The road dominated our sight-seeing today, in a good way. We had rain most of the day, never hard, but always greying the skies. Indoors, viewing the world through windows, whether stationary or in motion, fitted our temperaments and the weather this day.
Our main tourist-goal was to check out the old harbor at Marseille. We found it wet, bleak, and grim. There’s a massive street-modification project underway, which channeled traffic in odd ways, and added immensely to the lack of appeal. From signs and evidence, we estimate that they’re planning to move vehicles elsewhere (underground? for travel and parking both?) and open the margins of the boat basin to pedestrians. When finished, this will considerably upgrade the area. However, we suspect the looming old hotels will still face the water, shutters akimbo, resembling dowagers who can’t afford to upgrade their appearance.
We did Marseille in a drive-by, and didn’t feel bad about it. The Guru even found a parking place—a legal one—just down the block from Sbux, and happily returned to the car with his large coffee, black.
If the road in Marseille was incommodious, we also found a long, inviting east-west stretch east of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence that was lined with sycamores, and just stunning.
We also visited the end of the road, on the east side of the mouth of the Rhône, down below Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône.
Had we an umbrella (not parasol in this weather!), we may well have ventured out, as these folks did.
Regarding food pictures, I’ll do something with them…later. For now, I’ll run down our evening meal and you’ll have to use your imagination based only on words. Same garbanzo-bean appetizer (very garlicy); a pumpkin cream soup with a phenomenally complex back-beat attained from multiple vegetables perhaps simmered in the cream—not sure how this is achieved (our chef is fearless with cream); roasted vegetables with braised (not sure) fowl pieces (some kind of chicken? other fowl? not sure) laced together with one of those reduced beef broths that take days of roasting of bones, etc. to create; Tarte Tatin dense with the loveliest apples over a tender crust. Yes, yum.