#18: Visit the Count of Monte Cristo Chateau in If ✓
Before booking a trip to Marseille, you should first check the weather.
After checking the weather, you should plan your trip according to that forecast.
This is not what I did. I booked my trip and then checked the weather. And after seeing it was supposed to be cloudy and cold all day I planned a trip that was based entirely outside.
The only things that I knew I wanted to do in Marseille were see the Chateau d'If, visit the Ile du Frioul so I could walk on the beach, and maybe go for a short hike in the Calanques if I had extra time.
In the end I didn't get to do anything of these things.
I got into Marseille at 8 and since the first boat to the Chateau doesn't leave until 10:30 I decided to go exploring. The city was beautiful. There is something special about walking around a city that's still waking up. I got to see the main sites without a bunch of tourists holding up their iPads to get a picture. I also got to see people setting up a fish market at the Old Port. It was everything I hoped Marseille would be.
Well, almost everything. I had hoped to walk around Marseille in shorts and sunglasses getting a tan on the Mediterranean Coast, but it was actually freezing and cloudy. Luckily I had the sense to pack my fleece jacket at the last minute.
At 10:00 I found the Frioul - If Ferry and confidently asked for a ticket - in French. Then the cashier told me I could only go to Ile de Frioul. I froze and just stared at her. What did she mean I could only go to Frioul? The only reason I came to Marseille was to visit the Chateau!
I walked around looking for other ways to get to the Chateau, but there was no use. No boats were going to the Chateau today, all because of a little wind. And by a little wind I mean I-almost-fell-in-the-water-from-standing-to-close-to-the-edge kind of wind.
I was so shocked that I was being defeated in this goal that I got some bread to eat while I thought things over. I finally decided to go to Frioul and try and see the Chateau as we passed in the boat. That's almost the same thing as actually visiting it, right?
However, by the time I made this decision, the boat schedule had become even more limited. It was now only making two trips out to Frioul and I either had to stay there for 20 minutes or six hours. By this point it had started raining and since the only thing I wanted to do in Frioul was walk on the beach and read I figured it wasn't worth it.
But I was determined to see the Chateau. I had specifically read The Count of Monte Cristo before coming to Marseille to be sure I fully appreciated this trip.
So in the wind and rain and my very thin fleece jacket I started walking away from the port and up a hill I hoped would lead to a view of the Chateau.
As I came around a corner I finally saw it. It was beautiful sitting all alone in the middle of the stormy sea. And while I didn't actually visit it, seeing it was almost as cool. Who wants to tour a chateau and see the tunnel Edmond Dantès dug anyway?
I sat there on a bench just looking out at the sea for a while until the rain finally got to me and I had to make my way back to town.
All I wanted was to find somewhere inside and warm were I could pass the next 11 hours. The Chateau was no longer an option, I had missed the boat to Frioul, and I had no intentions of hiking around the Calanques in the wind and rain.
I managed to find a street lined with stores and pretended to shop for a while when really I was just using them for the heat and shelter from rain they offered.
Finally at 1:00 I gave up and decided to head back to the train station.
I got lunch at the grocery store across the street and sat on the floor of the train station so I could charge my phone while I watched The Princess and the Frog. Of course the only outlets also happened to be right next to the door. Every time someone opened the door I was reminded of how cold I was and how much colder it was outside.
I had completely written off Marseille at this point. In fact, as I was sitting there in the train station I decided that if I ever met someone from Marseille I would blatantly tell them their city sucks.
But then I had the chance to spend 5 hours at the train station. And let me tell you a few things about the Marseille train station:
a) It is an open train station. If it's cold outside, it's cold in the train station.
b) The climate-controlled waiting room is hidden, but it does exist. There are chairs and outlets here.
c) Apparently sleeping in the climate-controlled waiting room is frowned upon. The security guard will wake you up and look at you judging-ly for having the gall to sleep on the floor.
d) There are two sets of bathrooms; one costs money and one is free. The free bathrooms are always closed, though, because they have problems with vandalism, and they will direct you instead to the 50 cent bathrooms.
e) There is a piano in the train station that anyone can play. This is the best place to pass time as you will get to see a variety of very talented musicians perform.
I ended up buying an earlier ticket home and only spent five, instead of the originally planned ten, hours at the train station, but in that time I learned something about Marseille. I think the city purposely made sure I couldn't do the things I wanted to and offered me a different view of Marseille - the people side; people who are nice and let you practice French even as you butcher their beautiful language and people who genuinely love their city. I think that told me more about this city than anything I would have seen if today had been what I wanted it to be.
And who knows, maybe one day I'll go back to Marseille and actually visit the Chateau and hike the Calanques.
Then again, maybe not.
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