Visiting Marseille in a couple of weeks - any ideas on what to see and do please?

[GoldOnyx]

Hi all,

I’m going on holiday to Marseille with my parents in a couple of weeks and we’ll be there for 5 nights. Any ideas on what to see and do whilst we’re there please?

So far, I’ve got a rough plan of what we could do. It’s very flexible though, as I want to have some ideas up my sleeve but to be able to tweak it depending on how we feel each day/the weather conditions etc. We won’t have a car, so plan to walk or get trains and buses, which looks very doable.

We’re staying in an Airbnb around 10 minutes’ walk from the train station (Marseille St Charles), which will hopefully be a convenient location! Looks like it’s also fairly near a good selection of supermarkets and bakeries too, as we plan to do a mix of eating out and staying in to eat.

My rough plan so far is to spend a couple of days exploring Marseille (e.g. visit MUCEM museum, the beaches and La Corniche, and the Marché des Capucins, which I think is a food market, so right up our street). I’ve heard La Plage des Catalans and Plage du Prado are nice beaches, but I’m sure there are many more! I’m really looking forward to the beaches and swimming in the sea, as I think it’ll still be a nice temperature for swimming. And is it also worth visiting the Chateau d’If whilst we’re there?

Also thinking of doing a few day trips e.g. spend a day in Calanques and Cassis, go to Aix en Provence for the day and perhaps Avignon too.

Thanks!

Sounds like a good plan. You location is good - the station is at the top of a main boulevard that leads in to the main city centre. It will be bustling and noisy but that is Marseille for you! Marseille has trams and buses as well as a small metro system so it will be perfectly fine without a car. You can get a bus oit to the beaches but if you are up for a walk there is a very walkable corniche out along the coast

Le Panier district is a good one to walk around as it is very attractive and historic - lots of narrow streets and little squares (be a bit wary at night).

I love Marseille but it is a big, diverse and energetic city, a bit of a shock of you are not used to it - take London style precautions against pick pockets when walking around, especially at night.

Thank you! That’s very helpful. I live in London, so am fairly familiar with big and busy places and enjoy that sort of vibe. I’ve also heard Marseille has a similar feel to Naples, which I visited last year and liked, but could also see there were some sketchy areas.

We will definitely take precautions though, and try not to stay out too late around Le Panier/the train station etc (I think we’ll be back in our Airbnb fairly early anyway 😂).

If I recall there are some good small museums down by the old part - one showing the remains of the old Roman docks and the memorial of deportations dedicated to Marseille's role in WW2 which is great but a bit of a hard visit.

@GoldOnyx Ahh great if you are a Londoner you'll be grand, some of the streets of the main boulevard by the station have a bit of a Edgeware or Whitechapel rd vibe but it did not feel that dangerous. It has a bad rep but I think a lot comes from tourists expecting a traditional Provencal town and getting a bit of a shock!

Le Cours Julien is a fun place for a different evening out - bit of a 1990s Shoreditch vibe when we went a few years ago.

Also the food is great - lots of seafood and north African food - mainly Moroccan and Libiyan. The influence of nearby Italy is strong with some very good pizza places and Corsican restaurants.

I really want to go back to Marseille now!

Thanks so much for your posts @Ginmonkeyagain - really appreciate it! Do you have any restaurant recommendations at all? Like you’ve mentioned, I’ve heard Marseille has good Italian and North African restaurants. There’s a pizza place called Chez Sauveur that looks good and that I’m keen to try out, as well as a seafood place called La boite à Sardine that looks lovely and not toooo pricey, but really keen to hear any other suggestions!

I love Marseille. MUCEM is fascinating (and air conditioned). I can’t remember specific restaurant names but those in Vallon des Auffes are not great whereas those in the Vieux Port around Place Thiars although equally touristy were very good. There is a branch of the Big Mamma group called Splendido which is fun.

On the day trip front, the train station in Cassis is a 40min or so walk along the road from the town and there’s no taxi rank. Aix is gorgeous and the fruit and veg market is incredible.

Have a great trip.

We enjoyed La Relais Corse on Av du Prado. It sells Corsican food and beer which is interesting - quite meaty though.

I'll try and think about some others but it has been a while since we went.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/france/where-to-go-lesser-known-marseille-b2603899.html

we were there about a month ago and I loved Marseille. We visited Sanary sur Mer which is a really quick train ride from the station (although you might want to get an Uber to town centre as bit of a walk)

Also you must go here when you’re in Marseille- my favourite shop ever 😊

empereur.fr/en/

The Camargue is beautiful especially if you like Flamingoes. I love Arles too.

There is Uber in Cassis (thankfully!)

It's a while since I was there, but get the petit train to the cathedral https://www.petit-train-marseille.com/

If you like architecture, you should go visit Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation. https://citeradieuse-marseille.com/visiter-la-cite-radieuse-v2/guide-visite/ If you go via the Tourist Office you can visit one of the apartments. It's a really phenomenal vision of how we could live densely populated but with proper public realm. Well worth the trip. For me, it was a highlight of my trip.

Yes to the Cité Radieuse! Also the Musée Cantini, and the several different museums at the Vieille Charité, which is in itself architecturally gorgeous.

There is a bus outside Cassis train station to take you down to beach and back up, it's very frequent and coincides with trains times, something like 1 euro I think but cash only.
Cassis is very pretty but do not eat in the restaurants on the harbour, most are touristy rip offs. (TBH found the same around Vieux Port)

Aix is lovely and a short easy train trip.

As others have said, bit rough around the edges especially around St Charles but nothing to worry about.
Cours Julien is hipster cool, check out the streets off it as well, quite a bit of street art and some excellent restaurants, lively at night and great vibe.
Marche Capucins is nice and vibrant but not a patch on Pignasecca - we also went to Marseille after falling in love with Naples but I'm afraid we didn't find it had anywhere near the same soul and exhilarating atmosphere if that makes sense.

Found Mucem extremely disappointing - we may have been unlucky but 2 floors were empty, just wires hanging out of walls and broken cabinets, not sure if they were changing exhibitions.

Le Panier is lovely for a stroll (found the city quite walkable actually but we usually end up doing at least 25k steps a day when we are away without really noticing so perhaps not everyone's version of walkable). Lots of restaurants, cafes, shops and don't miss Vieille Charity - it is free, gorgeous and also has a museum upstairs.