This morning we walked to one of the ports where we boarded Les Petits Trains De Marseille to take us to the top of a hill where the Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde lies. We explored around the beautiful church and took a lot of picturesque scenes of the cities.
After the ride back down, we walked to Dakao restaurant (same place we got the bao from) to try some Vietnamese pho. Because the restaurant was so pretty, the staff was so nice and the bao was so good, we wanted to see how well they can make Vietnamese pho.
Chicken egg roll for the table to start was actually served freshly fried and super hot. I like the extra crispy yet thin skin they used for the egg rolls. The chicken and filling inside of the egg rolls errr flavorful and juicy.
I was so excited to try the bowl of Pho, but I was disappointed. They used beef flank that was cooked. The broth had a floral aroma that I couldn’t quite place. The noodles were slightly on the Al dente side. It was okay but I would rate it below average. Oh well, at least now I know how pho is in Marseille. There were just so many Vietnamese restaurants in Marseille we had to try it once. All the adults were curious and wanted to return try other things. I mean, the banh bao was good!
We checked out the Palais Longchamp in between; very beautiful fountain and garden.
On our walk back to the hotel room, we saw a boulangerie patisserie where I got a croissant to try. It was crispy and light but nowhere near as flavorful as the one from Interlaken.
In between our touristy excursions, we stopped by a bakery to buy baguette and a grocery store to buy pate and butter. Our idea was to create pate and butter ‘sandwiches’ for the road tomorrow.
We made the moms walk with us from the hotel to the port to eat bouillabaisse during our last night. We went to the first restaurant with bouillabaisse on the menu. It’s called Paulette Restaurant.
Mussels and French fries. Marinniere sauce. This was for the table and omg I did not regret it at all! There were so many mussels in this cute little bucket that felt deceptively endless! The shells are very thin and the mussels are tiny!!! It really felt like high quality and fresh mussels. Not like the ones at home. There was like a lemon herb butter taste to the broth. The fries were crispy yet soggy, my favorite way!
Whole sea bream with truffle mashed potatoes and garlic pasta. Each whole dish comes with two sides and that was what we picked! The sea bream was cooked to perfection. It was easy to separate the two halves of the fish from the spine.
Bouillabaisse de fonfon. “Fonfon” is the name of the oldest restaurant in Marseille and this bouillabaisse consisted of four different types of fish with mussels and potatoes. The soup was so delicious. It was rich and hearty and tasted like it was a light tomato-based soup.
Ferraro Rocher cake. We shared this cake as a light sweet palette cleanser. It was very rich in dark chocolate, yet not too sweet. The texture was rich yet smooth and light.
What a perfect meal to end the last night in Marseille! I am so overly joyed I finally get to eat bouillabaisse from where it was known from. The last and only time i had bouillabaisse was back in high school during French class.
