23 of the best things to do in Marseilles

Times

6 days ago

Did you know that Marseilles is France's oldest city? Founded by the Greek-speaking Phocaeans some 2,600 years ago, its fortunes have risen, fallen and, more recently, risen afresh. Since the 1960s — when a dwindling ocean travel industry left paint peeling on the Vieux Port neighbourhood's shuttered houses and gulls roosting in the battlements of Château d'If —this Côte d'Azur getaway has been rejuvenated. A big-name museum and a spate of high-end hotels help, as does the thriving underground arts scene and excellent flight connections. Factor in urban beaches, the nearby calanque inlets and mountain trails, and you have a recipe for a wonderfully varied break — all aided by the one thing which never changes: that glorious, sun-kissed Mediterranean climate. Here are Marseilles's must-dos and must-sees.
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The cuisine of Marseilles is Mediterranean par excellence: the sea has brought not just the obvious fishy influence to local tables, but also culinary currents from further afield that have shaped this melting-pot port. A three-and-a-half-hour walking and tasting tour typically introduces Provençal staples such as tapenade and aioli, the produce of the small fish market on the quayside of the Vieux Port, North African sweets and tea, panisse (a chickpea flour fritter of Genoese origin), and baked camembert given an authentically Marseillais twist with a shot of pastis.
When ancient Greek colonists found the fine natural harbour of Massalia, the hill to its north became their first place of settlement. Nowadays, Le Panier is a small, warren-like enclave reached by steep steps from the Vieux Port. It's a colourful place, thanks sometimes to the work of spray cans, but also because of its multitude of potted plants and painted shopfronts. Its unusual name ('The Basket') first referred to the sign of a local inn, which was later applied to the main street and eventually the whole neighbourhood.
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Marseilles' often unpolished look won't appeal to everyone, but to even passing fans of street art, there are rich pickings here. The backstreets around Cours Julien are prime territory for redecorating walls, doorways and shop shutters with colourful creations; taking a themed walking tour can be a way to discover more about the artists behind the enigmatic names and ensure you have the up-to-date information on this outdoor gallery, where works can change from one week to the next.
The Corniche Président John Fitzgerald Kennedy is the southern half of the city's winding and supremely scenic seaside drive, though traffic often makes it less pleasant to stroll along. Inland from the Corniche, however, you'll find some of Marseilles' most ravishing and quietest neighbourhoods. A three-and-a-half-hour walking tour with local resident Jean-Marc departs from the picture-book fishing port of Vallon des Auffes and gives your calves a full workout on stairways that lead up past hidden gardens and faded villas, before returning to the craggy coast once more.
Blue horizons are a constant in the city — and a beautiful reference point when it comes to finding and keeping your equilibrium on a stand-up paddleboard. Discover the Calanques coastline from the water: while your core muscles are fully engaged, you can contemplate rocky coves as you paddle along and ponder the accuracy of the Mediterranean's occasional nickname: the tideless sea.
Closer to the city than the Calanques and starker in vegetation terms, the Îles du Frioul is a miniature archipelago that's home to the Château d'If — the fortress-prison made famous by Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. Forbidding history aside, the islands are a great location for the kinds of water-based and motorised fun not permitted within the national park, including waterskiing, knee-boarding and underwater scooters.
Full disclosure: Marseilles is a city with a 2,600-year history in a superb natural setting, but parts of it look distinctly shabby. This is the starting point of an 'ugly city' walking tour that aims to give visitors a nuanced view of Marseillais life. It's not really about aesthetics. Le Panier and Noailles are neighbourhoods with historic charm, even if run-down in parts. The boulevard between them is emblematic: La Canebière was once the city's answer to the Champs-Élysées, hit a 20th-century rough patch, and is now tentatively on the rise again.
The sound of steel thudding onto sand — or clashing into rival steel — is part of the soundtrack of Provence. Where else but Marseilles would you find a shop dedicated solely to boules, and its most famous game variant? Start your tour there, then head off for some friendly competition, followed by pastis and snacks. You'll soon learn that pétanque, which developed in nearby La Ciotat before 1910, is more strategic than the game's simple concept might suggest.
