Marseilles, France

Marseilles is located by the sea and the Vieux Port/Old Port is a cove in the center of the city.

Imagine arriving in Marseilles about 4 pm (2 1/2 hours by bus from Arles) with no accomodation booked because the B & B rooms that you booked online in Arles and Avignon were far from the cities, cost about 60 euros even though they were 2 stars at the most so you decide to take a chance and arrive in Marseilles early to find a room. At the Gare de Marseille St Charles, the city's big main train and bus station, you find have a hard time getting yourself understood because nobody speaks English, which can be frightening because you may end up stranded. Then you find that all the bus seats to Genova in Italy are sold (panic!) and you'll have to wait a week for the nearest available seats. You go to the train tickets office and the queue is 40 people deep and when it's your turn the French girl wouldn't serve you because it's your fault that she can't speak English. But thank God you finally buy train tickets for Genova for travel two days later, at 46 euros each (btw, students below 25 are always given discount on transportation and entrance fees in Europe with a valid student card. We also found out too late that in England, students get a discount of 10% from some clothing retailers). By then it is about 8 pm and you drag your lugguage onto the unfamiliar street, only to find that every hotel that you walk into is full. You then take the metro to a hostel recommended by a Chinese girl (the only person who could communicate with you) at the station. On arrival, the hostel is full too but the guy in charge, Sederic, is very friendly and helpful and let you use his computer to book the nearest available room at a hotel nearby.

Confused, scared and worried was my state of mind when I was in Marseilles. I was also worried about accomodation in Cinque Terre, Italy because it was high tourist season and all the places we checked on line were full (except for rooms at USD100 per person per night) and Sederic, who'd been to Cinque Terre last year, said I was mad not to have made earlier bookings.

This room at Hotel Du Sud cost 60 euros/RM240/USD75 and was clean. The lift can fit only two persons. Or one fat person.

Hello Marseilles is a small, clean hostel with a big kitchen located near shopping streets. Cost 17 euros only per person, shared room.

Hello Marseilles is a newly open, very popular hostel run by the friendly and hospitable Sederic, a ringer for Adam Sandler. Sederic makes the small apartment-hostel like a home and I finally overcame my reservations (well, almost) about hostels and backpackers' because of Hello Marseilles. Comfortable and cheap, Hello Marseilles even has a kitchen you can cook in and provides free breakfast of crusty, yummy baguettes, jam and butter. I met other travellers, including a teacher from the US who's about my age, and realized that hostel-living is not only about cheap rooms but also about a community, usually of young students, who make friends and trade tavel advice. I'm glad I've experienced this kind of travel (yes, been there, done that) even though some of my friends expressed shock (and probably disdain) that I actually slept at hostels. The accomodation for the second part of my Europe travel was mostly in hostels and I can say that if you are travelling for long in Europe, this is an excellent way to save. If I, who have a fear of sharing bathrooms and toilets, can do it, so can you unless you are Princess Latifah, whoever she is.

Those grapes were so fresh they looked like they were still growing on the vine. A little grocery shop like this has nearly everything including cheese and saucissons.

Bouillabaisse is a famous Marsellian? Marseillais? seafood soup in which a few kinds of fish  and other seafood is used and presented with a whole fish at the table before they cut it up to serve. 17.90 euros/RM72/USD22 per serving, with some places pricing bouillabaisse at 22 euros/RM88/USD28 per serving. Bouillabaisse in Marseilles is a big rip off.

I'd up till then taken Rick Steves' advice not to eat at touristy places, especially near or on the squares/piazzas but Sederic recommended this restaurant, L'ecallier (avoid it!), at the piazza for eating  bouillabaisse, Marseilles' famous dish (the other two being nicoise salad and aioli). He said that at 17 euros, the soup had lobster (langoustine) and oysters (I think he meant mussels) and the seafood was fresh. What a terrible disappointment! Not only was there no oysters and lobster (instead, there was one little miserable mussel), the whole fish  (which was small and full of bones) had a slight salted fish flavor and the fish steak (looked like monkfish) had a strange flavor like it was frozen for too long. Ew. Luckily, the soup was good. The rouille was quite ordinary. We filled up on the toasted baguette and fine, noodle-like cheese which we guessed was mozzarella. This meal put us off anything Marseillian (which is unfair I know) so we stuck to sandwiches and home-cooked meals thereafter.

