{"id":5856,"date":"2012-07-09T21:07:21","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T01:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=5856"},"modified":"2015-07-02T15:13:19","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:13:19","slug":"day-44-monday-july-9-aix-en-provence-to-marseille-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=5856","title":{"rendered":"Day 44, Monday, July 9 – Aix en Provence to Marseille, France"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cool crystal clear morning, \"\"<\/a>as we left and immediately started climbing. \u00a0For an hour we climbed through fields\"\"<\/a>and one small town.\"\"<\/a>As we turned a corner in the middle of the countryside, we could see buildings everywhere.\"\"<\/a>We dropped into the city on very rough roads with drivers pulling out, stopping or parking in some most creative ways. \u00a0There was road construction everywhere, making navigation slow and obscuring good photo opportunities,\"\"<\/a>which did not stop us from trying.\"\"<\/a>Reaching the Port of Marseille by 11:00,\"\"<\/a> we decided to have an early lunch, see if we could find a hotel and correct a computer problem we were having. \u00a0Somewhere in this maze of construction\"\"<\/a> and people,\"\"<\/a> we opted not<\/em> to stay in<\/em> France’s second largest city (just too big for us). \u00a0So, we bypassed the\u00a017th Century Fort Saint-Jean,\"\"<\/a>the Opera House,\"\"<\/a>this incredible building\"\"<\/a>and the Notre Dame de la Garde\"\"<\/a>and answered the call of the sea. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>The wind coming off the Mediterranean was cool and clean and we instantly felt better. \u00a0There were even a few sights in the neighborhood.\"\"<\/a>Sunbathers,\"\"<\/a> kids having fun\"\"<\/a> and the War Memorial on the Corniche.\"\"<\/a>We strolled for dinner; a little tapas at one place and then an incredible salad with goat cheese medallions (yum, yum) at another.\"\"<\/a> We missed the sunset, but got the afterglow. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Time to say goodnight.\n\t\t