Quiet day in Marseille

Wednesday March 1 was a bit warmer and we had some sun!  High of 11C.

We headed out to the Tourist Office en route to Cours Julien, which has an organic market on Wednesday mornings.  Our apartment is one minute away from the imposing Hotel Intercontinental that we walk by every day.  Blue sky today for a change.

Hotel Intercontinental

A quick stop at La Patisserie des Marseillais for a croissant.

Alain with the croissant

More street art

We passed the fishmongers at the Port

We stopped at the Tourist Office to get some info about a day-trip to Aix-en-Provence and to pick up an extra map of the city.  We walked up La Canebière, the main street, and then turned onto Rue D'Aubagne, the street with lots of stores with African foods and herbs and spices.  We stopped and bought some dorade and salmon from Le Lamparo.

Where we bought some fish

Busy, buzzy Marché Capucins near the Noailles Metro

We carried on walking about 10 minutes further to get to the very funky Cours Julien Square which hosts an organic market on Wednesday mornings.

Outdoor seating, and a lovely square with lots of interesting shops and street art

Organic market

All sheep cheese (which I can eat)--we got some soft sheep cheese with lavender

Only organic vegetables, grown locally

We decided to stop for lunch at Black Bird Coffee on the same square.

Outside of Black Bird Coffee

Entrance to Café

Back room where we were seated

Alain with his coffee and lovely vegetable soup

We headed back and stopped at the Marché Capucins for a few fruits that were not available at the Marché Cours Julien.

We got some lemons and tomatoes here

We stopped back at the apartment to drop off the food and have a short rest.  We headed out at about 
3:30 p.m. to go to my cousin's apartment for tea.

There was a photo shoot taking place in front of our building

We had about a 30 minute walk over to the other side of the Vieux Port, where my cousin Anna lives.  We were having tea with her, Luc (her son) and her sister, Laure who recently moved from Paris to Marseille.

Anna and Laure

Me, Alain, Anna and Luc (and Bunny)

We had a very nice visit and we will see Laure for dinner on Thursday and Anna for lunch on Friday.

On our way back down the hill, we passed Four des Navettes, the oldest bakery in Marseilles (1781), famous for the manufacture of "navette biscuits".

Four des Navettes 

Fort St- Jean and a boat bound for Corsica 

Vieux Port nearing sunset

Walking under the Norman Foster L'Ombrière, completed in 2013,
when Marseille was Cultural Capital of Europe


Red sky at night-- a beautiful sunset

Another view

We went back to the apartment for dinner.  Alain made an appetizer plate with cheese, olives, baguette and radishes.  He then made salmon, zucchini, tomatoes, onions and a green salad.  We had some of the wine we bought yesterday.  It is from a winery nears Arles called Isle Saint Pierre, which has been around since 1927.  It is run by 3rd and 4th generations of vintners.  Navettes for dessert.


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