All these for  12.20 euros/RM48/USD16 (dollar for dollar, there's no way we can get the same things in Malaysia, even if it's local produce, for RM12.20), enough for dinner and lunch for the two of us.

Yi made a delicious men tiao dinner that was so comforting, especially in the confines of Hello Marseilles, which had a homey atmosphere.

I would've named my daughter Marseilles ("ma say") if I'd remembered the city from my history books. It sounds and spells beautiful, don't you think? But as with most things, looks are only skin-deep because as somebody (an Italian) aptly described, "Marseilles is Babylon!" A reader commented that I over-reacted when I was fearful about safety in Marseilles and she/he was right. I did over-react. However, there is this sense of moral  rot in Marseilles that I sensed which was heightened by the locals, including tourist information people, who told us to stay away from certain parts of the city. Marseilles is the oldest and second largest city in France and is probably the most racially mixed city among all the places I visited. I read in Wiki that among the youth in Marseilles, the unemployment rate is 40%. Take that and the fact that Marseilles has a lot of 3rd world migrants, legal and illegal, and you know why the city has a high crime rate.

I did scare myself too silly to give Marseilles a fair chance. I'm told by our hostel mates that a stroll to the Notre Dame de la Gard in the morning is a must and another must is a hike into the beautiful Calanques (fjords) to the right of the city. If Hub was there, Marseilles would've been different I think.

On the fringe of Marseilles' Old Town

It was so hot and there was nowhere to hide, so we left the Old Town. We wished we had Hub there so that we can walk the town in the evening when it's cooler and prettier.

Then there were the beaches, they told us, so we took a bus ride along the coast and saw plenty of people in the Mediterranean sea and felt sorry for them because there were just rocks and dirty grey sand which they took as beaches.

Marseilles was the dirtiest city I'd been to in Europe. Then again, I should cut it some slack because the city has been around since 600 BC, and evidence of human inhabitation dating from 30,000 years ago has been found around the area. Imagine that.

This creative and fun mural was made of real shrubs and flowers.

p.s.: the Chinese student I met said she came to Marseilles to see the city made famous by Alexandre Dumas' book, The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Market In Arles

An outdoor market that stretches from one end of Arles to the other is held every Wednesday (and Saturday, I think). The variety of things is astounding, from cheap clothing, shoes, bags to veggies, cheeses, cooked food and kitchen utensils. A quick walk through the market, which is actually a long street, can take at least 2 hours.  I enjoyed the market for the variety and freshness of the produce and if I lived there, I'd shop there every market day.

I just LOVE tomatoes.

This looks like the postelein in The Netherlands and something similar that we have here.

A rocket (arugula) that looks like a cross between the regular rocket and the wild rocket.

Artichokes that look pretty enough for the flower vase.

Green-skin mangoes? Could these be my favorite Luzon mangoes?

These are round zucchini.

Fresh soft cheeses that look like dessert. Maybe they are.

I bought one and it was yummy, mild, fresh and so soft it melted in my warm palm.

If I had more luggage space, I'd buy more of these flavored salt which are truly worth their, er, salt.

These are lamb legs but I bought a whole roasted chicken for 6 euros. We think Europe is expensive yet we can't get the same things for the same price here. It's only when we convert the currency that we think Europe is expensive but I think food in Malaysia is much more expensive. Can we get a whole cooked chicken for RM6 and what veg is below RM2 per kg? Dollar for dollar, can we eat as well as the Europeans in terms of freshness and quality?

Tapenade, a yummy spread famous in the southern region of France, is made of olive and anchovies.

This paella pan was about 1 m or 3 feet in diameter and there are some that are even bigger.

I can't remember how much these fast-going baguettes were but croissants were 1 euro for 4 and some stalls were selling 1 euro for 6 but those weren't necessarily made of butter, surprisingly, because I thought the French only use butter in their croissants. I found that croissants didn't have to be from Paul's or fancy restaurants. The croissants I bought in ordinary bakeries and 711-like shops were just as good.

