Chaos Leaves Town

So today’s plan was to walk past the harbor, visit the fort overlooking the harbor entrance, retrace my steps back to board the subway, to the train station, hop on the Cassis train, make my way to the Cassis Harbor by bus or taxi, buy a boat ticket to visit the French Fjords, spend a couple hours on a boat, have a nice dinner there in Cassis, then back to Marseille. That was my hoped for adventure.

Early in the morning, near 8 AM, I’d already walked the couple miles from my apartment to the southern tip of the harbor. The Fort St. Nicolas complex is a fort built atop an outcropping overlooking the sea at the mouth of the Marseille Harbor. There’s a museum in the area too. I’d hoped to be able to tour the entire complex over a couple hours but when I walked up to the forts gate, a construction manager shooed me away, because they weren’t open yet. I could see lots of interesting stuff though. The construction manager had his office in an old rock carved room with a desk, drawing table strewn with drawings, a landline phone, a strangely anachronistic computer and printer, etc. I ask if I could go into the courtyard for pictures? Not for another year he tells me. I saw a sign to that effect just before entering the open main gate, but didn’t really pay attention. They do allow people to wander around the outer grounds of the fort, but not the inner section. Here’s a shot just after entering the main gate on the right, climbing those stairs and up the path to the main fort entrance.

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Another beautiful day in Marseille…I was NOT regretting my decision to travel down here. Another beginning to what looked like a weather perfect day. What was happening though was that we had a very early morning rainstorm. I could feel it and smell it on the breeze when I got up. And see the puddles down on the street. Storms heading north to Paris it turned out.

As you might imagine, after a month doing the tourist dance in Europe, I was getting to a point where I wanted to take my time and spend more time sitting than walking. I felt I should leave walking, jogging, and running to those times I’d need to catch a form of public transportation or escape a band of thieves. Not that I worried much about thieves, but doesn’t hurt to be constantly prepared and vigilant.

Today was going to be a tour bus day, but not until after I visited the outdoor market for some fresh fruit and veggies.

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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.

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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.

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After my day off, due mainly to weather, I couldn’t just sit in the house another whole day, even though the weather was just as bad as yesterday. I did ask for, and received, permission to stay another 2 days in this apartment. The owner was very happy to allow it, and gave me a 25% discount. Neither of us had to pay AirBnB so we both saved money on the deal.

Anyway, carrying my umbrella and wearing my hooded jacket, I braved the wind whipped rain and dashed to the subway station 10 blocks away. Off I went on an excursion to Notre Dame.

There is Notre Dame, after a short walk from the Metro. Those double towers over past the bridge. 

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I took another day off, my 8th day in Paris, because it was stormy and raining like crazy off and on all day. Stayed in the apartment and researched places to travel and things to visit, collected and saved new links into my travel bookmarks, got caught up on all my daily comics, did my banking, repacked my bags, showered and generally had a relaxing day. But I was getting a little tired of the tiresome rain! Gah!

It got very dark and dismal after that picture was taken. And the weather report didn’t show any letup all day.

Now some of you may be wondering why I didn’t take the regional train somewhere outside of Paris into a small distant village, the type of place I prefer over large cities? (Which is kind of what I’d planned for this day). Fair question. This is my first ever trip to France. Actually my first trip to Europe! I wanted to visit many of those historical places and museums I’d been reading, seeing on TV, and hearing about my whole life. Then sometime in the future, with the knowledge gained by my experience on this trip, find a nice house to rent somewhere in the countryside, rent a car, and explore. This trip was like a scouting expedition sort of. Of several places in Europe. AND, it was raining bad!

I think I will just make this post an informational post. No museums today. One thing I’ve been asked by friends and acquaintances about this trip is my luggage. Two full months? How much luggage did you take? Well, all I took was a carry on bag that I could store in the overhead on a plane, and my computer bag which you’re allowed to take aboard airplanes and store under your seat. That’s all the baggage I took, along with the clothes I was wearing.

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I wanted to visit Versailles, often recommended by tour guides and travel experts as a must see attraction in not only Paris, but France, and all of Europe. OK, well, with all that hype, it must be pretty special. From where I was, Porte d’Orleans, south of the city center, I had to head south west to reach Versaille. Here’s a map…Porte d’Orleans to Versaille. It’s not that easy to get there if you don’t have a car. I tried to talk my host, Youssef, into taking the day off from work and driving over there with me, but he couldn’t.

The next morning really threatened rain, but I had an umbrella and a hooded jacket so I walked to the subway station, the Metro, traveled to a nearby RER station which is the Regional transport system, bought a ticket and board RER-C for a 12 mile ride to Versaille. Recall that the King disliked the palace in Paris. What he didn’t like was that he thought the buildings ugly, than he hated the stench of city life in those days, the usurping of the courts power by the royalty, and finally he hated the hordes of people asking for something. By moving to Versaille, he could have his ministers greet and meet at the Paris palace while he hung out at Versaille. Wasn’t as stinky either. And he had a hand in deciding decor. Wasn’t that simple of course, and the whole story took a hundred years, so here’s a wiki article: Palace of Versaille History.

