9 -11 April – Marseille Revisité
(This picture was taken 16 December 2023 on our first visit to Marseille; the sky was as blue then as it was this time.)
At over 500 feet above the Mediterranean and the highest point in Marseille, la Bonne Mère, the Basilica Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, is Marseille’s best known and most visited attraction. The original church dedicated to the Virgin Mary shared this site with a fortress that along with the Chateau d’If protected Marseille when attacked. The present basilica, begun in 1853, replaced the fortifications entirely and was completed in 1870 when the statue of the Virgin and child was placed atop the spire. It is gilded with 18 oz. of pure gold leaf and has been re-gilded four times, the last in 1989. Currently it is wrapped in scaffolding for its fifth re-gilding (which is why I used the older picture above).
The re-gilding will be completed this October. The basilica was designed in Romano-Byzantine style by architect Leon Vaudoyer, who commissioned 23 year-old Henri-Jacques Espérandieu to prepare plans and oversee construction. The interior mosaics are dazzling; and the ship models (center image) are suspended in every arch in the nave.
When you look from Basilica Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde all of Marseille lies below you in every direction.
Our hotel, Mercure Marseille Centre Bompard La Corniche, was on the Traverse Beaulieu, one of many very narrow twisting rues that make up the 7th arrondissement between the Basilica and the Corniche President John F. Kennedy that runs along the rocky coast of the Mediterranean. Much of our day was spent exploring this mostly residential Bompard neighborhood that is full of surprises.
From street art to fine art to the neo-Renaissance Villa Volmer with its park extending to the Corniche and now undergoing renovation by the City of Marseille. The Villa’s park is a garden full of plants in bloom in a virtual rainbow of color everywhere we looked (when we were not looking at Marseille itself and the nearby Mediterranean).
More flowers – along with scenes of the Mediterranean from along the Corniche. This gives you some idea why
Marseille has been one of our favorite get-away places and will be again in the future. But it is a larger city than we would care to live in full time. And yet, what a magnificent place to go and make memories!
First visit, 16 December 2023 (after three unsuccessful attempts) 9 January 2025 (sunset and music) And this trip. But there was more happening in April than Marseille —
We went to Zenith Sud for a performance of Irish step dancing and song performed by Celtic Legends on 2 April. Quite a busy month. And May promises to be just as busy; so before closing I want to share something with you. As some of you already know, in June I hope to have one of those anniversaries of my birth ending in zero. Consequently I have decided to publish the June issue of La vie à Montpellier on 1 July, and, with any luck, continue that practice as long as I find and do things I think might interest you. Spring has arrived here in the south of France bringing warmer days and lots of sunshine.
À bientôt
John
La Vie de Montpellier 
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