This morning I treated myself to a lie in, if you can call getting up at 8am a lie in. But in this life where I’ve rapidly adjusted to waking up at 7 or 7:30, that half hour extra is a luxury.
Ready for the day ahead I strolled down the hill to the harbour front where I bought my ticket for the ferry to Chateaux d’If.
Marseille has a few islands just off the coast. For centuries they have been home to a series of fortifications, protecting the city from enemy attack.
Chateaux D’If is on the smallest of the islands yet it is no less impressive. The ferry ride out took just 15 minutes and the views of the islands and Marseille in the morning sun were glorious, with shades of blue on all sides.
Chateaux D’If was built in 1529 as a fort but like many places ive been too over the past 11 days, it also served as a prison.
It’s hard to imagine this little fort of white stone amidst a sea of blue and turqouise as a prison, so peaceful and welcoming does it look. Yet over the generations t was home to many inmates. None escaped…except one.
That one escapee was the fictional hero of Alexander Dumas’ The Count Of Monte Cristo.
Even during his lifetime, Dumas’ novel had become so famous that when he anonamously visitid D’If, the guards were passing off the story of his fictional character word for word as fact…at least that’s what my guide leaflet says.
No wonder he chose this setting for his novel however. Like Alcatraz, there is no escaping this island fortress, with its single entrance. Yet for all the suffering of its past it sits in the middle of an area of unbelievable natural beauty.
Riding the boat back to the mainland, the wind in my face, I continued to soak up the scenery.
Back on dry land I wandered up around Fort St. Joan, another of the many defences that Marseille possesses.
Then I went back a bit further in time. The bombing of WWII has uncovered some of Marseilles 2600 years of history, including one of the only remaining Roman commercial warehouses left in existence.
The tiny museum in which it is housed almost lets down the impressive site of rows of the remants of enormous storage jars, each one, had they been whole would be taller than a man, bound within the vestiges of the walls of the warehouse.
Following my trip through time it was time to enjoy some seafood. A dish of fresh mussels, and fresh, fried octopus, squid, prawns and sardines with chips was amazing. Never pass up the opportunity to have seasfood in a town that catches fish for a living!
All Aboard The Backpacker's Express 