Day 13 – Marseille

After an overnight sail from Barcelona, we docked in Marseille, France at 7:00 AM.  Marseille is the largest port in the Mediterranean, and is also the second largest city in France.  Marseille was founded 2600 years ago by the Greeks, who called the city, Massalia.  It was later ruled by the Romans.  Marseille is in the heart of Provence and the Rhone River.  As such, it is a major agricultural and wine growing area.

We chose to take a bus trip into Provence and visited two small villages; Loumarin, known as among “the most beautiful villages of France”, and L’Isle-Sur-Sorgue”, a village known for its canals and waterways.  Both villages are very picturesque and full of charm, and the countryside we traveled through was just as beautiful.   Of course, one of our first stops after being dropped off in the village of Loumarin was to find a bakery for a cup of caffé and croissants.  Yum! 

After leaving the village, we stopped at an old bridge which was built in the 1^st Century AD by the Romans. 

Arriving in L’Isle-Sur-Sorgue, our first order of business was lunch.  Unfortunately, neither our guide nor our bus driver was quite sure where the restaurant was, so we had about a 30 minute unscheduled tour of the town.  Once found, the restaurant was great; lots of good food and an unending supply of wine.  The French drink their Rosé wine with ice cubes.  How could it get much better???

I’m sorry that I can’t tell you more about the trip back to the ship in Marseille, but for some reason, my memory is a bit vague about that part of the day.  It must be from drinking too much good Rosé wine!  I can tell you that we got back to the ship in time for the departure at 4:30 PM, for Livorno, Italy.