of money. I’d been in Europe for a month and two days on this fine morning.
Remembered to take a picture of the train car this time (next picture). Every train I’d been on in Europe was very comfortable. Lots of legroom. Much better than airplanes. This car has overhead baggage storage but some trains have luggage racks in a tiny room back by the entrance/exit door. I didn’t like those as much because whenever you stop somewhere you have to crane your neck to watch your baggage. I used my little wire ropes to loop around a couple metal poles in the rack though, making it a little more difficult to just walk off with.
This particular train is the high speed mostly 1st class train and had only two stops between Paris and Marseille. One of the times we stopped, many stepped down to the platform to look around and stretch their legs. But you’d better hang around because the train isn’t going to wait for you, and we’re only here 7 minutes. I was standing outside the door of the train in the middle of nowhere, small village off in the distance, when I see the conductor jump aboard up near the engine, and wave back towards the caboose, like a ‘we’re leaving’ sign. So I jumped aboard too, along with another guy. The door was still open, and at that moment a young woman comes climbing up a platform stairwell without luggage. Oh-oh. She’s a passenger, sees no one but herself outside the train, breaks into a run over to the train just as the doors close. She jabs the door release with a look of utter terror on her face. I’m looking right at her, and quickly scan the inside of the door for a release as does the guy standing next to me. Can’t find one that works so shrug and make the ‘sorry’ gesture. Too late! Train’s already moving and the door release has been turned off. These trains pick up speed rapidly and we see her throw up her arms in despair as we quickly pull away. There’s no emergency cord to pull, and if anyone else noticed her, I don’t know what they’d do about it. We didn’t stop until the next station though and I doubt they would have stopped for her back there anyway. By the way, she had nothing with her but her clothes. And she was wearing an above the knees dress. No purse, no phone. Not even a sweater or jacket for the cool evening, if she ended up being there that long. But there are 3 high speed trains per day to Marseille (this was the first of the day) and I’d imagine she just boarded the next one, and had to explain to the conductor why she didn’t have a ticket. Without ID or her ticket, they probably had a gendarme meet her at the next stop and s/he’d make some calls before they allowed her to leave. There are also 12 not as fast trains to Marseille, but I’m not sure they’d be on the same track.
Thanks to that gal being such a great example of what not to do by missing her train, I was super cautious from then on, and stayed very near a door at all times. Imagine the world of hurt I’d have been in if I’d missed getting back aboard my train. I do have my hidden wallet with money and cards on my person though. But I don’t speak the language and would have had a hard time reconnecting with my luggage.
Train was traveling around 180 MPH I believe.
The lunch lounge/bar car was a little nicer than the last train I was on. Had seats. Oh, and the WiFi worked on this train. I must have spent over an hour in here, watching the scenery as it whipped by, and buying cappuccinos one after the other. Very spendy as you’d imagine.
Ahhh, there’s those clouds heading north to Paris with their afternoon showers.
And an hour later, blue skies with fluffy clouds! Yea!
The closer we got to Marseille, the better it looked…weather wise.
Arrived at Gare St. Charles train station around 16:00, and following the excellent instructions given by my host, made my way to the port: Marseille Harbor. If you check out that map you can see that it’s only a 21 minute walk to the harbor, but with my luggage it could be a hassle, so I took the subway. There’s a metro station right at the harbor. My apartment is only 4-5 blocks away from there. Very handy. Right outside the underground Metro station is this nice public access area. The nearby harbor is pretty much taken up by tour boats. Great, I was practically staying right next to the harbor. And there were several boat tours I wanted to take.
Many people have slips for their sailboats a short distance away. On both sides of the harbor, naturally. And look at the weather! Just perfect. Water was pretty clean looking too. Didn’t smell bad here either.
During my wanders, ran into the opera building. Couple blocks from the Harbor. Since Rome I’d been checking with every host about upcoming opera or symphony I might be able to catch but hadn’t had any luck. I was always too late or too soon. No exception here. Nothing playing at the moment.
