The waiter has never heard of it before

After a very scenic sail-in to Marseille with a beautiful sunrise, TSH and Diva took the excursion to Aix-en-Provence. The journey was enlivened by the man sitting behind them mansplaining everything to his wife, including paraphrasing the guide. He said that everything would be difficult, as all signage was likely to be in French but that this would be easier than in the forthcoming call to Lisbon, where he had no idea what language would be used. He then went on to explain at length that when the guide mentioned ‘dry dock’, she meant somewhere where a vessel was taken out of the water, which had to be done very carefully so as not to crush it.

Aix itself was an interesting and attractive town, so this turned out to be a very enjoyable morning. Before returning to the Silver Moon, the bus drove around part of the old port, which is TSH and Diva’s favourite part of Marseille. The cathedral near the harbour is very splendid and much photographed – and that is just by TSH.

The bread offering at dinner quite often includes flavoured bread – cheese, onion, olive etc. But the waiter announced that one of the breads was ‘lamb ragout’. Diva thought she had misheard and questioned him closely. He said that this idea was also novel to him and he joined in the hilarity. The flavour was actually so subtle that they would have had no idea what it was if they had not been warned.

Marseille is special for Silversea, as it is where 5 of their ships spent their Covid lockdown time.

Marseille

This city surpassed expectation in that it has many beautiful buildings and interesting museums. TSH and Diva would definitely like to visit again. The morning was spent on a city tour, driving around the narrow streets and avenues and photographing the Palais Longchamp. At the end of the tour, they skipped the shopping trip and walked through the old port back to the ship, giving TSH many photo ops. They were back on the ship ahead of the main lunch queues.  In the afternoon, they went to a Picasso exhibition and a museum about Mediterranean civilisations. Diva really really wanted one of the Picasso silver plates.

Diva was called sporty for the first (and probably last) time in her life. Well, perhaps not her directly but she was included in the description. The guide suggested that some guests might not want to climb the 200 steps to the Notre Dame cathedral but that ‘the sporty ones’ could go up. Diva went all the way with no ill effects on lungs or legs. And was back early.

First afternoon tea in over 40 days on board. Sandwiches, scones, cheesecake and a blackberry tart. All at the peak of freshness. This somewhat made TSH feel better about what happened the previous evening. The waiter muddled up the starters and Diva ate most of TSH’s before they realised. And his was WAY WAY better.

Referendum notes: Heard from a New Zealander – ‘You did not want us 40 years ago when you chose Europe. So if you leave Europe, we do not want you back’.