Thursday 17th September - Last Day in Marseilles We got up this morning and caught up with correspondence to Gra, Mike and the next couple of places that we head to as from tomorrow, and sent a letter to Mum via Mike to post. We did the washing and hung it out on the racks attached to the balcony handrail making sure everything was pegged on securely as it was blowing a bit. Went down in the lift which takes about 50sec from go to opening the doors at ...

Wednesday 16th September - Le Panier Jan has been dying to go up to this area since we got here so we crossed the road and up the stairs to a little plaza where Bar des 13 Coins is. Colourful tables full of people so we pulled up a chair under the trees and ordered a local beer. The narrow streets are a bit of a maze and apart from one street that had an eclectic mix of shops most of the other streets were just full of old buildings that were houses or a...

Wednesday 16th September - The Major Cathedral Part of the grounds to the seaward side of the cathedral is in the process of being reclaimed to add some flat ground beside the cathedral building. The Cathedral was started in 1852 and was completed at the start of the 20th century. Its inspiration is Byzantine with green stone from Florence and marble from Carrare. It is 142m long with a 20m high nave and an 18m diameter dome. This Cathedral was a rebui...

Wednesday 16th September - Villa Mediterranee Facing the sea, the Villa Mediterranee immediately catches your eye as it appears to defy gravity. This common place is meant to be a meeting place for professionals and the public to talk and think about Mediterranean issues. Cultural issues are discussed every month and are about the local population, environment, economics and politics. Seemed to us a waste of such a special building but maybe not.

Wednesday 16th September - Exhibitions There were two exhibitions on and the first one was Divine Migrations which was all about the peoples of the Mediterranean and where they came from and it showed the world as it was known at three different times in history. The first period was 2000BC and together with artefacts from Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia told of peoples and their conquests. The second period was 600BC and the third period was the Roman Empire....