Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
Looks like that parking ticket has caught up with me after all those years!!
Will bung up a few pics from the last couple of days tonight.
29th Apr 2022 11:42 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
Right, where were we? Yesterday and today have been a couple of days of bimbling around Marseille, lots of riding buses and trams.
Fantastic views from the church at the top of the hill overlooking the old port. New mode of tpt to get there, well for us, the Petit Train. Sweeeeeet little thing, especially when it was skilfully driven at speed through the traffic.
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Magnif church, not that either of us have a religious bone in our body, that can be seen from most of the city.
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And a section commemorating the WWs' including displays of Croix de Guerre medals from WW1.
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And on the way back a Sherman tank that a General (forgot his name) liberated Marseille in 1944. Neat trick for one person & one tank.
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After that a bit of bus riding, bit chaotic in places as manic traffic combined with a market packing up doesn’t help the buses get through. We passed the Tunis ferry terminal, lots of vans with highly stressed rear suspension and roof piled high. Came across the local boys in bleu harassing the merchants heading back across the Med with their wares, some things never change. Either that or he was advising said traveller that he could easily get another metre of height on that roof and he should do better.
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And to last night’s scoff. MichStarred gaff in the hotel (which gave us a €15 voucher, made sure we used it!!!). Great view from the table, the advantage in getting there nice and early. I know nor everybody’s cup of tea but it was all lovely and what Mrs DSL wasn’t that keen on soon found it’s way to me.
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No pic of the amuses bouche but they were a work of art.
Chickpea dish, scrummy.
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Bit of asparagus, which don’t affect me in the traditional way and SWMBO is refusing to let me confirm same (or not) for her. Best bit of the dish was beef marrow ice cream.
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Bouilleabaisse milk shake, which was really nice, plus considering what is charged in restaurants around here, is almost good value.
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Then things go slightly left field, red mullet fillets that were cooked in preheated bricks in the three minutes to get from the kitchen to the table. For me the best dish of the meal.
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Then bit of Guinea fowl that both of us thought was tuna, until waiter revealed what it was. Right pair we have here, thought the waiter - in French obviously.
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Then a lamb dish, with carrots, the lamb was in there somewhere. And time to order 2nd bottle of wine. Hic! Pics are getting darker as we go now as the burning ball of fusion no longer had his hat on and I didn’t think it was a good idea to switch the flash on.
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And my 2nd fave dish, peas & goats cheese, with a “liquid salad”. On hearing the description I couldn’t get Rebel Wilson’s character in The Hustle saying “I’m salad intolerant” out of my head. The wine was making itself felt.
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And the first of 2 deserts. Olive oil (nothing to do with Popeye) mouse with a harissa (which ran through without stopping) and lemon sorbet. SWMBO wasn’t keen so I stepped up to the plate, or bowl. It might be MichStarred but we still swap bowls as required!
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And rhubarb & strawberries, with a lovely hot meringue (aye, yer right) with a strawberry cooked in there. Lovely!
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And that was it, well stuffed and ready to flop and undo the jean’s button.
Needless to say, skipped breakie & headed off on a boat trip to Isle d’If. Before getting the tickets passed this SWEEEEEEEEET boat, which needed a piccie taken
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Our slightly bigger ferry, hopefully not going to be an inferno.
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That’s where the big boat with the mean looking dudes came. At first I was the only person taking pics, nobody else had worked out what was going on but I just thought if they were doing anything other than training they’d be pointing guns at us. I didn’t take pics when they were close enough to shake hands, the instructor gave me “that” look, which I took to mean “stop taking pics or I’ll board for real and hit you over the head with a soggy halibut”. I was still the only person taking pics at that stage so thought discretion would deffo be the better part of valour. Bit early in the trip to be arrested.
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Then tromp around the island, lots of history as a prison and lots of movies made about it.
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Luckily the ferry came to pick us up rather than have us added to the list of those incarcerated.
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No sign of black RHIB on the way back, they’d prob given up trying to catch the local villains and gone back for Pernod and medals.
PS SWMBO’s just reminded me the movie was The Count of Monty Christo, nothing to do with the sherry.
29th Apr 2022 4:10 pm
ianm27
Member Since: 02 Jun 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2154
Great pics and enjoying the commentary.
