An example of some of the crap in the water around the harbour. Including, but not exclusive to, one orange, one bamboo stick, one empty water bottle, and one very dead fish!
We went to Marseille today and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had read enough to expect something a little edgy, a little crazy. We expected cultural diversity, a fusion of cultures. In some ways we weren’t disappointed, in other ways the stereotype is probably a little unfair. It is definitely a little rough and tumble, with a definite feel for the distant jungle drums of North Africa. But as far as being crime ridden, we didn’t experience that. It didn’t seem so bad.
We were reintroduced to the begging culture and in quite an aggressive way. The beggars are everywhere. We watched one woman holding a man strongly by the wrist and trying to get him to give her the 1.5 litre bottle of drink that he had. The beggars really are everywhere, but seem to be part of the French culture and quite accepted. It still surprises us the number of people that you see handing over money. Perhaps it is the whole guilt thing, with seeing someone apparently worse off than you are, although some of them seem to do quite well out of their enterprises.
We went up the hill (hill is an understatement – one very steep road) to the Notre Dame de la Garde on the top of the hill. This is the first time that we have come across a church with a moat and a drawbridge, but then this has been used as a fortification on a number of occasions. We first went to the crypt, which had its walls lined with white marble plaques of rememberance. We were wondering what they would do when they ran out of room, but this was answered when we went out onto the terrace, because these walls were lined too.
Inside the church there seemed to be quite a nautical theme, with anchors, paintings of ships sinking, crashed biplanes, boats hanging like mobiles from the high ceiling. There was a wall of medals, braids and lapels. There were nautical items included in the sculptures within the churches structure. There was a plaque commemorating ‘In memory of the British pilgrimage to Notre Dame de la Garde to pray for victory and peace – 26 May 1918’.
The first alter was built here in 1214, in 1525 work began on the fortress around it. In 1585 one man did manage to get inside under stealth – he was caught and hung. Marseille was liberated on 24 August 1944, and it was said that when Notre Dame de la Garde was taken over then Marseille was free. The exterior walls still shows the signs of those attacks.
What amused us though was a plaque on the way out that told us that the future Pope John Paul II prayed here once in 1947. Makes you wonder why he kept a record of that.
We wandered around the rest of the old city and visited a couple more of the old churches, and finished by taking a stroll around the harbour and around the ramparts by the harbour. It was there that I got talking to an older guy from Lyon who had been taking his constitutional swim. When he found out that we were from NZ his response was, “You are from NZ! Oh la la. Why do you come here?! NZ is so beautiful.” And as you look around Europe, you have to agree. But they have what we don’t have and that is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 thousand years of history, and that is pretty amazing too.
We were reintroduced to the begging culture and in quite an aggressive way. The beggars are everywhere. We watched one woman holding a man strongly by the wrist and trying to get him to give her the 1.5 litre bottle of drink that he had. The beggars really are everywhere, but seem to be part of the French culture and quite accepted. It still surprises us the number of people that you see handing over money. Perhaps it is the whole guilt thing, with seeing someone apparently worse off than you are, although some of them seem to do quite well out of their enterprises.
We went up the hill (hill is an understatement – one very steep road) to the Notre Dame de la Garde on the top of the hill. This is the first time that we have come across a church with a moat and a drawbridge, but then this has been used as a fortification on a number of occasions. We first went to the crypt, which had its walls lined with white marble plaques of rememberance. We were wondering what they would do when they ran out of room, but this was answered when we went out onto the terrace, because these walls were lined too.
Inside the church there seemed to be quite a nautical theme, with anchors, paintings of ships sinking, crashed biplanes, boats hanging like mobiles from the high ceiling. There was a wall of medals, braids and lapels. There were nautical items included in the sculptures within the churches structure. There was a plaque commemorating ‘In memory of the British pilgrimage to Notre Dame de la Garde to pray for victory and peace – 26 May 1918’.
The first alter was built here in 1214, in 1525 work began on the fortress around it. In 1585 one man did manage to get inside under stealth – he was caught and hung. Marseille was liberated on 24 August 1944, and it was said that when Notre Dame de la Garde was taken over then Marseille was free. The exterior walls still shows the signs of those attacks.
What amused us though was a plaque on the way out that told us that the future Pope John Paul II prayed here once in 1947. Makes you wonder why he kept a record of that.
We wandered around the rest of the old city and visited a couple more of the old churches, and finished by taking a stroll around the harbour and around the ramparts by the harbour. It was there that I got talking to an older guy from Lyon who had been taking his constitutional swim. When he found out that we were from NZ his response was, “You are from NZ! Oh la la. Why do you come here?! NZ is so beautiful.” And as you look around Europe, you have to agree. But they have what we don’t have and that is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 thousand years of history, and that is pretty amazing too.
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