Marseille in 36 Hours
Like a siren’s song, Marseille has lured and captivated sailors and vagabonds for millennia with its rebellious undercurrent. Beachgoers are lured by the shimmering Mediterranean to tiptoe over jagged rocks, leap into the ocean, and giggle in the swirling currents. Motorcycles race down the coast. As a port city, Marseille is always bustling.
Immigration waves from North Africa, Italy, and Corsica have significantly influenced the modern cultural fabric of the city, and now young people from European cities are flocking there, drawn by a lower cost of living and proximity to nature. There are more and more flight routes. Stylish restaurants with accomplished chefs in charge are becoming more popular.
The Notre-Dame de la Garde and other landmarks will soon lose their scaffolding to unveil newly renovated facades, as cultural programs and transportation infrastructure continue to develop. However, the city’s rebellious streak will endure. It’s Marseille, kid.
Schedule
Friday
Visit a cultural maze at 4:00 p.m.
Begin at the Friche la Belle de Mai, a former tobacco factory that spans about 500,000 square feet. These days, it’s more of a cultural hub on steroids. Art displays. The theater. The farmers’ market. A basketball court, a community garden, and a skatepark are all part of the patchwork that makes up industrial structures.
Street art covers the walls, and light bulbs hang from twisted wires inside, dangling over the heads of customers purchasing beers and coffees.
Trains coming into and leaving the city’s main station pass by the rooftop playground and restaurant.
The Festival Le Bon Air, a three-day music event, takes place in the area every summer; this year, it takes place between June 6 and June 8 (tickets cost from 36 euros, or about $40). The complex is open to the public.
6:30 p.m.: Drink natural wine by candlelight
Ivresse La Cave, a wine bar located behind industrial glass doors, is accessible via the peaceful Rue Léon Bourgeois. While popping bottles of natural wine, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, the two proprietors, Nikolaj Tur and Max Tuckwell, recently danced to Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” behind the bar.
The vegetable-forward little plates, which rotate weekly and are largely made with ingredients from the Épicerie Paysanne de Quartier, a grocery store across the street, are the brainchild of Mr. Tuckwell, who formerly worked at the fashionable Fulgurances in Paris. Cetara anchovies and Sicilian green olives are among the grazing alternatives, while miso may contain lion’s mane mushrooms or grated cucumber with soy sauce and buckwheat seeds (food costs between 4 and 18 euros, wine costs between 5 and 8 euros per glass). Only walk-ins accepted.
8 p.m. Dinner in private
In a residential complex, Atelier Renata is accessible by walking over to the flashing red doorbell, which does not ring to an apartment. You will be escorted at 8 p.m. by a lady through a dark hallway into a former atelier that has been converted into an Italian eatery with only one table, one room, an open kitchen, and no menu.
Old family photos and candelabras are displayed on top of a piano and vintage bookshelves. It’s like being in your grandmother’s living room — if your grandmother was the coolest person on the planet. The restaurant, which is known as Atelier Renata, is owned and operated by the cook Erika Blu, who gave it her grandmother’s name.
The starters include tuna crudo with citrus caviar in the summer and stracciatella soup with truffles in the winter. And pasta is practically always included in the agreement; it could be a white ragu with tripe that might win over even the most skeptical person. Excluding beverages, dinner costs 60 euros. Reservations are necessary.
Saturday
9 a.m. Explore the heart of Marseille.
Before going to the Bar de l’Est, a simple, decades-old café on the Marché de Noailles, for a café crème (2 euros), treat yourself to a crispy, mildly sweet chicken pastilla (3 euros) from the Boulangerie O’Coin Gourmand Pains Traditionnel et Gourmandises. The reasons for the neighborhood’s moniker, “belly of Marseille,” will be clear if you sit on the terrace facing the market.
As merchants call out prices in a loop rhythm, shoppers pull trolleys through dozens of fruit and vegetable stands. Residents pause to speak as trucks unload goods and trolleys rumble down uneven pavement. Pizza Charly, the local restaurant that has been in business since 1962 and opens at 9 a.m., is in the vicinity, along with fishmongers, butchers, and North African bakeries.
10 a.m. – Shop through three waves of transformation
The Rue Longue-des-Capucins leads to the Rue d’Aubagne, a major thoroughfare in Marseille that is packed with sellers and the aroma of cooking spices. Since 1827, the Maison Empereur has been France’s oldest hardware store.
The now working-class area was previously bourgeois; the shop of Le Père Blaize, the sixth-generation herbalist, originates from that time. After that, take a walk to Jiji La Palme d’Or, where you may find Berber rugs, baskets, and lampshades.
In the 1960s, there was a massive immigration of North Africans to Marseille. The Épicerie l’Idéal, which sells items like rose harissa (€18) and salt-preserved lemons (€12), is currently a member of the neighborhood’s new wave of retailers, along with the carefully selected antique and vintage shop Joli Rouge.
12:00 p.m. Have lunch at a restaurant serving Comorian cuisine.
Visit the Comorian restaurant Douceur Piquante on a tree-lined, tranquil, and sunny avenue. From its open kitchen, the chef Nadjatie Bacar hums and smiles. The restaurant’s walls, which were formerly mint green, are now canary yellow, and the hue changes at least every season. Every aspect of this place seems carefully planned, from the wine bottles filled with bluebell flowers and vibrant kale to the water glasses with fish tails.
