Marseille
 

Have any of you spent time in Marseille?
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I love Marseille and try to get there at least once a year. Have not been to the Côte d'Azur in at least 5 years, though. Too hoity toity for me.

The Michelin Green Guide for Cote dAzur does not include Marseilles, as God intended. Though it does include Toulon, which is clearly both a publishing and theological misprint.

Yes, I have spent a day in Marseilles. Gorgeous port with many interesting features plus boat trips.

yes i have

The city is named Marseille, there is no s at the end of it.

I will not protest against spelling variations depending on the language. In English, it is Marseilles and Lyons for some obscure reason.

However , from Britannica: "Marseille, also spelled Marseilles, ancient Massilia, or Massalia, city, capital of Bouches-du-Rhône département, southern France, and also the administrative and commercial capital of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, one of France’s fastest growing régions."

Great; so may I seek counsel, then, please.

i am going to spend 4 nights at the beginning of September. The focus is two rugby World Cup games. We get in late on Friday; have all day Sunday free- game is at 8pm. Have Saturday free till about 3pm- game is at 4.45. Have all day Monday free. Leave on Tuesday morning.

I'm looking for recommendations of things to see and do. Have a boat trip to the Calanques in mind, plus, probably, an open top bus tour.

Places to eat? Things not to be missed.

Marseille is one of my fav cities in France. Gritty and apparently run down in some areas, but there’s a fabulous vibe one can’t help enjoying. I particularly love the Vieux Port and Panier quartier, with its colourful graffiti. Others will chip in with restaurant recommendations, being vegetarian all that seafood was wasted on me!

We enjoyed a day trip to Cassis and had lunch at a small place by the water, where some of my family gorged on moules frites. Crisp Bandol wine by the pichet to wash it down, the owner was extremely friendly and comped us for one of the 3-4 pichets we drank. We drove up to the view point, but it was so windy even getting out of the car was scary. And obviously no Calanques tours were running.

Can recommend Lacaille on Trois Mages and Arôme on Trois Rois. That area is a hotbed of good bistros. In general, I also recommend researching Michelin “bib gourmand” category for great food at reasonable prices, then possibly triangulating on Gault and Millau.

I cannot stress too much that under the circumstances, you MUST make reservations before you get to town. Often it’s good enough to wander in the day before and ask for a table the next night — but not with all those rugby fans prowling the streets, not all of whom will settle for chips and beer.

The most interesting streets are too narrow for buses, so instead two “Petits trains touristiques,” one around the Panier and one up to Notre Dame de la Garde. We took the latter to save a stiff climb and to be rewarded with magnificent views.

Excellent museums if any of them are to your taste: art, anthropology, antiquities, Mediterranean civilization (MUCEM best enjoyed if you can read French). I see there’s a new underwater sculpture museum. The water should be warm in September.

Have a plan B for the boats to the calanques. I had a perfect day when I went, and then all of the boats were cancelled for the next three days because of the mistral.

I love the Panier neighborhood in Marseille!!!! It is sooooo colorful with unique and awesome graffiti. We love the port area, too. And there is now a new museum that houses an awesome reproduction of underwater caves that were discovered 20 or 30 years ago. If you wish, you can click on my name to read my report from this past December, titled "Provence in December". I have lots of photos of Marseille. My report also includes a few photos of Cassis.

And believe me, I speak from experience - you don't want to be on those boats when they are bobbing up and down constantly. My last experience saw half the people on the boat heaving over the side from sea sickness. It wasn't pretty.

This is brilliant information. Thank you.

Hi sheila, if you scroll down to Monday, 8th September, in my TR below, you'll find our day trip from Aix. Although our base was Aix, we took the bus to Marseille and walked to its Gare where prices were better and, iirc, trips more direct. Please tell how it goes!

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...ndwich-446896/

I made a whole special photo report about the Panier in Marseille, but here is a more general one from an earlier trip:

Marseille kaleidoscope - by Kerouac2 | Any Port in a Storm (proboards.com)