SkyscraperCity Forum banner

Vecais Sakarnis' abroad trip 3: MARSEILLE

8K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  Vecais Sakarnis 
#1 ·
I was in Marseille in the middle of June. Wanted to try something (as I thouhgt) similar to my last years trip to Barcelona, but Marseille turned out to be different city - though similarites are that both cities are located between Meditarreanean sea and mountains. Also the nature scenery around them is a bit similar. Marseille isn't resort, but it has great hills inside the city which in combination with narrow streets, buildings side by side and mountains in background creates really great effect. The sad part of my trip was the weather - hoped for the clear sunny skies, but get cloudy and grey most of the time. Marseille empowered the "grey effect" with its dirtyness - it's the dirtiest city I have been so far! But anyway it's very interesting and enjoyable. When in the 3rd day the sun finally comes up, I even didn't recognize some places where I was in previous 2 days but unfortunately then it was my time to leave. But some special feeling are also in these grey pictures - these are from 1st day. I will post next days pictures later - will be also some other places not only Marseille. Let's start with

1st Day



in the middle building there was hotel inside... It costed only 16 euros and I can't imagine how it looks inside because I find other hotel about 40 euros - and even that was quite sad, with flooded ceiling, dirty walls...











Marseille's main shopping street:











on the way to Notre Dame De La Garde church on the top of the hill (it was only place in the city where I saw quite many tourists; in other places they was just few. Maybe due to Euro 2008, I guess)

























 
See less See more
24
#8 ·
2nd day - Marseille and Avignon - beautiful historical town 80 km north-west from Marseille.

Marseille:



Marseille's Old Town. I really liked it.



















Avignon TGV station (station only for France's ultrafast trains TGV, they run till 300 km/h - 80 km distance from Marseille till Avignon they finish in 27 minutes).





Avignon is charming town with a population of 90 000. But the most incredible things about the place is...



...is one of the greatest still existing medieval fortifications - this rampart encircles Avignon's historical centre still today...



...as well as one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe - Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). It was the residence for several popes from the early 14th to early 15th centuries.



closer look:









Another castle is located on the other side of the river Rhone:



southern France rural scenery:



another one symbol of Avignon is the bridge Pont St-Bénezet over the Rhone. At first I thought it was destroyed in some war fights, but look what history says:
It was built between 1171 and 1185, with an original length of some 900 m (2950 ft), but it suffered frequent collapses during floods and had to be reconstructed several times. The bridge was finally put out of use by a catastrophic flood in 1668, which swept away much of the structure. It was subsequently abandoned and no more attempts were made to repair it. Since then, its surviving arches have successively collapsed or been demolished, and only four of the initial 22 arches remain intact today.







sadly I didn't manage to get in Palais des Papes because it was too late and the castle prepared to close. And also my accu discharged so I didn't take photos of many nice places in Avignon's Old town. But wait for the 3rd day of the trip - back to Marseille, to new and amazing places of the city when the weather was finally sunny.

 
#10 ·
Great pictures! I will go to Nice and Italy in August and consider to visit Marseille. The only problem is that the train ticket between Nice and Marseille is very expensive (about 60 euros for a roundtrip) and is perhaps not worth the price if I only have one day to spend in Marseille.
 
#11 ·
Last pictures from my Marseille trip. These are from 3rd day, when I wandered more around the coastal area. Sun made this city really much more beautiful.



Old fortifications



View from there



Old port & city





This was my favorite place in the city:













A bonus pic from Nykoping, Sweden, as I flew through Skavsta airport, which is 9 km from this town, I decided to visit it while waited my plane back to Riga.



And aerial view to Riga - you see the city from north to south in all it's 30 km length.

 
#13 ·
Yes, Avignon was very charming, there is more to see than I managed to capture in pictures before battery charged out. It's one of those medieval towns which seems still living somewhere back in time.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top