Marseille; Saturday, 12 December, 2015

I took advantage of breakfast being served until later on the weekends to have a bit of a lie-in, and combined with a leisurely breakfast it was gone 11:30 before I finally left the hotel and headed down to the Vieux-Port.

My first (and main) stop of the day was the open-top bus tour that leaves from close to the Hôtel de Ville and heads round the city taking in the main sights. Whilst the route is very similar to that of the land train, the views to be had, particularly along the seaside road from the top-deck of a double decker are much more spectacular, and the commentary was considerably more informative.

I did one full circuit returning back to the harbour side from where I headed over to the museum of the Roman Port to have a quick look around, before a light lunch in a restaurant overlooking the harbour.

Lunch completed I picked up a later bus to repeat the tour, this time on the opposite side of the bus taking in the views from there – which was impressive for the number of small valleys that were completely hidden if you weren’t looking at them.

Back down in town and I picked up the local bus back up to the Basilica, arriving just in time to catch the last sun rays of the day light up the city a golden honey colour, providing some stunning photos.

I picked up the bus back down into town and headed back to the hotel to drop my stuff off and freshen up before heading back out to find a restaurant for another stunning dinner.