A little story from Marseille...

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We're sure Marseille must have been a beautiful city years ago, but unfortunately it looked like it was having a hard time keeping up with its population. The rumor is that the city has a lot of crime, although better than it used to be. Interesting because, right outside the train station on some massive flights of stairs there were men in camo with huge machine guns slung on their shoulders!

We walked through the city to the Vieux Port to take a 10 euro boat to a nearby island where the Chateau d'If, fortress turned prison that is famous by the Count of Monte Cristo story resides. The funny thing was that the boat passed the island giving us a nice view of the famous prison and then continued on to another island farther out and dropped us off there!

We were quite confused, but it wasn't like we could have asked anyone, so we ventured off. Later we found out that the prison was closed today, so we felt better not being able to see it up close.

We did however happen upon quite the island - it was really two islands linked by a huge stone wall. Exploring the 1st provided absolutely beautiful views of the Mediterranean, views that we wouldn't have seen from the prison.

The 2nd island was our favorite. We were the only ones on it (as far as we could tell) and the views of the ocean and the city behind us were sick. The best part was that there was this very old, small castle tucked away. You couldn't go in because there was a moat all the way around it - no water, but if you jumped into it, you weren't coming back out. We walked all the way around it astounded that A) there was not sign explaining it, B) it was completely deserted and C) there were no people anywhere to see this very cool piece of history. This island wasn't even in our tourist book! It was all very hard to wrap your mind around, coupled with the fact that the town below was completely closed up and the only people on the island were the ones that came on the boat with us and they were no where to be found.

PS- If anyone has some free time and wants to research this castle, they should. Just saying.

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Photos

view
View from mystery island

castle
Mystery castle

Comments

[Liz]

Gumshoes!
Ahh Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Marseilles! Too bad you guys don't speak French and could ask someone. I'm really curious now and since I have no life maybe I'll do a little research!