The city that blends the Maghreb with France, unique among French cities and a compelling contrast to nearby Nice and Aix. Standing on the harbor near the museum, where Phoenician ships sailed long before the Greeks and Romans is compelling. Marseille streets and everyday markets provide an authentic French experience rather than the tourist Parisian experience.
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Time permitting, a 20 minute train ride east from Gare St. Charles to the idyllic port town of Cassis, and a hike through the immediately adjacent Calanques. Both the town and the national park that the Calanques form on the sea are spectacular. In between hikes, or walking tours of Cassis, drop into a cafe on the harbor and enjoy a glass of the wonderful Cassian wine from the local vineyards Ferme Blanche or Quatre Vents.
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Great news! Marseilles now looks just like London, Las Vegas, Times Square, Amsterdam, Barcelona, or Toronto. Now tourists don't have to be confused by encountering anything new or different.
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@bobg
Those places don’t even look like each other.
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@ bobg earth
I am sure that the City Tourist Office will love your comment. If I were you, I would probably send them the comment and expect not less that a thank you by return.
My favorite European city, and I grew up in London and live in Seattle. It’s a bit rough, but so entrancing. I remember 50 years ago there were canaries in cages hanging out of upstairs windows, sadly gone now, but Marseilles is essentially still a working class multi cultural city and very vibrant. Surprises on every street, and very walkable
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Is it a sparkling clean adult Disneyland? No. Which is why it is all the more wonderful to experience. Real life. Real people. Multitudes of cultures. The bartenders at Les Buvards will pour you an unforgettable glass of wine too.
5
I caught a very good deal and greatly enjoyed a stay at the Radisson Blu at the quiet end of the Vieux Port. The restaurant has an excellent chargrilled cheeseburger (10 Euro), okay, whatever! A local bus across the street goes to and from the train station. A stairway beside it leads up to Cafe de L'Abbaye with its fine view, featured in the Anthony Bourdain Marseille episode.
I stumbled upon a Tunisian restaurant, Le Palmier, unpretentious and inexpensive and packed with local families a block off the Vieux Port. Fabulous couscous. Returned the next day for the tajine. 4 2 Rue Vacon.
Marche de Noallies and surrounding alleys is a large North African market quarter full of enticing food stalls, shops and restaurants. At 8? Rue Longue des Capucins, there's a can't pass by street front rotisserie, Marwa Traiteur, where the fat from roasting chickens drips onto a tray of roasted potatoes.
Close by is Maison Empereur, 4 Rue des Récolettes, a great old world hardware store one could get lost in. I wanted to get one of those classic blue workingman's gardening coats but they didn't have my size, darn.
A worthwhile stroll then is up to nearby Cours Julien, Marseilles' somewhat self conscious hipster quarter, full of wall mural covered alleys and the scenic Escaliers du Cours Julien. Lots of musical instrument shops, and a very interesting hippyish bar, Le Champ De Mars,12 Rue André Poggioli, on a lovely tri-cornered street square.
You can walk everywhere.
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@ Patrick NYC
"an excellent chargrilled cheeseburger (10 Euro)" -- Heavens, you committed blasphemy in the country at the summit of the Occidental cuisine.
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@Tuvw Xyz
Yeah, I know, but this was really an outstanding white tablecloth cheeseburger that would fetch $24 in NYC, or else I wouldn’t have mentioned it. One of the best I have ever eaten actually. Anyway, a lot of Americans traveling for an extended period in France, mine was a one month trip, need a hamburger fix once in a while.
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I went to see an event in Marseille about a year ago. I spent most of my time downtown and by the old port.
I was stunned by what people seem willing to accept as part of normal life there.
Dog fèces just don't seem to be picked up by neither dog owners of the city's street services.
Some newly built glass bus stops were smashed.
And then there's the tags and graffitis. They're everywhere. On Walls, on doors, on benches, even on door rings or name listings. Some had even gone to the lenght of making sure some buildings' chimney stacks were tagged.
As a result, few buildings bother to invest in exterior paint renovation, and so the city has a rather old, unmaintained feel to it.
When I left, I felt ambivalent about the city. It's big and diverse enough to have incredible potential, and yet it seems ruined by its citizens'lack of civil courtesy that it feels downright nasty.
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A little nitpicking here - the Fort St. Jean is free, a wonderful bargain. It is part of the MuCEM, and the only thing you have to pay for in the new building which houses the museum are the exhibition spaces. You can wander around for free, walking up and down by the exterior catwalk (or you can take an elevator) up to the top with the views all around through the concrete latticework that makes the building so special. There are two restaurants at the top, plus a bar in the exterior space. One restaurant is very expensive €55 for lunch, €75 for dinner), the other (a sort of cafeteria) I consider reasonable given the fact that it is run by Gérald Passedat who owns a 3-star Michelin restaurant elsewhere in town. The all-you-can-eat delicious starter buffet is only €19.50. If you add the dessert buffet (again all-you-can eat), it's €24,50. There's also a Passedat-run small restaurant in the Fort St. Jean part.
