Cruise The World With Us 2026

Tuesday, January 6, 2026 – cruise day 2

Today’s featured photo is Jan standing next to a placard showing one of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings. Van Gogh was a patient at the sanitarium in Saint-Remy during the time he painted some of his most recognized works – including Starry Night.

We boarded the tour bus at the dock, met our tour guide – Mary – and headed out to the town of Saint-Remy-de-Provence (known as Saint-Remy). Here is a link to info about the town. It took about an hour and a half to get to Saint-Remy (which includes a 15-minute wait at an always-congested part of the road near the Marseille International airport). Along the way we saw the Roman ruins near Glanum named L’Arc de Triomphe and the Mausolee des Antiques. As we drove Mary told us about the area and the crops grown there – plenty of grapes.

Once in Saint-Remy we left the coach for a walking tour in the town. It was cold (under 30 degrees F) and windy during the walk so not an entirely enjoyable experience. We saw the birthplace of Nostradamus, the sanitarium where van Gogh resided and the home of the Marquis de Sade. Saint-Remy was still decorated for Christmas, and I imagine would have been very colorful at night when the lights were on.

At the end of the walking tour we found a restaurant, secured a table and shared conversation with Mary until it would be time to re-board our coach. Mary lives in Marseille with her parents (at present because her condo is being renovated). She shared photos and explanations of customs in that area of France. There are special clothes that are worn by people born in towns of that area – clothes that are not offered to those born elsewhere. She showed us photos of her cousins, nieces and nephews wearing those clothes to special occasions like weddings. They looked like clothes from over a century ago. While we listened, we warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and she had a double latte.

We left Saint-Remy around 2:00 and headed back to the port. Along the way Mary pointed out a sign on the hillside much like you would find in Hollywood – but this sign was for Marseille. She said the sign was constructed for a movie that was filmed in the area years ago. When filming was complete, the leaders of Marseille told the film company they would take care of dismantling the sign – but they didn’t and wanted to leave it as an announcement of Marseille to all those passing. You’ll find a photo of the sign in today’s photos.

Near the dock we passed what would have been a major submarine base for Germany during World War II. Construction was begun but interrupted by French resistance. There are a couple stone posts at the location of the submarine base. The meaning of the carvings on the posts is unknown but local officials have let them remain as a reminder of the struggles during World War II.

When we reached the dock, I took a selfie to include our cabin location. Our balcony is the 6th and 7th set of sliding doors to the left of the bridge (the part of the bridge that juts out).

When we arrived at our cabin, we found 2 workmen who had come to repair our heaters. I mentioned in my post the day we embarked that we were “working” to be able to use this luxurious cabin. One of the things we found lacking in our cabin was heaters that actually heated. The workers today repaired the heater in the bedroom but were unable to get the living room heater to pump anything but cool/cold air. I believe it took 4 visits from the workmen to get the living room heater to work – but they did get it repaired.

Today I included a photo of our cabin steward – Yogi – from Bali. He has been great and anticipates everything we want/need. He was on the 2025 World Cruise on a different deck and knew our cabin steward on that voyage – Leonardo.

Since we hadn’t had breakfast or lunch we headed up to the buffet and while there ran into another staff member from the 2025 cruise who recognized us – Saurabh from India. He worked in the dining room near our dinner table and had served us at many lunches. While in the buffet we walked to the aft of the area to take a look at a restaurant MSC added to Magnifica – the Butcher’s Cut. Didn’t see a menu but appears to be a steakhouse. Looked like the starting price for the steak meal would be 55 Euros (about $64) – a bit above what we might like to spend – but who knows!

After our visit to the buffet we returned to our room, finished unpacking our luggage and stored the empty cases under our bed. I went to the balcony and took a panorama of Marseille – you can see the “MARSEILLE” sign in the center.

This evening’s entertainment was a man and an assistant who made shadow characters. None of us took photos so there are none in today’s pics. The one I like best was Fidel Castro with a cigar in his mouth.

If you’d like to see photos from today, they can be viewed here.