DAY EIGHT

It was rather lovely to still be sailing at 8am this morning, so no rush to get up and be off on a tour. We arrived in a sunny Marseille about midday, so a leisurely breakfast, then a sit around the pool was the order of the day. Though JR did attend her first morning gym session. 

There’s a whole new lot of people on board. Most people are nice and friendly and ready for a chat. But some people sit nearby, eg at breakfast, and don’t even glance over to exchange a cordial ‘Good Morning’. But then you do meet some real gems. We met a terrific couple this morning at breakfast. She was dressed to the nines, dangly diamond earrings, glittering high heels, net stockings, and diamond studded face mask. She’s 82 (she told us) and she has a much younger (3rd) husband (he’s 59). She ate part of a poached egg, and had a glass of champagne. They were so friendly, and good fun. We saw them later in the cafe - she had another glass of bubbly. Hope we keep bumping into them!

There are SO many people who are serial cruisers. One couple have been on this ship for weeks, when it came from Barbados. She said that crossing the Atlantic was like a millpond, the worst was the other night in the Med! Many people have booked their next cruise, no - cruises. They just sail around the world permanently! How the other half live! We have regular chinwags with our Peruvian buddies, and the Aussie sisters, who wear the loveliest clothes - just casual, but smart and very fetching for older women - nothing like you’d see in the UK.

The pier in Marseille is right by the town, so after lunch we took a wee walk to see the cathedral, and what an amazingly beautiful structure it is! 

There was a cocktail reception with the captain and the officers. We sat with our breakfast friends, who were really dolled up! The Ukrainian singer, Yuri, recognised us from last week and came over to say hello. 

We tried a new restaurant tonight, one that involved a payment - we need to try it once. It was super, but I enjoyed the ordinary Angus beef just as much as the expensive wagyu beef.

Then we went to the show - which was very professional again. We did pop in to the jazz bar for a nightcap, where there was dancing, but we missed the Americans. 

Early start tomorrow.