Chateau d'If, une chateau de legends.
We have come to Marseilles to visit Chateau d'If and the legend of the Count of Monte Cristo.
But first things first - we need to park. This carpark in the centre of Marseilles must win the prize for the world's most spotless underground garage. You could eat off these floors (and the walls and ceiling too). There is a red light above each bay that is occupied and green light where the bay is vacant. And a board at the beginning of each row to tell you how many vacancies in that row. You just scan the row of lights and head for a green one.
We are staying in the same hotel we used two years ago, Hotel Belle Vue in Le Vieux Port - the old port. Directly opposite, on the hill, is the Basilica de Notre Dame de la Garde. This church on the hill is the focal point of all views of Marseilles.
Looking to the right, down the channel towards the heads, where the old port enters the Mediterranean. Pedestrians, cyclists and buses have priority.
The ancient Greeks settled this port in 600BC. Over time, many traditional harbour and maritime industries moved from here to a larger port a little further north.
Heavy bombing caused major destruction during WW11 and the old harbour was reconstructed during the 1950's and became a recreational rather than commercial port. These days the huge cruise ships, ferries and large commercial vessels use the larger commercial port "just around the corner".
But le Vieux Port remains the heart and soul of Marseilles. This photo was taken at 8.30 on a Monday morning. The queue is from a tour bus - they are waiting to board the first vessel of the day for the trip to Chateau d'If. Eight hours earlier, on Sunday night, this area was teeming with people, eating ice-cream, shopping at market stalls, watching street performers. Overnight the municipal teams work their wonders and you wake up to spotlessness.
But going back a step, to our arrival on Saturday afternoon - Paul loves boats and water and a sea view. Here he is hanging out the window of our hotel room, taking it all in. He would have done this all evening but he had dinner to arrange.
And the happy man again, having secured a reservation for authentic Marseilles bouillabaisse tonight. We had bouillabaisse two years ago when we were here, and found it a bit strange. But never say die - let's give it another go!
Alas, alas, alas ......... the meal, which was to have been the basis of a fabulous blog post entitled 'Bouillabaisse 101' and accompanied by a series of illustrious, quality photographs and a brilliant narrative, was a failure.
This was not because of the food, which was incredibly good, but because we were seated underneath red, insect repellant lights and all of the photographs turned RED. So you can't see either of the two bowls that made up my fabulous fish stew nor any of the range of accompaniments that came with them.
The next day it was off on the boat to the island of If and its famous chateau. Leaving the Vieux Port, we first passed the fortress guarding the southern arm of the harbour.
Next we passed Fort Saint-Jean on the northern arm. This site has been occupied since Antiquity but it wasn’t until the 13th century that the Knights of Saint-John (later called the Knights of Malta) established themselves here and named the area theirs.
This huge square tower was built to defend the port entrance in 1423 and added to continuously.
Also on the north side of the Passe de la Joliette, next to Fort Saint-Jean is the Phare de Sainte Marie, a lighthouse built to mark the Marseille harbour. Completed in 1855, and like all of these buildings, made of natural-finished local limestone standing 70 feet high.
A short boat ride later and we arrived on the landing platform of Chateau d'If, a National Monument of France.
The first of many spectacular views across the water to Marseille with the Basilica on the hill and circled by what might be the most rugged limestone mountains in the world.
Once again I am reminded that this is Provence-Alpes-Maritime, where the mountains roll into the sea - and in this case the mountains are rugged white limestone.
Everything on this island, and all of the old construction of Marseilles, is made from this limestone. It glows beautifully in the strong Mediterranean light, begging you to believe that it is smooth and lustrous to the touch.
Never! Even after hundreds of years of wind and water, hundreds of steps and footfalls, an eternity of sun, it remains gritty and abrasive.
Francois 1 erected a fortress on this rocky island, the smallest in the Frioul archipelago in 1531 to protect the coast and ancient Marseilles from invaders.
Never invaded, more of a deterrent, the fortress began to function as a penitentiary several years after construction was completed.
The isolated location and dangerous offshore currents of the Château d'If made it an ideal escape-proof prison, very much like the island of Alcatraz in California in more recent times. Its use as a dumping ground for political and religious detainees soon made it one of the most feared and notorious jails in France. Over 3,500 Huguenots (French Protestants) were sent to Château d'If, as was Gaston Crémieux, a leader of the Paris Commune, who was shot there in 1871.
Alexandre Dumas published The Count Of Monte Cristo in 1844.
The hero, Edmond Dantés is detained here in the chateau. The novel met with enormous success and the Chateau d'If became a place of legend, recognised all over the world.
The central courtyard (exercise yard) inside the chateau is quite small. There are cells on three levels.
The sixteen or so cells facing the courtyard are surprisingly large and have a window to the courtyard and a fireplace. But in all four corners there are diagonal tunnels to the corners of the building and off these tunnels are small cells that are eternally dark.
The prisoners carved some wonderful graffiti into the limestone bricks of the courtyard.
Supposedly this was Edmond Dantés cell on the ground floor.
As was common practice in those days, prisoners were treated differently according to their class and wealth. The poorest were placed at the bottom, being confined perhaps twenty or more to a cell in windowless dungeons under the castle. However, the wealthiest inmates were able to pay for their own private cells (or pistoles) higher up, with windows, a garderobe and a fireplace.
And the supposed tunnel from the cell next door. How anyone could tunnel thorough rock walls like this is hard to believe, even in fiction.
The only light and air is via the door and only if the flap is open.
A salutary tale of hardship.
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