Day 18 - Marseille, Le Creuset, the Bouillabaisse and HB Mrs Chan

We spent most of Mrs Chan's birthday in Marseille. This is the 2nd most populus city in France and it is a melting pot of cultures.

After we parked our car in a little shopping square/plaza, we headed to the Old Port - a major attraction - with fishermen selling freshly caught seafood:







Lunch - Chez Toinou
We went for a recommended restaurant called Chez Toinou for a fresh seafood lunch. Most of the food was raw and extremely fresh. I find the oysters too salty. Probably because of the Mediterranean water. Loved the prawns, cockles and clams. The seafood was served with 3 types of homemade mayonnaises.






Live seafood of Chez Toinou

Our stomach felt fine throughout the day and that proved the quality of the seafood :)

Damn it
After lunch, we went to check on our car. We saw a towing truck with a car lifted in the air! Fortunately, it wasn't my car. But all cars in the square/plaza had a 35E parking ticket. So we then knew that it was a no parking tow away zone. No sign was visible though. Anyway, the moral for me is not to try to 1-2E parking fees in a proper car park.


Plaza of Fines... see, no sign saying no parking!

Le Creuset
Mrs Chan has always wanted a Le Creuset, and Mr Chan has always wanted Mrs Chan's cooking from a Le Creuset. They are too expensive in Sydney, so this is our chance. There is a fantastic kitchenware store just behind Toinou, called Maison Empereur. Lots of pots, pans and gadgets.

We picked up a matte black 28cm cast iron pot. Very attractive price of $330AUD (compared to $570AUD+ RRP in Sydney). If we manage to get the Tax refunded, the price will come down to about $280.

Bouillabaisse
Marseille is known for this dish. The history comes from fishermen. They put all the leftover ingredients together and made a hearty soup out of them. Nowadays, this dish is served in touristy restaurants only at high prices, so we headed into this tourist trap in full knowledge of the trap. Time to think about the "Experience" rather than the cost/value.

We went to Chez Fonfon based on Tripadvisor. The Bouillabaisse soup base was OK, but could have been more "crustaceous" (i.e. more prawn/shellfish taste). The 5 fish served were obvisouly very fresh, but the overall experience was far from "wow", and certainly not worth the 46E/pp (oops, did I say not to think about cost/value!?). Nonetheless, this was one of Mrs Chan's wishes and hope she enjoyed her birthday in Marseille.





After dinner, drove up the hill for a nice twilight view of Marseille




Notre Dame de la Garde


Palais du Longchamp

Happy Birthday Mrs Chan...
We got home very late, but we still had to eat some cakes bought earlier in the day from a highly recommended Patisserie in Aix - Riederer. We were not disappointed. They beat La Renaissance in Sydney easily (well, or any Patisseries we've tried).




Clockwise from far left - Choc dome with lavendar honey; dark choc tarte; raspberry and chocolate; coconut (?); charlotte with raspberry.

Mrs Chan's favourite was the Charlotte and it looks really beautiful inside too:


OK... I hope/think things will only get better when we get to Paris to meet the Patisserie big guns - Pierre Hermes, Laduree, Lenotre etc...