After scouting around the port area, I walked back to the area just a block from the harbor, still near the apartment, and found a nice cafe’ bar, bought myself a nice schooner of beer, and called my AirBnB host. He was at work so he asked me to wait until he could arrange to come meet and greet me, escort me to the apartment, and unlock the door. He asked if I was at this or that bar, throwing out names of bars. I couldn’t see any bars with those names but I told him the name of the bar I was at, and that I was within spitting distance of the carousel. He figured he’d be able to find me and seemed he knew where I was so I settle in for the wait.
When he finds me (cow hat) an hour later, he’s surprised at where I am. He thought I’d be over nearest the harbor where there’s several bars and restaurants surrounding the harbor area and he had wandered in and out of several of the bars there for 30 minutes looking for me. He had forgotten where the carousel was (this Google image shows the bar I was waiting at to the left and the carousel to the right). It’s a nice little city park area. He’s just so use to it, didn’t even think about it. It’s a permanent fixture on this street that he passes on the way to work every day! Had a nice laugh about that when he finally found me.
This is the 4rd time I’d had trouble with the host not finding me, or me having trouble finding the lodgings, or in one case, the host not knowing what their own door buzzer tag said and putting it wrong in their online description. Word of advice, when you plan your trip, be very careful to have a full address and explicit directions to where you’re staying. And a phone number of the host. And arrive in daylight if at all possible. Even that won’t stop the minor glitches, but should prevent a catastrophe. Don’t depend on taxi drivers to be able to find your place.
And this is what a typical downtown street in Marseille looks like very near the apartment. Many of the downtown streets are pedestrian only. Kinda cool. Especially for people like me without cars.
When my host eventually showed up and escorted me to the apartment in building #9 along Rue du Jeune Anacharsis, I was surprised that there wasn’t an elevator in his building. Had to climb 4 flights of poorly made cement stairs carrying my luggage, with my hosts help. The building was showing it’s age, staircase needed paint but it was nice and clean. You can see graffiti in the link photo but there wasn’t much of that when I stayed there in mid May of 2014. The apartment was nice, and I asked him how old the building was? He says it was built in the ’80s. Sure doesn’t look that new. When I question him about that, he says 1880’s. Oh, well, that makes a difference. Two large double windows, remodeled and modern, overlooking a narrow street below. Large living/dining area. Nice big screen TV. Tiny and poorly designed kitchen. I mean tiny. Barely room to turn around in. Had most of the modern conveniences though. My room was a little cluttered what with the chest of draws, the queen sized bed, and the floor to ceiling towel and bedding rack, but I didn’t spend much time in there anyway. It was clean. Bathroom was larger than the kitchen…and clean too. On the street below, several small businesses and cafes with tables out in the street. Not much room for cars, but people made do. All the restaurant tables pretty much turned my street into a one lane road.
After getting settled, my host returned to work, and I walked around some more without luggage. Just up my street are 5-6 inexpensive restaurants so I’d not want for nearby places to eat. And a nice hole-in-the-wall grocery store which turned out to be surprisingly large inside where I purchased supplies for several b-fasts, lunches, and dinners since I’d be here a week and had kitchen privileges. Oh, an ATM. That’s handy, right next to my building practically. But no bar on my street. Would have to walk back the 2 blocks to the carousel to a nice bar there to wile away the hours and surf the web on my first evening in Marseille. I should note that in Europe practically every bar has free WiFi, but you have to ask for the password.
I know I took several pictures of the apartment, the street 40 feet below, many of my favorite hang out places, but I’ll be damned if I can find them now. Well. Shoot. I don’t remember losing a bunch of photos but…hmm. Maybe this was about the time I noticed I already had over 1,000 pictures and decided to cut back a bit. Dunno. Maybe?
Well, anyway, pictures or no, that was my first few hours in lovely Marseille. Can’t wait for tomorrow to begin exploring. This evening though, after returning from the bar, I walk up the street and find a small cafe’ that serves middle eastern cuisine. And according to the menu, it’s all deliciously foreign and super spicy. Wooohooo, I’m up for spicy! So I had the most delicious meal for dinner. Don’t even remember what it was, but it was weird and good. And super spicy. Yumm.
See you next time!