A Church and a Stadium.

While in Marseille I also took a long morning walk up to Nôtre Dame de la Garde, and around to the Stade Julien Badoun.

I decided on a slightly circuitous route and wound up deviating even further to cut through a park.

I'm glad I did, because this route wasn't the one all the tourist buses use to get up the hill, (something I found out when I went down the other way) and it was a much more quiet and pleasant walk as a result, and also:

On the way up the hill, I made two discoveries.

The first was a vehicle I could only name The Vespateen Rabbit.

Well loved, indeed.

And the second was a different sort of vehicle entirely.

It turns out, as part of their occupation of France, the German forces occupied the church as a position of strategic importance, and several divisions of French Army B, a portion of the military of the Free French government, took a large hand in the battle here to free Marseille from occupation during Operation Dragoon, which was meant to improve allied support across Europe by opening another front after Normandy.

During the battle to reclaim the hill, a Free French tank was destroyed here and was restored in place as a memorial to the French forces who gave everything to resist and route the Nazi occupation.

It was a surprising thing to stumble across on a spring morning on a quiet street.

The weather was good, the sun bright and warm but not yet blistering hot, and I made the ascent pretty smoothly and got my first good look at the gold leafed statue of Mary and Child gleaming in the Mediterranean sun.

Nôtre Dame de la Garde is The Church of Marseille.  Founded ages ago on the site of an old fort overlooking the harbor, it was built and rebuilt, expanded and improved, over the city's history.

It's a gorgeous, inspiring building that's difficult to photograph from up close.  The hill is an extremely good vantage point, and so you can really get a sense of Marseille as a place, from the terraces that surround it.

So before I went inside, I took a walk around the terraced space that surrounds the church on all sites, providing incredible views. . .

. . . both of the city of Marseille . . .

. . .And the harbor.  

This hand drawn rendering of the port was such an excellent way to help you orient yourself.  Vastly superior to a photograph. More cities should hire local artists to do this for their best viewpoints.

And what a view.

The outside of the building was also fascinating, the contrasting colors in the stone were so striking, and there were other interesting details.

A permanent reminder of the battle here during Operation Dragoon.

Also this door.

(As an American, I cannot look at this without imagining a well-respected horse having its own private office in the church.)

Once I'd toured the outside, I stepped into the cool of the very ornate interior.

Some serious money has flowed through Marseille over the years, and this church has been the beneficiary of many a wealthy sea merchant's last will.

Marseille's self-identity as a port town is really on display here.  There are dozens of suspended models of modes of navel transport (mostly boats and ships, but also helicopters and small planes) that float in the air above your head.

The beautiful interior of the church made it almost impossible to photograph them. They looked so cool in person!

Also this wall of art and supplication to God for fair weather and a safe return from the sea, just in case you forgot: PORT. TOWN.

It was a really beautiful church.

Afterwards, I walked back down the other way, which turned out to be the popular vehicular route, and therefore was slam full of buses and whatever those weird little fake trains full of tired tourists are called.

But I was glad I had gone this way, because I was looking for a recently painted public basketball/street soccer stadium that Marisa had pointed out to me on google maps when we were corresponding about Marseille earlier in the week.

And after finding it, and having difficulty photographing it, I retraced some of my steps, so I could show it to you in a way that conveys how cool it was.

And I found this side street.

And snuck my way past this person's car and front door

And scrambled up this wall next to their fence

All of which was worth it, for this shot:

It was so vibrant and such a cool space.

Like I said, difficult to photograph from ground level.

(Also a cool little reference to NYC that reminded me of Teresa, who lives near the C line in Brooklyn. 🖤)

The guy painted on the ground is a Marseille-born rapper named Jul, but the stadium is actually named for this guy, a staunch support of Olympique Marseille (the football team) who died young.  When the stadium was updated and painted, it was dedicated to him.

Afterwards I spent the rest of the day working.  I could feel my time in Marseille drawing to a close -- soon it would be time to move along to Lyon.