“I always love to be careful with my expectations so that life has pleasant surprises for me.” Sebastian Thrun, computer scientist

Marseille​, France, located on the Mediterranean coast near the mouth of the Rhône, is the third-largest city in the country. Founded as a Greek colony back in 600 BC, it was a long history as an important trading center in the Mediterranean and remains the main commercial port of the French Republic.

The only knowledge and expectations I had of Marseille was a reference from the movie, “The French Connection,” its generally negative press and it’s the name of the French national anthem. This port city proved to be full of surprises … it’s clean with well maintained century-old and new buildings with a bustling pedestrian life with a very heavy Arab presence. That’s the perception of the old part of the city we got to experience.

Our tour bus guide chatted up and pointed out more buildings, sites and events … the church of this, the Palais of that and so on … than I can recall. It was a partly sunny day, but with dark, puffy foreboding clouds hanging over the sea. The weathered old port and hilltops provided dramatic vistas.

We followed a winding boulevard by the sea where houses are kept in generational ownership … our guide mentioned that one way of living in them is marrying into the family and kidding, that in her favorite house the only male heir is 10 years old, but she’s willing to wait.

Our first stop, The Palais Longchamp. Hey! I have one of their bags, but seriously it houses the Musée des Beaux-arts and Muséum d’histoire Naturelle de Marseille. The surrounding Longchamp Park is listed by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the Notable Gardens of France.

This would be a wowee, jaw-dropping photo stop for viewing the astonishing grand fountains at the palace front. They’re multilevel … starting at the summit are sculptures of four large bulls and three women. Behind the women, within the central structure of the palace, is a manmade stone grotto decorated with carved stalactites and nymphs. From beneath the three women and from the bulls, water flows into a secondary basin and emerges in a waterfall-like structure. Twelve, count them, ornate bronze fountains are lined alongside it, flowing into a second, larger pond. If only we had the chance of seeing it gloriously lit up at night as the lights shine upon the cascading water and the shadows of the sculptures.

On to the craggy hilltop where the Notre-Dame de la Garde (Our Lady of the Guard), Catholic basilica, lords over Marseille on the city’s highest peak. It was built in the Neo-Byzantine style, decorated with mosaics. Construction of the basilica began in 1852 and lasted 21 years. It was consecrated while still unfinished on June 5, 1864. Its main altar is a statue of the Madonna and Child made of copper gilded with gold leaf.

The 360 degree views from its terraces are impressive as the sprawl of Marseille is at your feet. Those ominous clouds provided spectacular photo ops.

Lastly, we given a quick hour’s stop to walk a bit through Marseille’s inner pleasure harbor. It’s guarded by two impressive forts now converted into museums. The area around the harbor is covered in lively restaurants, shops and a Ferris Wheel.

Along the waterfront was a European Christmas market as they begin opening on the Continent offering stall after stall selling unique gifts, crafts and foods. Nothing particularly caught our fancy ~ I’m holding back for Madrid’s spectacular version.

David expertly glimpsed between buildings, peeking behind the plaza’s church, signs of Galleries Lafayette, the grand dame of department stores, the Bloomingdales of France. It goes without saying we went wandering through its high fashion floor displays to see the latest must-haves. You can take the boy out of fashion, but you can’t take the fashion out of the boy.

​Our last dinner on board …​ a complimentary dinner at Moderno, the Brazilian style churrascaría onboard. I savored the salad bar again (41 items, but they stretch the count, by including dressings and croutons) as David feasted on lamb, beef filet and succulent chicken.

Service proved attentive and exceptional; David believing there was a big red star next to our highlighted name on the computer (due to our nightly complaints of noise from above, waking us, as we were directly underneath the pool, moving heavy furniture; hence, the free meal) … as the whole staff was on guard to make sure everything was perfect. It was a most pleasant way to end our final evening onboard.

Au Revoir and Bonne Nuit.