The Chinese saying "There's always a mountain higher" is so true.  I thought all the food in the world was  in the US or Australia. Then I went to Europe and found that (continental) Europeans have much more in quantity, variety and quality. So if you see me looking like this in our local supermarkets, please excuse me:

p.s. The watermelons were the sweetest I've ever eaten (plenty of samples and if you eat one piece from each stall, you don't need to buy any...) and their texture was different because they were so dense and crunchy . Absolutely heavenly, especially on a hot day. The rock melons were super super delicious although I found Italian rock melons (and tomatoes) better than any in Europe.

Ah, Arles...

Arles (pronounced without the s) is a provencal town that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Arles is the town that inspired many great artists. Vincent van Gogh painted his most  famous paintings there: Starry Night (actually painted in St Remy near Arles), Irises, Sunflowers, The Cafe Terrace At Place du Forum, Bedroom in Arles, Yellow House and nearly 300 others, which means he painted nearly everyday in the 15 months that he lived in Arles. Arles is where van Gogh ran to from Paris, hoping to set up an artists' community, and is also where van Gogh famously left a part of his left earlobe after a fight (van Gogh was  beginning to loose his mind by then) with another great artist, Paul Gaugain, who moved to Arles at the invitation of van Gogh.

I love van Gogh paintings (did you know that he did many versions of the same painting, for example, Sunflowers, The Cafe Terrace etc) and can't decide between him and Picasso. So to visit the town where van Gogh produced most of his famous paintings was a highlight for me. That the town didn't love van Gogh during his time is evident. The yellow bedroom where he lived and painted (we missed this painting at the van Gogh museum in Amsterdam because it was travelling and guess what? Yi saw it at The Netherlands pavillion in the Shanghai Expo) was destroyed during WW11 and the cafe in the famous cafe painting is disrespectfully kept and unrecognisable. Arles really is all about van Gogh even if they rejected him as a mad man and prefer the town to be known for its scenery and landscape. My opinion anyway. van Gogh was Dutch, by the way, and not French.

Arles is absolutely interesting and pretty. The people are very friendly (we made friends with a pretty young taxi driver who was extremely helpful and hospitable. Why are French women so petite and beautifully proportioned?) If I go to Arles again, I'll rent a car and drive around the surrounding farms and countryside. I'll visit the house van Gogh rented in the suburbs and the Langlois Bridge he painted. I may even draw the sunflowers they grow in the area. Notice that van Gogh used a lot of yellow in his paintings drawn in Arles? The sunshine and the sunflowers influenced his use of bright colors.

The Arles Amphitheatre was built in the 1st century when Arles was under the Romans.

The amphitheatre is surrounded by shops and streets, making it fun and easy to tour the area.

Bullfights and concerts are still being held in the amphitheatre, more than 2000 years after construction.

The Spanish influence is evident too and paellas are common items on the menus in Arles.

Little streets that lead off from the amphitheatre, so pretty and quaint.

Souvenirs sold include provencal herbs and lavender.

I remember it was a HOT day and I didn't have any summer dress or shorts, unlike all the ladies in the south of France, Spain and Italy that time of the year (June). I sweated like, well, a pig. One of the disadvantages of travelling light (I'm the lightest traveller I know) is you end up wearing the same clothes nearly everyday, or you borrow your daughter's and look like a goat dressed as a lamb.

We asked for directions to van Gogh's room (sadly, it doesn't exist anymore unless you want the fake room) and this guy, armful of baguettes, left his car and led us along the small streets to the van Gogh Foundation building. Ah well, we at least pronounced van Gogh right even if he didn't understand what we really wanted.

How do you navigate a bend in these roads? You just bull-doze through.

A free shuttle mini bus takes you around the city because the roads are too narrow (note the walls of the buildings on both sides).

The mental hospital where van Gogh was admitted to is no longer in use. It is well-kept but has a sad aura.

Guess the place. How about a different angle?

I couldn't believe that this was the exact same spot that van Gogh painted The Cafe Terrace.  That's a scene of France that  non-French like me romanticise and dream of, but those scenes have disappeared. It's completely different now--they didn't even keep the cobblestone, which is strange because most of the streets are cobblestoned.  The only things that are same are the balconies and the yellow awnings. Note the cement plaque where van Gogh had his easel.