We are in love with Marseille

We arrived in Marseille last night, after dark, met up with our wonderful couchsurfing hosts with whom we chatted with until late last night. So we didn't officially introduce ourselves to Marseille until this morning. It was love at first site! The city sits snug between mountains in a bay overlooking the perfectly blue and green ocean. Think caribbean blue and that's how perfect it was!

This morning, our hosts, Sarah and Max took us on a scooter ride to the Notre Dame de la Garde. It sits high on a hill overlooking the entire town. The people of Marseille believe that the church protects the entire city of Marseille as well as seagoers. After standing on the terrace, it is very easy believe.Here we are wearing our helmets before our scooter ride to the top of the hill! We have never been on scooters before and it was the best way to meet a city. It was also fun to see how the European's race around cars and cars move out of their way.
The inside of Notre Dame de la Garde was filled with gold leaf mosaics that just sparkled. Our necks started to hurt from staring up at the ceiling so much! Most Notre Dame cathedrals are very dark and gothic but this one was truly remarkable. Brilliantly lit on the inside it is hard to take in all of the detail and intricacies that went into its creation.
A beautil island that is easily viewed from Notre Dame. You can take a ferry there and visit the Chateau d If, something we are planning on in a couple days.
Another spectacular view of Marseilles! It is definitely one of the most beautiful places either of us has ever visited!
Us with Max and Sarah, our couchsurfing hosts in Marseille. Max and Sarah just returned from a 9 month trip in the United States and Canada where they bought a car and drove down the east coast couchsurfing the entire way.
The notre Dame cathedral sits at the top of Marseilles and can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. A golden Virgin Mary with baby Jesus sits atop and watches over the people.
Us with the bay behind us, taken from the rocks below the palace of Napolean III. It was incredibly windy but kept us from cooking under the sun all day.
The old port is full of boats, hundreds of them! All those posts are the hundreds of masts that take up the harbor.
For lunch we decided to try some European fastfood...Quickburger! It was pretty tasty although AJ was dissappointed they didn't have a dollar menu! We have gotten much more comfortable with the language barrier, it is easier for us to communicate with people even if we are not speaking the same language. (or maybe we are better with talking with our hands!)
Here is a palace that was built by Napolean III which was given to Marseille.
One of the billions of cathedrals in Europe. This one was very cool because the inside had such a massive center aisle. Most cathedrals only have so much space in the center but this was double the size.

Overall a very successful day filled with the usual excitement of getting lost and finding cool things. Make sure you check out the blog below and leave comments because we posted twice today!