Rose Cantine

Marseille is one of the least touristy places along the Mediterranean coast, partly because of its reputation as a nasty, crime-ridden city. But when you go there and see it for yourself, you realize it’s just like any other big city. It has the ugliest concrete high-rises I’ve even seen, spread out all over the hills and in the city, but the older neighborhoods near the port have been neglected long enough not to have suffered a concrete invasion.

What I like about Marseille is that it feels authentic. It has not yet been gentrified or made safe for upper-middle class tourists like the rest of Provence and the Côte d’Azur.

One of the things I noticed about Marseille is how much the city belongs to its residents - a multi-cultural mix of immigrants from Morocco, Senegal, Algeria and Tunisia, and Marseillais whose families have lived in the city for centuries. Their families stroll along the Vieux Port (the Old Port) on Sunday morning and hang out on the beaches at the end of the Corniche Kennedy. The city is so mixed and chaotic that you will find an Hermès store two blocks from a noisy North African market where men in djellabas and babouches (pointy slippers) hang out all day. And unlike most places in Provence, it has a very young population which means lots of places to go out at night, fabulous bars and a vibrant café scene.

Many neighborhoods are run down and dirty, even around the Vieux Port. The Panier neighborhood on the hill above the port is still very atmospheric and filled with characters that one would find in a Joseph Conrad novel. Joseph Conrad lived for several years on the rue St. Ferreol which is two blocks from the port. That street unfortunately retains no traces of old Marseille. It’s a shopping street filled with chain stores such as Virgin Music and H&M (click here to see St. Ferreol).

There is a massive urban redevelopment project near the Panier and the rue de la Republique. The city government is keen on wiping out the grotty neighborhoods and replacing them with fancy loft apartments, underground parking garages and a shopping center. In a few years, large parts of Marseille will resemble Barceloneta: clean, sterile, safe for tourists. So go there now before it’s too late.

Read this article about Marseille from The Guardian and go to the Marseille website which has good photos. This site has even better photos.

Places to visit

Vielle Charité: an old hospital for beggars and orphans, it is now a museum with temporary exhibitions. You can thank Le Corbusier for helping to save this building from demolition.

Unité d’Habitation: Cité Radieuse, modernist residential building complex designed by Le Corbusier; click here for more info and photos

Le Panier: old neighborhood around the Vieux Port that has not yet been taken over by designer shops and trendy restaurants

Notre Dame de la Garde: this 19th century basilica perched on top of a hill overlooking the city is the best place to get a 360-degree view of the city

The calanques (small rocky inlets) along the coast: get there by boat from the Vieux Port — note however, that in the summer, the fire department may close the walking paths to most of the calanques and the boat service may not be running because they’re afraid of forest fires in the area. Check with the tourist office before you go. If in doubt, just go to Cassis, a beautiful town not far from Marseille — there is regular boat service from Cassis to a number of calanques.

The best way to enjoy Marseille is just to stroll along the corniche. There are a number of restaurants along the rocky platforms below the corniche as well as beach clubs where you can rent a lounge chair and umbrella for the day. Had you been there during the World Cup this summer, you would have seen this gigantic mural of Zinedine Zidane, the local hero. Sadly, the mural is no longer there. If you like football, they have an excellent team - Olympique Marseille - whose football stadium is right in the city.

Food

I’ve never had better North African food than in Marseille. Because of the large immigrant community, you will find dozens of Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian restaurants — some very simple, others fancier and more expensive.

I like La Femina on 1 rue Musée, a restaurant run by the Kachetel family since 1927. Their couscous and tagine dishes are divine! Another great area to eat out is the funky Cours Julien, a large square lined with bars and restaurants (e.g. Senegalese and Corsican food, tapas and seafood).

Seafood is Marseille’s specialty, especially bouillabaisse. There’s a lot of controversy over what constitutes a proper bouillabaisse and a number of restaurateurs in the city signed the bouillabaisse charter to protect and defend the authentic recipe, although this has been contested by other “specialists” (Larousse Gastronomique [2001], p. 144).

Waverly Root in The Food of France says:

Even the basic statement, that bouillabaisse is a sort of fish chowder, we shall have to qualify shortly; but for the moment we can let it stand. One indisputable fact is that bouillabaise should be brought to a violent boil and cooked quickly. It shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to cook a bouillabaisse. For the ingredients, only one fish is agreed upon by everyone–rascasse. It is also generally agreed that rascasse alone could not make a bouillabaisse — there must be other fish in the stew . . . rascasse is a coarse fish, armed with spines, which lives in holes in the rocks and would be allowed to stay there if it were not for bouillabaisse.

Where should you go for seafood in Marseille? Peron, a chic restaurant perched on the edge of a cliff, not far from the Vieux Port. Nothing can compare to dining at sunset while gazing out at the Chateau d’If, a fortress island you might remember from Alexandre Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo. Make sure you find out what time the sun sets and ask for a table closest to the water, where nothing but a thin rail separates you from the ocean below. Reservations are a must.

Peron
56 Corniche J.-F.-Kennedy, Endoume, Marseille, France
Phone: +33 (0)4-91-52-15-22

Logistics

Marseille is only two hours by plane from Amsterdam. The airport is 30 minutes from the center of town by taxi or airport bus (which takes you to the central station). If you are going to other places in the Provence, fly into Marseille and rent a car at the airport. But try not to drive in the city; you’ll probably kill yourself and a few others as well. Driving in Marseille is absolutely treacherous.