The station where you arrive is well marked with signs to the palace and it’s just a few steps from the station to one business that sells entrance tickets. I’d known about the different tickets but I didn’t realize that getting there at 9:30 would be too late to get the package I wanted. Still, I wasn’t going to miss Versailles so I just bought a general admittance ticket. Then you walk up the street 100 feet, and take a left onto this street and you can see the palace in the distance. Five minute walk. Versaille use to be a sleepy hamlet outside of Paris. Now it’s part of the suburbs.  

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As I said last time, I took a day off, and stayed in the apartment all day except for a couple three interesting excursions. One was to see if my host was right about how close to the subway we were…he was…within walking distance so I didn’t have to bother with the bus unless I wished to. Then I toured the neighborhood looking for an ATM, an upscale grocery store, a nice bar, etc. Found all those things and more. But I didn’t bother with photos because I already had 700 pictures of places I’d been and knew I’d be putting most of them here on the blog. You’ll have to imagine a modern French city I guess. Here’s a shot of the apartments I was staying at. Up on the 4th floor right in the middle of the building. This part of town is kind of upscale with all sorts of high classed business nearby. My host, Youssef, gave me directions to a fancy ‘French’ restaurant and I thought I’d try it for dinner after I wandered around the neighborhood for a few hours. During my wanders, I did find some street vendors and one of them had a nice set of brass locks that would fit nicely on those wire under-the-bed drawers for luggage I found typical hostels have.

The apartment is on a quiet side street which ‘T’s into two main streets, both of which end up on a large 5 lane city street heading into downtown Paris. So though there was lots of activity nearby, it was very quiet here on this street.

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I was comfortable at the hostel, but it was time to move on since I had reservations for a flat in Paris that looked really nice on AirBnB. This morning was a traveling day and after my shower, gathered all my stuff up, carefully searched around for anything I might have misplaced, dragged my luggage downstairs, had breakfast and coffee, then turned in my key at the front desk.

Oh, that reminds me, I’d paid for 3 nights at this hostel, and the 2nd night I went up to my room around 11PM and my key card had been shut down. No longer worked in the electronic lock. Damnit. So back down to the front desk to make them turn it back on. There’s almost always a several person line checking in or out, or asking questions, day or night but at least the desk is manned 24/7. The advantages of staying here outweigh the disadvantages though…at least at this hostel, but it’s only the 2nd one I’ve ever stayed at (first one was that one night in downtown Naples) so we’ll see how the others stack up. When I was planning this trip, I’d research hostels in every city I’d planned on staying in and most cities had 3 to 25 hostels, depending of size of the city. Then I’d read through the reviews and some hostels sounded horrible. None of them had only great reviews, there was always something that someone didn’t care for. But, you wade through the reviews and make your best guess on a place to stay. I figured if a place had a 75% or greater ‘Liked’ rating, I’d stay there, and not if it was lower. That seemed to work for me fairly well so far, but like I said, I’d only stayed at 2 hostels in Europe so far.

After checking out, I’m back onto the subway, and 20 minutes later at the Eiffel Tower, only this time, dragging my carry on bag with my computer bag attached and lying on top. Weather had started to turn from incredibly good, to not so good, and I was wearing my light jacket to accomodate.

So here I was on the dock, below the tower, queuing up for the riverboat ride. Looking up at the tower you can see it’s a bit cloudier then yesterday. I was like the 8th or 9th person aboard, found a nice seat up topside where I had a great view. Can’t remember what it cost. Maybe 14€? After everyone boards, off we go.  There are several styles of riverboats, including dinner cruise types. The one below is an inclement weather type. It’s a working river so there are plenty of work boats around.

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Next morning in Paris, I’m up, showered, shaved, breakfasted and coffee-d by 8:45. Off I go on the subway to the closest subway station to the Eiffel Tower. Had to start with this map of Paris they gave me at St. Christopher’s Inn, just to find places I wanted to go. There’s two stations nearby the tower and they’re both quite the walk. Here’s the subway map I carried with me. Same map that was on every station wall of the system: Paris Subway.

I had to travel from the Gare du Nord station to the Champ de Mars station. Which required changing trains. Seemed like a potential mistake filled day but off I went.

And a short 20 minutes later, without mistakes in the subway travel portion, I see the tower in the distance and hoof it over there. Takes 12 leisurely minutes from the Metro station to this spot to take the picture. Mostly over parkland and crossing a couple streets. But there she is, the Eiffel Tower. They tore it down just after my visit in my honor so to bad for youse guys.
Those things hanging down from under her skirt are scaffolds for the remodeling. They’re making it easier to get up to the top.

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