Provence: Marseille

Marseille is the oldest city in France- it was settled by the Greeks as a commerce post around 600 BC (Massalia). It is also the second-largest city after Paris.

Essentially, this tells you that the Greeks of Asia Minor founded Marseille upon this spot in 600 BC

Marseille (commonly spelled Marseilles in English) is a port town, and the cute little area that directly surrounds the water is very Mediterranean- I felt like I was in Mamma Mia! 

There is a famous staircase, several fabulous churches, and lots of cute little residential buildings. 

Around this time, all of us were grumbling ominously about the fact that as soon as the tour was over, we were leaving for Aix-en-Provence. Why would we only spend a few hours in this paradise and then head inland? What was our program director thinking?

We hit up this fabulous view for our last hurrah in Marseille:

Then, as we walked to the bus station for our trip to Aix-en-Provence, we discovered that our program director was right, as is becoming the usual course for things. The rest of Marseille is just a standard European city that looks like the outskirts of Paris. Which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but nothing we aren't seeing on a daily basis this semester- 19th century buildings and neon lights. We saw the fabulous, cute, historic part (which I will definitely be returning to some day), and then we moved on. 

Up next: Aix!