The menu is concise and constantly updated; on occasion, only four items are written on a chalkboard. Whole-grilled fish with seasonal veggies (prices vary, but typically between 11 and 16 euros) or madaba, a Comorian stew made with beef, cassava leaves, and coconut milk,
or entire grilled fish with seasonal vegetables (prices vary, but usually fall between 11 and 16 euros). Reservations are advised.
2:30 in the afternoon Take a stroll to a fort from the 17th century
As you stroll past thousands of sailboat masts along the Quai de Rive Neuve, you will notice Fort St.-Nicolas, one of the two forts that are situated opposite each other across the harbor. Louis XIV ordered its construction in the 17th century as a warning to any citizens contemplating rebellion, with cannons aimed inward, toward Marseille, and to defend against seaborne invasions.
Until spring 2024, the majority of the time, it had been off limits to the general public. The fort, sometimes called the Citadelle de Marseille, now functions as a nightclub on certain evenings, complete with techno music and old walls that glow pink.
Its summer schedule includes sculpture workshops, concerts, and escape games for children (10 euros for kids, 15 euros for adults). At La Guinguette du Fort, its outside snack bar with breathtaking views of the port, you may enjoy a picnic on the grounds at any time of year, or you can pause for a glass of wine (€4.5) or homemade lemonade (€4). Admission to the facility is free, but the cost of each activity varies.
5:00 PM Observe Marseille from above
Take the bus (1.70 euros) to the Notre-Dame de la Garde, the basilica with its golden Madonna holding a baby Jesus in her arms, or climb the almost vertical hill. Its wrap-around terrace, framed by villas carved into the surrounding hillsides, overlooks a collage of Provençal roofs and the Mediterranean.
The Fort St.-Nicolas appears like a sandcastle from this vantage point. The altar area features a mosaic depicting a sailboat colliding with waves, while the ceiling is lighted in an elaborate mosaic design.
The church is filled with nautical pictures, ragged rescue buoys on the walls, and ships hanging from strings above, hanging above the benches. These were gifts from sailors seeking safety from stormy seas.
The majority of the building is now undergoing repairs, and the scaffolding is scheduled to be removed by the end of the year. No entrance fee.
Enjoy pizza for dinner at 7 p.m.
It would be sacrilege to spend time in Marseille without eating pizza. The unofficial food of the city may be found everywhere, from street booths to eateries to a unionized fleet of trucks. Walk for about 10 minutes down the hill to Pizzeria La Bonne Mère.
The pizza served here is a fusion of the Neapolitan, Roman, and Marseillais cuisines; the owners are the great-great grandkids of the Italian immigrants who introduced pizza to the city in the early 20th century. The actual star is the anchovy pie (14 euros), a regional delicacy.
A big portion of vibrant, garlicky tomato sauce is covered with marinated anchovies. Taggiasca olives are drizzled over homemade pesto that has been ground using a mortar and pestle. Reservations are encouraged.
9:00 p.m. Cours Julien bar hopping
Get a taxi to the Cours Julien, the focal point of Marseille’s nightlife. Crowds walk through a labyrinth of restaurants, pubs, and punk bars where beautiful flowers are used as garnish, with the bass reverberating off the buildings. With a wide wine list (3 euros a glass), Planète Livre Marseille la Passerelle is a noisy, unpretentious establishment.
The server welcomes customers as “mes amies” (cocktails between 7 and 16 euros) at Labo’n Heure, a cocktail bar with kelp-infused gin and backlit bottles of Cihuatán rum. However, every path ultimately leads to Le Champ de Mars, a Marseille institution that has existed for over a century.
This is a place to unwind, so don’t anticipate great wines. Dance, play foosball, and sip a shot of tequila (€2.50) in the warm, vibrant light.
Sunday
10 a.m. Take it easy by the ocean
Boujou Coffee, a contemporary, bright coffee shop in the seaside Endoume area, sells cappuccino for €3.80 and handmade pastries. From there, turn the corner and go down the Traverse de la Cascade.
Take the stairs down to the rocks after making your last left. After that, find a spot to relax after rounding the corner that leads to the Anse de la Fausse Monnaie, the bay beneath a viaduct that plunges into the crystal turquoise sea. With conflicting tales surrounding its origins, this is a mysterious location whose name means Counterfeit Money Cove.
The story goes that during excavations at the location, employees discovered counterfeit currency; other versions talk about kings, murders, and dubious property rights. The scene is now the source of drama; swimmers rise from the water like mermaids to sun themselves on the rocks, and seagulls resemble paper planes being propelled across the sky.
12:00 noon. Eat bouillabaisse at a fishing harbor
Take a 15-minute stroll northwest along the coast in the direction of the Vallon des Auffes, the port that bears its name and is distinguished by a rusty archway that straddles a staircase. A rainbow of cabanas dotting the hillside and boats sailing beneath a vaulted bridge will take its place. Fishermen use knives to cut ropes while sitting on stools in the harbor; nets are draped over crates, resembling tulle veils that fall to the ground.
The 73-year-old Chez Fonfon, which has glass windows and overlooks the harbor, serves as the backdrop for this. Here, the bouillabaisse is more of a procession of fish (65 euros per person), broth, toast, and sauces than a cuisine. The fish heaps shine with saffron threads, which give them an amber hue, and the garlic rouille is potent enough to knock you out. It is advised to make reservations.
