If you only have a few days in the South of France, Marseille – France’s second biggest city and gateway to the Mediterranean – is a good place to start. Marseille is a gritty, lively southern city that looks out to France’s former North African territories as well as to its Roman maritime and trading past. A hotbed of revolutionary activity in the late 18th century, the rather aggressive fighting song that later became France’s national anthem, the Marseillaise, was written here. Despite this, Marseille doesn’t attract many tourists, so you can largely wander around unhindered. The old port (Vieux-Port), now an oversized marina and a place for a few fishing boats to sell their catch, is a good place to get oriented. Take a break beneath the Norman Foster-designed polished steel canopy on Quai des Belges, that reflects the crowd beneath it.

The Vieux-Port is a large harbor protected by twin fortresses, Fort Ganteaume on the south entrance side, still owned by the military; and Fort Saint-Jean on the north side, which serves as an annex to the recently built Mediterranean museum and as an overlook to the port and city. You can also walk west past Fort Ganteaume out to the Pharo and Emile Duclaux Park, located on a headland just seaward of the twin forts, to get some fresh sea air.

Military Marseille would have been a hard nut to crack as the view between the harbor entrance forts shows. If you are in the mood for more of Imperial France’s castles, you can take the short ferry ride to the Chateau d’If, an island fortification guarding the city approaches and the setting for Alexandre Dumas’ novel, the Count of Monte Cristo. The top of Fort Saint-Jean is now a network of promenades and gardens overlooking the Marina and the city, and a nice way to get away from the bustle of the city.

 

Within the old city around the port, there are various grand and buttery yellow 19th-century buildings constructed as Marseille developed as France’s gateway to the Med, including the local bourse.  Commemorated just opposite is the place in 1934 where King Alexander of Serbia was assassinated right off the ship by a Macedonian nationalist, while visiting to sign a strengthened alliance with France against Fascist Italy. Now largely forgotten, it was considered a disaster at the time with recent enough memories of the 1914 Sarajevo assassination; Alexander’s assassination presaged the political instability of the 1930s.

The Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM) is worth visiting for its exhibits but also as an interesting modern architectural artifact from which you can cross a footbridge to Fort Saint-Jean. The shaded rooftop deck of the MuCEM has a cafe and public seating areas with a view over the harbor entrance.

Otherwise wandering the streets around the Old Port gives you a good feel for the place as a Mediterranean hub. There’s an outdoor market along Rue du Marche des Capuchins that is worth a look.

You can also catch up on your intense graffiti art fix courtesy of the protesting Gilets Jaunes, much of which is around the Cours Julien park.

Other places worth a visit include the Marseille History Museum (2 Rue Henri Barbusse), which takes you back to Greek and Roman times, and for your traditional art fix, the Palais Longchamp park area contains the Musee des Beaux Artes (9 Rue Eduoard Stephan). Marseille was still quite busy up until the closure of public places on March 14 – as a southern European city it has a lot of outdoor venues that were up and running in brisk Spring weather.

For an evening out, a couple of areas to head for include the area around the park centered by Le Cours Julien (and more generally inside the triangle formed by Rue Saint-Pierre, Cours Lieutaud and Rue des 3 Freres Bartelemy), east of the Vieux-Port; and the area along Rue Sainte, just south of the port. Cours Honoré-d’Estienne-d’Orves is another large open area just north of Rue Sainte with a lot of cafes. The crowds were out on the last weekend before the Government shut public venues and you can see why there was needed in March 2020.

Logistics. I stayed at the Alex Hotel, just west of the Saint-Charles railway station at 13-15 Place des Marseillaises. Saint-Charles railway station serves both local and inter-city destinations, and has plenty of self-serve ticket machines in the main entrance. If you arrive via the airport, the most efficient public transit route is the airport bus which travels the 25 kilometer distance to Saint-Charles non-stop – turn immediate left after leaving the passenger terminal and head straight for the bus terminal and ticket office. Marseille has a metro system (the nearest to the airport at Vitrolles station), although much of the main area is walkable.

It’s France so eating out can be readily researched. I had good luck in the Cours Julien area with La Resto Provencal (64 Cours Julien); around the western side of Rue Sainte with La Carrousel (139 Rue Sainte) and around the Cours Honoré-d’Estienne-d’Orves square area with the more traditional Les Arcenaulx (25 Cours Honoré-d’Estienne-d’Orves). Not surprisingly there are multiple places offering bouillabaisse, a saffron- and garlic-infused seafood stew, which is worth a try – Resto Provencal and Les Arcenaulx do. Le Bistro Bleu (20 Rue Jean François Leca) is a busy lunch spot with good regional menus, just north of the MuCEM in the newer part of town northwest of the Vieux-Port.

Craft beer-wise there are a range of good options that feature regional breweries. Starting west, the area around Rue Sainte and Rue Robert features Victor, a brewery (20 Rue d’Endoume), Le 143 (143 Rue Sainte). Further east and just south of the Vieux-Port is he Marseille branch of the popular Les Berthom chain, which has a good Belgian selection (31 Cours Honoré d’Estienne d’Orves). In the busy Cours Julien area, try La Voie Maltée (7 Rue Crudère), Beer De La Plaine (16 Rue Saint-Pierre) and facing the square, the cavernous Brasserie Communale (57 Cours Julien). 

A good coffee/snack venue is La Boutique du Glacier (1 Place Général de Gaulle), and another southern specialty – pissalidiere, an anchovy, olive and onion tart, is great there.

Cassis and Massif des Calanques Sidetrip. Cassis is a good day trip out of Marseille, either to hit the beach or go hiking in the nearby national park. Only 30 minutes on the train from Marseille Saint-Charles station, Cassis’ railway station is however a 30-minute walk into town, which is pleasant enough along the vineyards. Alternatively, the regional bus will drop you slightly closer in.

Apart from wandering the rather touristy waterfront and the back lanes of this little town, there are also a few beaches just outside. Cassis gets plenty of mostly regional visitors so there are plenty of cafe and restaurant options.

More ambitiously, you can hike in and explore the calanques, a series of narrow white limestone inlets along 20 kilometers of coastline, located in the Massif des Calanques national park. You could manage a decent half- to all-day hike along mostly shaded cliffs overlooking the ocean, or spend more time making forays into the park from a base in La Ciotat. There is also a youth hostel in the park. Either way, on the way out of town you first pass the Plage du Bestouan, situated just west of the harbor entrance. This is a good place to drop people who prefer the beach to a hike.

From Plage du Bestouan, you’ll head to Avenue de Calanques and enter the park at the head of the Calanque de Port-Miou, which is the first in the series and unlike the others is somewhat developed, with a marina.

The nearest calanques accessible in a part-day hike are Port-Miou, Port Pin and d’en Vau. Both Port Pin and d’en Vau have beaches at the base of the calanque.

The trails to the Calanques hug the coastline and are well-signposted, consisting largely of sand and stone with a fair amount of vertical involved – take hats, sunblock and water (there is none once on trail) and the views are spectacular. There are some steep inclines so running or trail shoes with some traction are recommended.

In addition to exploring the coastline, there is also an extensive inland trail network, with one scenic objective being Mont Puget, which at about 1,850 feet elevation offers great views of the park and the Mediterranean.