We stayed right across Marseilles St Charles Station. On arrival reception told us we were upgraded to a corner room with view of Notre-Dame de la Garde.
During the planning stages, the S.O. had left Marseilles to me as I told him I had visited the city a decade ago. Well, I fondly remembered the tram ride up the hills to Notre-Dame de la Garde and strolling along the harbor. I did not remember the heat to be so intense, however. I also remembered not having bouillabaisse because I was a single traveler and the dish is usually prepared for at least 2. Regardless, I won't be having the dish again this time, because the S.O. does not eat seafood, or beef, or dragonfruit, persimmons..... In the end we had Shin Ramen we brought from Taipei, because the baggage is running out of space after we bought too much Provence soap and cookies.
Taking the ferry to Chateau d'If, which I did not visit last time due to choppy waters
Chateau d'If, for those unfamiliar, is a 16th-century former prison and the setting for The Count of Monte Cristo. The ferry to Chateau d'If is quite infrequent, so make sure to time your visit and leave plenty of time for sightseeing. During our visit most of ferry passengers went to the Frioul island for a picnic, understandable for such a wonderful day.
Without electricity and heating the island must be quite a torture back in the times. Prisoners' carving on the walls to pass the time.
We get to explore the various prison cells on the island previously inhabited by (mostly) political prisoners. Depending on your wealth and status one could pay more to enjoy the luxury of a fireplace.
I felt like it was a magical place. And for the first time the S.O. and I were free of minor squabbling for at least 2 hours as we stopped and admired the sea, the walls, and the general ambience of the chateau.
After a short ferry ride back to the mainland, we window shopped along the harbor for souvenirs before taking the tram up to Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde.
The basilica is situated atop a hill on the southern end of Marseilles. In Feng Shui terms it "sits on the south overlooking the north" which was ideal for businesses (something like Hong Kong island overlooking Kowloon). As we can see from the crowds it certainly attracts lots of locals and tourists alike.
Soon our time in Marseille was up. We took a morning flight on Hop by AirFrance to the Normandy city of Rennes. The plan was to spend a day at Mont Saint-Michel. You might be wondering our crisscrossing journey seemingly being planned by a 5-year old. This was to compromise for the S.O.'s insisting we visit the Mont but unwilling to take a day trip from Paris. In retrospect, given the heat we were under, I was so happy we stayed 1 night near the Mont as it would be unbearable with the traffic nightmare.
I think I must have spent several days in total researching about how to get to the Mont from other major cities. While information is abundant if you're leaving from Paris, or if you're driving, details on transfers from Pontorson railway station or Rennes were sparse and some dated as far as 2006. At the end, we figured after arriving at Rennes airport:
1. take the airport bus from airport to Rennes bus stop
2. take the metro from bus stop to railway station, which was just opened a few days prior during our visit (see pic below)
3. take a long-distance bus from Rennes to Mont St-Michel, but stopping before that for our B&B
4. Call B&B to pick us up.
All in all the Hop flight was the understandably the most enjoyable part of the entire trek to the Mont. The crew were very pleasant and even offered us extra financiers with our coffee.
The S.O. was slightly overwhelmed that morning because we had trouble understanding whether or not to check our baggages in. Fortunately they did not scrutinize our hand carried baggages which would be over the limit. The domestic flight was slightly over an hour.
After what felt like a marathon, we finally arrived at the brand new Rennes railway station to begin another bus ride.
On the next post: Mont St-Michel, and meeting up an old friend in L'Aigle
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