Marseille

The book “The Count of Monte Cristo” has been adapted to many movies and plays. There is even a sandwich called the “Monte Cristo” it’s essentially two pieces of French toast with ham and swiss cheese in the middle. Chateau D’If is an Island Fortress that is located 3 kilometers from Marseille where the hero Edmund Dantes spends 17 years of his life for no apparent reason. The fortress at one time was used as a prison and the story was actually loosely based off a true story. Julie and I decided that since we both liked the movie it was a worthy sight. We did have reservations though. Marseille is not known to be safe and petty theft is wildly expected. The first day in the city proved that Marseille is gritty and grimy with run down buildings and almost every inch of every building is covered with graffiti. We found parking under a highway overpass that was very sketchy but only 2km from our destination. We paid 3 euros for 4 hours and made our way to the port to locate the ferry that runs to If island. When we arrived we were told that all the remaining ferries for the day were sold out. It was around 2pm. So this was a disappointment to say the least. We did not feel comfortable leaving the van where we did and to learn that we had to come back tomorrow and do it all over again wasn’t appealing. There was a free place to park some 20 km from Marseille so we headed out of Marseille as soon as possible. The drive took us around 1 ½ hours because of traffic.

The following day we headed out rather earlier to beat some of the traffic in Marseille. Along the way we stopped for breakfast at a small bakery. We parked in the same spot as the previous day and proceeded to the port. This time the port was lined with a fish market which made Julie happy, until she saw the prices. The ferry ride was pretty short to the small island. Once out we were offered a tour but decided to view it on our own. We learned some interesting things, for example; during the first filming of the Count of Monte Cristo they actually dug a whole to connect two cells (which they weren’t allowed to do). If anyone has seen the most recent movie, they didn’t use Chateau D’If for the prison. The view of Marseille from the island was a nice one. Upon our arrival at the van it appeared to be still safe and sound. But when I went to “unlock” the door, it turned out not to be necessary. Sure enough, someone had broken into the van. Julie and I shocked, started to go through our things to see if anything was taken. Since we brought everything we find irreplaceable with us we had to go down a list of items we have in the van. We did this for about 30 minutes before I decided to move on to our next destination and have a better look after our nerves had calmed down. Before we left Marseille we believed that they had taken batteries and memory cards. Thankfully though, after a longer search we located everything and nothing was stolen. Some theories have come up about why nothing was taken, the first is that two traveling Canadians don’t have anything worth stealing, then we thought they might have been looking for drugs (Dutch plates on a VW). Even though we bring what we consider valuable with us whenever we leave the van, everything we have in the van is important to us and we would hate to loose even the smallest thing.