#4 Marseille---Milk, Coffee & Sugar

It was hard to say good-bye to our hosts in Pierrevert. They had made us feel so welcome and relaxed. Our visit had been the perfect respite after so much traveling down through Europe and across the Alps. We were rested after a week, to be sure, but we felt we had barely scratched the surface of Provence.

Still it was time to move on. So our hosts dropped us off at the train station and we bought tickets down to Marseille on the next train. We got to St. Charles station right around dusk. Red was impressed by her first view of the city, as you come out of the front of the station, which is on bluff overlooking the Vieux Port, the old port.

We clunked our rolling bags down the steps and along the swarming evening boulevard that takes one down to the Canebière, the great massive artery of Marseille leading up from the head of the port. The sidewalks were crazy with people coming and going in the early evening rush. We were relived to find our street where our hotel was supposed to be. It was a rather seedy street, as one would expect in this part of Marseille. A prostitute stood in the doorway within sight of the main street. Our hotel was on one door further---a student dormitory, in fact, that also functions as a hotel an gets decent ratings online. It was among the cheaper options in Marseille near to where my friend was staying.

Once in our rooms, and after getting wifi, I emailed Jean and told them we had arrived. I gave him the street address. "Right on the other side of the prostitute," I told him. She seemed like a fixture, after all.