Only the start of this jaunt and I'm thinking that the sweepstake result is going to be seriously north of 60
Although if you do have a short stay with Les Messieurs dans blue then you may be closer
#cough Count of Monte Cristo #coughUncle Ray's spare wheel protector
Limo Tint
Blackvue front & rear dashcam
Cruise control switch pack
Bodsy's remote for FBH
29th Apr 2022 4:42 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
I was close enough for gvt work re the Count chap. Re weight, the big disadvantage of posh hotels is they can have bathroom scales, as does this one. I put on 2.2lbs yesterday. Phew, thought it would be more.
29th Apr 2022 4:50 pm
Rescue01
Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Aberdeen
Posts: 2432
Sorry to see your slumming it Derek hope the cuisine picks up soon.😂Its not the height of the fall but the sudden stop at the bottom that hurts!!
29th Apr 2022 5:54 pm
LT
Member Since: 31 Dec 2005
Location: South West
Posts: 23369
Yes, there's a definite lack of Lorne sausage in your cuisine photos. 2006 D3 HSE (Original & still the best)-GONE
2010 D4 HSE (A bit bling)-GONE
2014 D4 HSE (Almost too bling)-GONE
2015 D4 HSE (A heated what?)-GONE
2016 D4 Landmark (Written Off)-GONE
2016 D4 Landmark (Surely the last!) PD1881 rims-GONE
2017 FFRR SDV8 Autobiography
29th Apr 2022 6:43 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
Sorry folks but yet another food pic from tonight. Entrecôte & frites, with a bit of greenery. Lovely.
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29th Apr 2022 8:16 pm
Down&Dirty
Member Since: 17 Aug 2012
Location: Somewhere out back
Posts: 1287
Proper nosh MY24 Defender 90 X-Dynamic HSE
MY18 Disco 5 HSE Santorini Black Now Gone.
29th Apr 2022 8:30 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
T’was indeed, apart from 2 things.
1) Got dive bombed by a seagull
and
2) SWMBO had the brainwave of getting a bar of chocolate to have with tea and coffees back in the room but all the local supermarkets were closed.
Jeans and fleece now drying after a scrub, just hope peeps don’t get the image in their mind of me watching US version of Robot Wars in T-shirt & budgie smuggs!!
29th Apr 2022 8:46 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
This should belong in the What’s got Your Goat thread but piggin (that’s being polite) French public transport!! We booked trains to our next destination for 1st May, which we had no idea was piggin (again, being polite) Labor Day. We have a 2km hoof up hill with our packs this end and 4km hoof the other end of our trip tomorrow as the entire public tpt system in both cities is taking the piggin (struggling to stay polite) day off. Only in France.
PS Luckily Mrs DSL found an article that pointed to Marseille public tpt system being shut down when 65,000 footie fans from Lyon are visiting tomorrow. I completely missed it.
30th Apr 2022 5:49 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
Last breakie on the terrace in Marseille, fortified us for the hike to the station. Marseille = ticked, moving on time.
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Did I mention that all of Marseille’s public transport is having the day off?
1st May 2022 6:38 am
stew 46
Member Since: 01 Dec 2011
Location: cornwall
Posts: 10146
Weather looks ansom -------------------------------------------------
if you cant hold on dont let go , it ill come in handy for something even if you never use it.
D3 SE 05,
110 s wagon 300 tdi SOLD
h top transit
crew cab transit
transit connect
ausa dumper, muck truck .
peljob 2.5 digger
06 L 200 crew cab
1st May 2022 6:46 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
It’s been beautiful, wall to wall sunshine and not a rain drop in sight.
1st May 2022 6:51 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
Come back TGVs, all is forgiven!! To quote SWMBO, it isn’t a looker!
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Home for the next 6 hours, luckily the seats are comfy. Mind you, we’re doing half the distance to Paris in double the time.
1st May 2022 8:17 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72788
And greetings from ………….. Bordeaux!!
Lovely suite looking over the opera house, settled down with a cuppa after the walk from the station, a tram would have been very nice.
View from window:
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Lovely.
And PS to TGV comment above, the InterCitie train is far, far more comfy. OK it’s half the speed but not at all claustrophobic, unlike the TGV. Bit like BR of old, slow but comfy.
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Best bit of the dish was beef marrow ice cream. 
