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" Perfect time. Thank you so much for your hospitality. "Jane K.
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| Marseille |
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 Marseille is divided into sixteen arrondissements which spiral out from the focal point of the city, the Vieux Port . North of the center lies the old town, Le Panier , site of the original Greek settlement of Massalia. The wide boulevard leading from the head of the Vieux Port, La Canebière is the central east-west axis of the town. The Centre Bourse and the little streets of quartier Belsunce border it to the north, while the main shopping streets lie to the south. From the headland west of the Vieux Port, the Corniche heads south past the city's most favoured residential districts towards the beaches and promenade nightlife of the Plage du Prado.The Château d'If located on the tiny island of If, is best known as the prison for Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo . Having made his watery escape after five years of incarceration as the innocent victim of treachery, the hero of the piece, Edmond Dantès, describes the island thus: "Blacker than the sea, blacker than the sky, rose like a phantom the giant of granite, whose projecting crags seemed like arms extended to seize their prey". The reality, for most prisoners, was worse: they went insane or died (and sometimes both) before reaching the end of their sentences. Only the nobles living in the less fetid upper-storey cells had much chance of survival, like de Niozelles, who was given six years for failing to take his hat off in the presence of Louis XIV, and Mirabeau, who was doing time for debt. The sixteenth-century castle and its cells are horribly well preserved, and the views back towards Marseille are brilliant. Boats for If leave regularly from the quai des Belges on the Vieux Port (hourly 9am-6pm, last return at 6.40pm; journey time 15-20min; 50F/?7.63). |