Marseilles and back

I have been so excited recently because my friend of 57 years was coming to visit. Back in January, when when Kathryn began her planning, she said she would arrive in Montpellier on the 16th May, so of course I entered this on my iCal. As plans developed and planes were booked, I added that also to the iCal, except that I added everything to the original May 16th date. As far as I knew and anticipated, Kathryn was flying into Marseilles on the 16th, so we planned to go there on the 15th, have an overnight and see the town. On the 13th, I called her home, had a chat with her husband (thankfully he was home) and he said "oh, she's very excited, flies out on Thursday (from Toronto)". I of course told him that she was flying on Friday and he said "I don't think so, but you can check". So I went back through emails and realized that instead of spending an overnight in London before coming south on the 16th, Kathryn had decided to get a cheap from from London to Marseilles on the 15th! I quickly called the hotel in Marseilles, changed the reservation and told Les we were leaving tomorrow!! It's not as if we had anything else planned. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to be there at the airport ON TIME. I don't usually make such horrendous errors on my calendar, but thankfully, it all worked out.

Les and I had a great time in Marseilles, and although I had been anticipating a wonderful bouillibaise, the one that I ordered on Thursday evening was definitely a disappointment. Three large potatoes, two pieces of fish, 3 mussels and alot of very salty broth. Definitely not worth posting a pic, so you get us instead.

We walked to and around the Fort Saint-Jean and through various neighbourhoods in 30C weather and finally headed back to the hotel for a nap so we could enjoy the evening. It really is quite a city and I love any city that is so surrounded by water. The  picture above makes in look like are are in front of a closed harbour, but it's huge and indeed very open.

On Friday, there was a strong Mistral blowing but out we went. We walked up and up and up to the Notre-Dame de la Garde, a very unusual church in that it is the only one that we have seen with mobiles of boast hanging from the ceiling and walls decorated with small framed pictures of boats, ships, and sea scenes. Not alot of the religious paintings we had become used to seeing in churches.

And then Kathryn arrived, we had an enjoyable drive back to Montpellier and I decided on a light chèvre chaud salad.

Since Friday, we have walked to the market, walked along the Mosson for a bit and past vineyards, hiked at St Guilhem le Desert and visited the Grotte de Clamouse which was fabulous. Today it's a bit wet, so we are catching up with emails and taking a bit of a break before heading to either Sète or Aigues-Mortes......or both.