What a charming find, thank you beautiful waiter Danny! The first charming discovery up the road…read morewas the beautiful Basilica of the Sacred Heart where I found some down time to meditate and appreciate their unique stained glass; then off for a tipple and bite. The Rue du Prado isn't exactly Chicago's Miracle Mile or even the Elysee of Paris, but it's still quite clean, easy to traverse as one of Marseille's major thoroughfares and chock full of charming restaurants, bistros, restobars and shopping.
The street is 3 lanes in each direction but on each side of the street between the first and 2/3 lanes is a promenade where outdoor seating is provided for restaurants that are just open across the first street (which appears to get ever so tangled up in delivery, taxi and lost tourist services but also just as quickly untangles and speeds along). Some of the outdoor dining is as al fresco as it gets, which may include a little car exhaust in your meal; many of the restaurants, however, have divided up their territory with quaint plastic tents that provide either heating or air conditioning, as the weather may be, and also respite from both rain and pollution.
I was drawn to Le Patio because of their choices of unique yummy looking pizzas - and pizza is big in southern France with their Italian cousins just over the border and just as many similar toppings (cheese, tomatoes, olives, what more do you need?). I opted for a small personal pie (that was still so abundant I couldn't finish it) that had a beautiful almost burnt crunchy crust, some succulent French sausage, light Emmenteler cheese and my personal favorite if fresh (and they were); anchovies! Little briny beauties of the Mediterranean made this an oh la la sensation with every bite. With a casual pitcher of the ubiquitous rose wine from the Bandol region of the south of France, I was in heaven - and the people watching was just as delicious!