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I live full time on Ratonneau island: as many of the 150 full time islanders, I wouldn’t live elsewhere. An island on Mediterranean Sea, in the core of a national park (yes Marseille is part of a national park Parc des calanques), calm, no cars, no rumble except the waves, running perched on a big rock the bay of Marseille around you from Calanques in the south to Cote bleue northward, the city sprawled in front of you, swimming in blue water (a little bit cold till mid July), and and and, sunrise above the hills and Notre Dame de la Garde, sunset in winter in the sea in front of my window wall. No Metro, in 20 minutes a ferry brings us to the Vieux Port, the city center: very convenient.
Come, visit the archipelago, you’ll love it. I will welcome you, and offer « l’apperitif » in front of a stunning view of the open sea framed by the rocky and white hills of our islands.
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@Veronique Guiberteau
Dear Véronique, don't praise Frioul islands so loud ! Or the "intrepid locals" we are will be drowned in an ocean of humanity, the rock plants will be crushed by too many feet, and then what will be left of their charms?😉
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The Netflix French series "Marseilles" with Gerard Depardieu gives a good idea of today's Marseilles. The plot is just OK
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@David Mayes - I thought it was fun in an over the top kind of way.
4
I was in Marseille about 18 months ago and had many magical experiences. After dining along the waterfront one evening decided to take the back streets to return, either Rue Neuve or Rue Sainte. Up ahead saw a crowd of about 50 people circling others. I wasn’t fearful because music was playing. On approach the crowd was watching a group dancing the tango. Every so often someone would cut in and claim a dance partner. Oh how I wished I could tango but enjoyed the spectical as everyone did.
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The question is, why can’t governmental agencies do the same today? That is, create and complete infrastructure project that are beautiful and whose costs are reasonable.
It’s been a long road downward. Please don’t put all blame on NIMBY people, though some belongs there.
The fault lies in management of the MTA, and other agencies. They simply cannot produce. When was the last time a manager was fired for incompetence?
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@Shawn Bayer Yet most of the blame IS on the NIMBYs.
What do most parts of town across the world that used to be cool have in common? They used to be cheap. Because they were cheap, anyone could partake in the community, including the poor artists and immigrants, bringing diversity.
If you want to make a city cool again, we know the recipe: decrease the cost of housing. So build more housing, meaning building up. Once people don’t have to spend all their money in their rent, you can be sure they’ll spend more of their money in bars, clubs, restaurants and whatever fun things you can do in a city. Especially since they won’t be as stressed out about having a successful career to be able to face housing costs. Lot of people with the means and the time to have fun will transform a city.
And why don’t we do that? Not because we can’t find people who can manage the construction of residential buildings (which is an order of magnitude simpler than building a subway in a crowded city). But because NIMBYs are too worried about property prices declining, the character of an area changing, the impact on taxes and schools of the newcomers, and the sun coming or not in their living room. But sunny living rooms don’t make cool areas.
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I had neither an expense account nor rose colored glasses and I loved Marseilles! I loved that it still was a bit "raw" as opposed to the touristy slickness of so many cities. Walked everywhere feeling perfectly safe including a lovely long walk along the coast to a great restaurant - Le Ruhl - for Bouillabaisse and then up to Notre Dame de la Garde. For the NYT review of Marseilles see todays article "36 Hours in Marseilles".
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The French press calls Marseilles a Phoeniian City. I doubt that there are any who know a single word of the extinct Semitic Phoenician language. If one happens to land there, the only thing worth doing is to find a place that serves a good bouillabaisse and fried squid and octopus, without the tentacles.
2
Marseille reminds me of how the city of San Francisco used to feel in the early 1960’s.
9
Marseille in 2019 reminds me of San Francisco in the early 1960’s.
7
@MIchael Bernard did you smell any pot?
1
I was there two years ago. Warned to stay close to the Quay , and the waterfront, it was a beauty. Seaside repasts and the museum. Away from the seaside it was fearful and dangerous on a glorious and sunny day.Uber drivers were new to the city and country only knowing their way by computer. Asking for handouts were ubiquitous and we were always aware of that distraction for pickpockets. I felt safer in Tunis.
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"No city divides the French like Marseille. "
And it's not just the French who are divided. I personally loved Marseilles in the 2 visits I made there several years ago, but I know that many tourists will disagree.
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Artisanal cocktails? Come on, now....
5
With an expense account and rose colored glasses, Marseilles is a wonderful city.
My personal experience, and the experience reported by friends, is that the city is unable to deal with large numbers of Roma, migrants, and grifters who harass both normal French citizens and tourists.
The city has beautiful sights and is in a lovely location, but it still deserves its ‘mauvaise’ reputation.
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@DH I had quite the opposite experience there, last summer for a 10-day visit, where we stayed in an Airbnb far from the center. Was not hassled once, saw poverty in different forms (personal, institutional, multi-generational and new), and never saw "large numbers" of anything. We walked all over counting how many languages we could identify, tasting Egyptian food and Syrian snacks, traditional french meals and more - we always felt we were on the edge of the great Mediterranean Sea. My edits to this review is that the MuCEM was crazy to navigate and expensive to eat there. The city is more cosmopolitan than any other I have visited (I grew up in Manhattan, live near Boston, etc). It was beyond hot in the summer! Plus it is a great location for quick trips to other parts of southern France. I would go back in a heartbeat.
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@DH
Au contraire, I loved it.
Its a melting pot city, and has been for eons. What is frenchness anyhow?
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