The Friouls

On a recommendation from Nautiland in Gruissan we moored in Port Frioul rather than going into Marseille.  This turned out to be a good move as when we went into Marseille the port was packed and noisy so we had quiet evenings, cheaper mooring and a pleasant ferry ride if we wanted to go into Marseille.

Port Frioul is an old navy harbour created by building a seawall between the 2 islands.  As the islands are immediately off Marseille and are wind and sun blasted their main use appears to have been military and they are covered with fortifications dating from the late 1600s to WW2.  The other main use was as a quarantine island.  All around the islands are small bays (calanques) and people come out from Marseille to spend the day there either on their own boats or the via the ferry. The pictures below are from a walk on our first evening after most people had left.

Unusually, we had an alongside mooring; but this was because we were a catamarran, all the other moorings are stern to except on the North side of quai 1 which appears to be for large boats or overflow.