Lepod's Blog

Nice to be back in Berlin, it was a long day though!

Nice trip from Josselin to Rennes on the bus and then to Paris on the TGV. We got there early afternoon and went to https://museebanksy.fr/ to see the Banksy exhibits. It was well worth the visit.

In a rare public statement Banksy said: “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources, but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company, it pays over $7bn a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”

It’s cool to be back in Paris, nice day here although chilly. We had an interesting dinner of cold noodles with a spicy sauce and crevettes (me) or vegetables (the mrs) at a Tibetan restaurant near the hotel. It was tasty.

It’s about 750kms to Paris and the excellent French TGV took us there in three and a quarter hours. You’d probably spend that long at the airport just waiting to get through security 😀

We had about half a day in Paris so we spent some time checking up on Notre Dame, visited the bouquinistes along the Seine and wandering about the left bank near the Sorbonne, walking back to Montparnasse via the Jardin de Luxembourg.

That afternoon we took the train and bus back to Josselin arriving home about 8:30. Its nice to be back, it’s fun traveling around but it’s good to stop after a while too. It was a memorable trip down south and I’m very glad we did it.

We took a boat ride to Château d’If and Port du Frioul as you do. The Château is famous for being one of the settings for “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Dumas.

After the boat ride we took the bus to Le Vallon des Auffes. The Vallon des Auffes is a little traditional fishing haven in Marseille in the 7th arrondissement of Marseille. It is situated 2.5 km south-west of the Vieux-Port over the Corniche Kennedy, between the Catalans beach and Malmousque bay. It takes its name from “l’auffe” (“auffo” in provençal dialect), or “alfa”, a sort of grass used to make rope, braids, and fishing nets.

Once back in town we visited Le Musée du Savon de Marseille (the soap museum) and got some free samples.

We arrived about 6pm and it was already dark. Walking through the city down to the waterfront and our hotel was cool. It’s a busy and multicultural place. Quite different to Nice, more interesting perhaps. It definitely has its grungy side but I’m sorry to say we mostly stuck to the touristy bits.

Notre-Dame de la Guarde is a basilica built on top of an old fort and is the city’s best known symbol probably because it stands out so much wherever you are in the city.

We enjoyed the hop on hop off bus which gave us some ideas of things we’d like to go and see. The rest of this day was fairly relaxed.

The next day we took the ferry across the harbour and walked to one of the forts and the MUCEM museum.

“The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations is a national museum located in Marseille, France. It was inaugurated on 7 June 2013 as part of Marseille-Provence 2013, a year when Marseille was designated as the European Capital of Culture. In 2015, it won the Council of Europe Museum Prize.” (Wikipedia)

There were a number of exhibitions in the museum, including “Paradis naturistes” which was a history of nudism, and “Méditerranées” about Mediterranean culture. Interesting museum, worth a visit if you’re hungry and looking for the toilet!

That was a good day out and we certainly had some exercise.

We foolishly were unaware that it was a long weekend because of all-saints day on Friday. As a consequence the trains were all quite full and hard to book. We changed trains in Milan and then headed to Genoa for the night.

“Genoa (Genova) is a port city and the capital of northwest Italy’s Liguria region. It’s known for its central role in maritime trade over many centuries. In the old town stands the Romanesque Cathedral of San Lorenzo, with its black-and-white-striped facade and frescoed interior. Narrow lanes open onto monumental squares like Piazza de Ferrari, site of an iconic bronze fountain and Teatro Carlo Felice opera house.” – from some guy on the internet.

We checked in to our rather nice hotel, B&B Hotel Genova, Pauline had a bit of a rest and I wandered down through the old part of town to the port.

The next morning Pauline and I took a taxi to the central station and then walked back down to the port and through the streets of the old town and then jumped on a train to Marseille via Ventimiglia and Nice. The wheels fell off a bit when the train came to a halt about an hour from Ventimiglia due to someone being hit by a train on the track ahead of us. This was extremely unfortunate for the person obviously but a bit also for us. We sat there for about forty minutes or so and then they told us to all get off our train and get on the one on the next track across. However when we got to the platform we were told not to get on that train. All in Italian. Eventually another train came along and we all got on that one. It tootled along for about 20 minutes and then we were told to get off at a little place called Andora, and get on a bus. When we got to the bus it was a smallish taxi van and there were hundreds of passengers. A certain amount of arm waving ensued. Some people got in the van and it drove off leaving the rest of us wondering what to do. Eventually the police turned up probably because the single train crew member left to look after us was getting a bit nervous. The policeman said there would be a navette (small bus) every 15 minutes. This wasn’t going to work since it was still about 30 minutes to Ventimiglia from Andora and there were hundreds of us. While we were all mulling over what to do next the railway crew person suddenly announced that a train was now on the way to pick us up and could we all go back to the station. Cue cheers and clapping. Eventually we made it as far as Nice and stayed there the night. Too late to go any further.

I feel sorry for the person who presumably jumped in front of a train, but as it turned out Nice is a good place to get stuck unexpectedly.

We had a nice day in Nice and then jumped on the train to Marseille later on in the afternoon. It was an unexpected stop but we are glad we did.

We stopped in Naples for a few hours on our way back to Rome, what an interesting city.

Back in Rome, we stayed in an apartment in the Trastevere district. “A funky, bohemian area that clings to its centuries-old, working-class roots, it’s known for traditional and innovative trattorias, craft beer pubs and artisan shops, as well as simple B&Bs and budget hotels.” According to the internet. It was a good place to stay.

We enjoyed our time in Rome, the Romans were extremely nice. The food wasn’t too dusty either. Also the city is quite simply astonishing. We had an early morning taxi ride to the central station with very little traffic and some great views of the architecture. I’m glad we came.

We really didn’t know what to expect of Pompeii but it is astonishing. Much bigger than we thought but it was a small city I guess. It’s amazing how advanced the Roman technology was, how they heated the hot baths for example, and the sewage systems and water supply. You can still drink the water from the original Roman pipes. Incredible.

Goodbye to Pompeii, it’s been great. I’m very glad we came here.

Having arrived quite early in Rome we couldn’t check in to the hotel so we walked down to the Colosseum and back via the Trevi fountain but it was a whistle stop tour since we are coming back to Rome later in the week.

We staggered back to the hotel having walked about 15kms or so. There’s so much to see around every corner. Had a sleep since we’d been up at 5am, then we found a very nice dinner at the Osteria Macondo nearby. The people we have met here have been particularly nice I have to say. You’d think they would be well and truly over tourists but apparently not.

In the morning we made our way to the Vatican for a guided tour. Even at this time of year there are a lot of people visiting the Vatican.

I think if you’re in Rome it is certainly worth visiting the Vatican if only to see the Sistine Chapel but I remember thinking when I first came here in the ’80s that it was just mad and we both came out this time feeling the same. The amount of wealth gathered by all the many popes over the years. Crikey!

The Vatican gardens are my favourite part. Pauline took a lot more and a lot better photos than me so I’ve included some of hers here:

Having “done” the Vatican we checked out of our hotel and jumped on a train to Naples and then Pompeii. Some swearing was required to figure out our Europass app. But we got there about 9ish. Long day!