Rugby World Cup 2023, Quarter Finals in Marseille. England v Fiji, Wales v Argentina. More food, wine and beer.

 It was back to Marseille for the quarter finals weekend. 

Direct Manchester to Marseille flights are Ryanair, on a Tuesday & Thursday. So we went on the Thursday flight, this was an evening flight arriving into Marseille airport late at 22.45. The passengers on this flight were mainly rugby supporters, mostly Welsh, as the two quarter finals were England v Fiji and Wales v Argentina. We had tickets for both games. 

At Marseille airport there is a bus that takes you to the main station, they are very frequent and it is a good service. It take about 30 to 40 minutes to get into the town.

For the first night were were in the Novotel overlooking the port, as we arrived so late we just managed to get a drink before the hotel bars shut!

We stayed in three hotels during this visit and the Novotel was the best. 

In the morning it was time to depart from the Novotel and walk over to the Ibis Styles Marseille. This was in a busy but relatively scruffy part of town, once inside the hotel and rooms were OK, clean and comfortable and bigger than the hotel in Nice. As we were early we couldn't check in, but we could leave our bags. 

We walked around the harbour to the fort, then got the little 'train' up to the cathedral and later had a nice meal in the Port Vallon des Auffes.

The next two days were carbon copies of each other-apart from the matches! 

However on the Saturday we went to the beach at du Prado before getting the bus up to the stadium for the Wales v Argentina match. 

The Sunday was England v Fiji, Fiji played really well and it was good match. 

After the game we did hang around and congratulate the team then walked a quick as we could to get back into Marseille to watch the France v South Africa game. 

There were not many big screen and every bar in the harbour area was packed out so we ended up outside our hotel sitting in the street with all the French to watch the South Africa v France game!

On the Monday morning we checked out of the Ibis, but again could leave the bags. 

At the harbour we got the boat over to the Islands, Les Iles. The ticket showed the first stop as the Chateu d'if, but the boat did not stop there it stopped at Port du Friouibut on Les Iles. 

It was rather a bleak, windy place, with a few restaurants - all closed. We walked across to 

Feu de cap Caveaux.

Back in Marseille, we had to find our next hotel. A digital one. Maison Juste. It was easy to find the building. To get in you had to download an app to your phone, turn on Bluetooth, and at 16.00 a digital key arrive and unlocked the door. 

The area was the scruffiest we had stayed in, but once inside the studio type apartment was very nice. As having a phone was vital to getting in and out of the digital hotel, I was very glad to see a lot of charging points!

Maison Juste

Maison Juste

On Tuesday the 17th October the Ryanair flight to Manchester was very late at 23,40. So this was another full day in Marseille, it was a very dull, overcast day. 

I read that there was a fishing village L'Estaque, and that the train journey from Marseille to the village was picturesque. The station has a good left luggage facility so once we had left the bags there we got the train to L'Estaque. Maybe we got off the train to soon, but in the very short train ride to the fishing village all I saw was graffiti filled walls and railway sidings. The village its self was all closed up for the winter. Not one shop open. 

It was fortunate that the public transport in Marseille is so good as a bus arrived and we got it back into Marseille. 

We then explored the Le Docks Village, and the massive shopping centre opposite. Finding large screens that had been showing the rugby matches in both locations!!

Collecting the luggage and getting the bus back to the airport was easy. The Ryanair flight was late in but made up the time and it was a bumpy landing at Manchester. 

So that was it, the end of our Rugby World Cup 2023 journey. The Semi final and final would be watched on the telly. Having attended each Rugby World Cup since 1999 we had decided that this one would be our last. We have enjoyed them and had so many different experiences at each one.

For 2023, I think France did a better job of hosting the 2007 tournament, some how there was a lack of commitment on this occasion. The fan zones in 2007 were fabulous whereas this time they were awful. I certainly enjoyed the food and wine, especially in Marseille, we didn't have one bad meal. From pancakes to scallops, each meal was delicious.