We’ve been home about six weeks now and I keep telling people that Marseille is a completely underrated city. The city is full of beauty, from its architecture to its charming street to its sweet parks (which it could use a few more of) to its many views of the Mediterranean Sea. We truly enjoyed our month there. Here are the highlights of the rest of our time in Marseille after my “We’re Home” post.

More Amazing Food

We ate very, very well in Marseille, even our simple meals at home. We were able to get fantastic wines, tasty baguettes, delicious cheeses, and more at much less cost than in the U.S. Honestly we got a little spoiled. We also occasionally splurged (calorie-wise) on a fancy dessert from the patisserie. They were so pretty and tasted as good as they looked. On laundry days, I liked to pick up a croissant after dropping our clothes off with the nice gentleman at the laundromat – he’d do all the washing and drying in 1 hour, perfect for a bakery stop, groceries, quick drop off at home and the return walk. 

We also had several other fantastic meals out, plus a couple of great meals at our friends’ house. They taught us to appreciate French apero, or preceding a meal with a snack and wine. It isn’t something we can do every night, but we’ve adopted it for special meals.  

Attractions (We Barely Scratched the Surface) 

Marseille is home to many museums and we weren’t able to visit all the ones I wanted to. We visited the the church on the hill one day, which was quite crowded with tourists but fun to see. It had a definite sea motif, with model boats hanging from the ceiling and appearing in the art. Outside the church was a great view of the port.

We also had a fun visit to a pastis store, which had a museum explaining and celebrating anise-flavored liquor in France. The store, Maison Yellow, is owned by the Ricard company, which is apparently the largest liquor distributor in Europe now. In addition to the museum (which had a $5 entry fee and included a taste of one pastis) we did a full tasting of all the flavors they had on display for a euro a taste. It was fun to learn about this French tradition.

Our more traditional museum visit was to the Cosquer Méditerranée, a replica of an underwater cave discovered near Marseille in the 1980s that contains a lot of prehistoric art. The exhibit is set up like a ride where you sit in a little cart and are taken through the recreated cave. The art was truly fascinating and contributed to better understanding of the traditions and animals present 20,000 to 35,000 years ago. Although it’s a bit on the pricey side (especially since Marseille has several free museums), it was well worth it. There were no photos allowed inside the replica cave but we took a few of the interesting ancient animal displays in the attached museum.

We didn’t make it to the MUCEM and Fort Saint-Jean, which is next to the fake cave, but plan to next time. I also hoped to make it to a couple of art museums, including the free Musée Cantini, which was a couple blocks from our apartment, but we ran out of time. A great reason to return to Marseille!

Picnics and Parks

We tried to maintain our Europe tradition of visiting parks on the weekends. This is an area that Marseille is not as strong in as other cities. In our area, the few parks were pretty small. But we enjoyed picnics at the Parc de La Colline Puget nearest our house and the Parc Longchamp, which is behind the Palais Longchamp, a beautiful building which houses two other Marseille museums we hope to visit in the future (Fine Arts and Natural History). We picked up our picnic for Longchamp at a nearby bakery called La Banettine, which was incredibly busy but worth waiting in line for and they were delighted to be visited by a couple of American tourists. Most of the people in Marseille made us feel extremely welcome. 

We also visited Parc Prado and Parc Borély by bus one day after going out to lunch to cheer ourselves up after the U.S. election. That’s where we picked up the churros, which were fun but not nearly as good as in Spain or Mexico. 

Le Panier Neighborhood

We discovered Le Panier (which means “the basket”) on one of our morning walks and were immediately charmed by its narrower streets, beautiful graffiti, and old feel. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Marseille (maybe the oldest) and we later learned it is on many city itineraries. We went back several times for walks and once for a nice dinner out at the restaurant Le Comptoir aux Huiles (the oils counter).

A Day Trip to Cassis and Parc National des Calanques

We took a whole day to visit the seaside town of Cassis, which has hiking area through the Calanques. Unfortunately, the bus schedule on Google was wrong so we and a couple dozen other people waited at the bus stop for about 45 minutes for the bus there, and road construction had them on a modified schedule for the bus back, which was a little tricky to find, but we managed. And it was a great and incredibly scenic hike in the Calanques. Cassis as a town looked charming but felt a little too touristy for us, but it was a worthwhile day trip. There’s another set of trails through the Calanques accessible by bus from Marseille to the campus of a college called Luminy, but we didn’t have time to make that trip. Another activity for our next trip back!

Football and Friends

One activity that was a must-do for our trip to Marseille was catching a football match of Olympique de Marseille at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium. It’s a historic and wildly popular team and a beautiful stadium. We brought our friend Mark along, which was helpful for communication. Unfortunately, the team didn’t play well and the home fans got very angry. But it was a fun experience overall and we’d consider going again on a future Marseille trip. Next time, I’d get tickets on the other side of the stadium, which is more convenient for entry (you can only enter at your section so we had to walk around the outside of the entire stadium to reach our gate).

After the match, we met Mark’s friend who’s a season-ticket holder for a drink at a very crowded outdoor bar and got some good context for the fans’ anger. Despite the loss, people seemed to be having a good time. Many of the French people there were drinking plastic cups of pastis, which Mark told us is very inexpensive in most bars.  

Summary

Spending a month in Marseille was a great experience and one we’d definitely do again. We went into our stay wondering if France might usurp Italy as our European favorite, but it didn’t quite. However, it is a very close second and we definitely plan to spend more time in this region of France as well as other parts of the country.

Airbnb Review – My husband and I stayed a month in this apartment and it was great. We loved the neighborhood, which is conveniently between the Old Port and Cours Julien. The apartment itself is very comfortable, with a good kitchen for light cooking and even a dishwasher (a luxury). Lots of stores nearby, including great bakeries and takeaway places. The wifi was good enough for streaming and video calls, but a little slow on the upload speed for anything significant. However, it was very reliable, which helps a lot! Communication with the hosts was great throughout the stay. We’d love to stay here again in the future.