The previous evening, I’d enjoyed eating out and then an excursion to the bar at the park before settling in at the apartment. My host didn’t get home until around nightfall, which at this time of the year was at 8:30 PM or so. Turns out he’s a scientist. Spends all day doing sciency stuff. At a science lab. I’m trying to remember what type of science but I’m drawing a blank. The guy was Argentinian though. Very good English speaker. Emigrated here to France to go to college, liked it well enough to stay. He was letting his flat [renting his apartment; louer son appartement; Vermietung seiner Wohnung] to people like me in order to save enough money to move his girlfriend and future wife over to France with all her possessions. All during our talk, the sun was setting in the west over the Mediterranean and a gentle breeze was wafting in through the large windows. Very nice. Soon I toddled off to bed in the bedroom while the host made himself comfortable on the couch. I have to say though, it was comfortable, so he wasn’t putting himself out much. Turned out that he was working on an experiment and he left early in the morning, came home for a couple hours in the afternoon, then went back to work until 8ish. So I had the place to myself, most of the time.
But I wasn’t just going to sit on my butt the whole time. The next morning, I quickly rose, dressed, made myself breakfast, and headed over to the harbor. Really took my time because I didn’t arrive here until after noon and I’d left the apartment at 9:30. The boat tours leave at odd times but average one departure per hour all day. My ticket had an open departure, meaning I could board any one of the 21 departures for that day. The boat went to a populated island, and also to the If Castle, which is where I was headed, landing at the castle first on the outbound voyage. I had to catch the return boat at one of 4 return times up until 18:15 (6:15 PM), which would be the last boat. If you missed that one, you’d get to spend the night sitting on a rock as the Castle would be closed and locked.
And once aboard, had to scramble to a nice seat in the bow. Lots of young people along, and most of them heading to Port Frioul because that was actually a bedroom community of Marseille and one of this boats stops.
And a few minutes later, we’re passing one of two castles at the mouth of Port Marseille. 
Little closer look at the tower.
That’s a museum over there, that black building. At this point in my visit, I didn’t intend to visit there. Maybe though.
And off in the distance, over the bow, we see the If Castle.
And behind us, Marseille. Quite a ways away at this point. Took around 20 minutes to get here so the boat was fairly fast.
And then we arrive.
Built in 1529. The modern dock makes it easy to land. The ancient dock would have been much more difficult.
There’s a sign that warns against swimming anywhere around the island. Pretty dangerous drop offs and no life guard of course.
You have to climb up a steep path, a couple sets of stairs, and pass through a portal designed to be an ambush area, cross a soldiers parade field, and through those gates to actually be inside the castle.
You’re looking at the place they sent the Marquis de Sade when it was a prison.
I walked over the to castle entrance at first but then instead, did a quick wander around the grounds. This is a shot of the only entrance to the castle over what use to be a drawbridge over a dry ditch.
These window were right across from what was once the drawbridge. Their shape is typical of defensive windows in most castles. The bars were added later when the building was converted to a prison.
This building (below right) is where the support services were for the castle. Bakery, laundry, officers quarters, conjugal visit rooms, that sort of thing. And for a time it was the Governor’s House. Now there’s a small convenience store and cafe’ at the opposite end. The more modern buildings to the left are attached to some older buildings out of frame…it has a curio shop in it.
And this is why this island became famous. Dumas’ fictional book, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, brought the island attention in the 1800’s, eventually it morphed into a tourist destination. This display is just inside the small entrance door. Behind me is a small curio shop. These rooms were originally storerooms but converted into dungeons. 
Out in the courtyard, looking up. Looks pretty cool, but it was kind of a surprise at how small the courtyard was. Kind of made sense that the parade grounds were outside the castle proper. This area housed kitchens, grain store, and rainwater well. Sad thing was that many a prisoner was thrown into a dungeon and then the guards would never interact with them again, not even feeding them, unless the prisoners family came up with bribe or ransom money. Kitchen could be small because it was hardly meant for 60 prisoners.
This dungeon housed Abbe’ Faria, famous for his work with hypnotism. No one now aware of why he was arrested in Marseille and sent here. They put a camera inside the room with a TV so you can see yourself as you’d look as a prisoner here. Gimicky. 
These doors were interesting. Thick, heavy, still here after 486 years.
Since this started out as a defensive installation, not a prison, many of these cells don’t look like they’d be all that bad to serve out a sentence in, but the castle was also famous for the cruelty with which it treated prisoners.
The stair banisters were added a few decades ago for tourists. And an example of how the stairs were constructed in 1486. I did see some repairs to stairs, along with some shoring to improve safety but, really, they’re still in pretty good shape, considering.
Up topside of the castle. Still beautiful weather. Pay no attention to that old guy wearing the heavy coat. Wow. It was around 75°F at the time.
They use to have cannons in this room. They could shoot out of those windows.
I thought the floor was pretty cool.
There’s my tour boat on it’s way to pick us up. Think I’ll skip that one for more castle time and take the next.
Gorgeous.
Off in the distance, Marseille.
According to a plaque, this room only had one occupant. Guess he was able to pay better than most.
How would you like that door to be slammed on your life? I was curious of why the open bar window was so close to the door handle and lock. I see the newer (but still very old) skeleton key type lock but it really doesn’t look all that secure. Maybe is was just used as a storage room. But there was a time when they had 3500 prisoners here at If so…who knows what and why?
Graffiti carved by insurgents in the mid 1800’s during an uprising.
And this is the hotbox. It’s far removed from the castle, out in front of the Governor’s House, so far away from everything. It’s kind of a hotbox with solitary confinement. Not pleasant to think of the poor bastards that ended up in there.
And here you can kind of make out the path from the dock up to the castle entrance.
What happened is that the boat didn’t head straight back to Marseille. It goes from here at the castle to Port Frioul. It’s all newer condos and such. There’s some places to shop too. Not much of interest. It’s a bunch of islands. This is the kind of place a well-heeled Marseille-ian would live and store their boat. Kind of explained why I kept seeing richly dressed men and women on the boat.
And 30 minutes later we’re back at Port Marseille.
So that’s my first day in Marseille. After returning to port, I walked around the area some more and found a nice Irish Pub along the waterfront that was pretty cool. So I hung out there a couple hours and watched soccer on their giant screen.