08 october 2008, wednesday, Marseille

On tuesday 7th of october we left from Antwerp to Vlissingen to pick up Victor and the Landrover. We took the car from Victor's storage, packed it and made some refinements. there was also a lot to arrange due to late changes in the Desert Trail. So we took of at 4 o'clock late afternoon. In the north of France we decided to drive on to Marseille, because the weather was good and there was not much traffic. We slept a few hours halfway France at a petrol station. Early in the morning we arrived still in the dark in Marseille where it was raining heavily. We quickley found the Hotel Passedat Le Pertit Nice, which is a terrific hotel. It is situated on a cliff in the outskirts of Marseille. It has of course a fantastic view over the Mediteranean Sea as all sleeping rooms do. We had breakfast in the hotel at 07.30 and later on our Dutch friends, Atske and Heert-Jan joined us. After breakfast we walked into the city to "Le vieux port" in the rain. We will have dinner later on this evening with 7 of the participants. In the afternoon Terence joined us in the hotel. Later on John called that he had arrived on the airport of Marseille and he would join us for dinner. Later on Louis and Veronique called us and said they had arrived in their hotel.
At 17.00 hour we had a drink in the bar and presented our Desert Trail 2008. We gave everyone the roadbooks, carstickers, Arabic translation guide and the rallyplates. After a while John joined us for dinner, which starrted at 20.00 hour. It didn't surprise us that he quality was good, as the restaurant has 3 Michelkin stars. The food was good, the company was good. So we had a very nice evening!