The light in Marseilles is a photographer's dream, especially as it melts into evening. If, however, you're finding it hard to capture the city's best profile (see 'ugliness' above), a two-hour tour with a local can help you to focus. Beginning with photogenic nooks in Le Panier, the most village-like part of Marseilles, the walk continues past the Vieux Port, where Norman Foster's mirror-ceilinged Ombrière structure is an Instagrammer favourite. After an ascent to Notre-Dame de la Garde, the tour reaches the seaside at Vallon des Auffes, a quintessential sunset spot.
Few walks illustrate such a cross-section of Marseilles and its contradictions as the route down Rue d'Aubagne. This street in the Noailles quarter is lined with historic yet often graffiti-covered and dilapidated houses (two tragically collapsed in 2018), and — for its city-centre location — is an unusual symbol of resistance against gentrification. Restaurants and shops offer traditional dishes from Ivory Coast, syrupy sweets from Tunisia, woven baskets and more. At the foot of the street, almost touching La Canebière, is Maison Empereur: a treasure cave of a homewares store, open since 1827.
Savon de Marseille could be considered a niche interest — unless you are among the many to have already discovered quite how satisfyingly chunky, rustic and good at getting out stains it is. Initially made using soda from the ashes of glasswort mixed with olive oil and seawater, the ultimate soapy gift is now enjoying a revival. At the Musée du Savon in the Vieux Port, you (and your kids) can watch a demonstration, personalise your own bar, and find out how much of a 'nose' you are in the sensory area. Then stock up next door at the Savonnerie Marseillaise de la Licorne, one of four Marseilles shops run by Serge and Laurence Bruna, who also offer free guided tours of their workshop on the Cours Julien.
savon-de-marseille-licorne.com
Nothing symbolised Marseilles' turnaround in the 2010s quite like Mucem — the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations. The main building on the quayside is clad in a lattice that suggests a rippled sea surface, and from there a walkway reaches over a dock to the stone ramparts of Fort Saint-Jean, one of a pair built in the 1660s to guard the main harbour entrance. The museum's permanent collection is still relatively small, but the spread-out site hosts exhibitions covering historic themes and present-day Mediterranean life in all its variety.
Beyond the southern outskirts of the city lie the dazzling Calanques, a series of steep-sided inlets cutting into pale limestone cliffs, which (thanks to the ruggedness of the area) are most easily admired from the sea. One of France's smaller national parks, it's an afternoon's sailing from the Vieux Port. Eco Calanques' 12-seater hybrid electric boats make the round trip in four and a half hours, passing quietly through the narrow channel between the mainland and offshore Île Maïre to enter the park, and including time for a swim in an azure inlet.
The Orange Vélodrome, home ground of the Marseilles football team, is also the largest club football ground in France and is rammed when OM play arch-rivals Paris Saint-Germain. Outside Ligue 1, the stadium has hosted matches in two Fifa World Cups and three Euro championships, as well as concerts by megastars such as Beyoncé, who sang in the rain here in June 2023. In 2020, it was a setting for the massive hit track Bande organisée, featuring eight Marseille rappers and the line 'C'est pas la capital, c'est Marseille, bébé' — since adopted by OM supporters. Buy tickets or book a stadium tour via the club website.
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Marseilles's best beaches are to the south of the city, in the direction of the Calanques; all are accessible by bus (or you could hire a bike). First up is Les Catalans, a popular swimming spot with a marine-friendly underwater sculpture trail, 15 minutes' walk from the Vieux Port. For families, Prophète, below the Corniche, is a good bet, with a gentle drop-off protected by a seawall; it also has a volleyball area and a party atmosphere in the evening. From there, it's another 20 minutes to the Prado beaches, a mile-and-a-quarter pebbly strand backed by a vast park that is home to a skatepark. Further south still, Pointe-Rouge offers water sports and sunset dining opposite the Frioul archipelago.
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La Major, to the north of the Vieux Port, may be Marseilles' official cathedral, but it's the hilltop basilica to the south of the harbour that has the city's heart. Notre-Dame de la Garde is decorated inside with splendid Byzantine-style mosaics (and model boats offered by the fishing community), while its belfry is topped by a gilded statue of the Madonna and Child. The wraparound terrace has astounding views of the city and nearby islands. Reach it as pilgrims do with a sloping climb, or take a steep ride on bus 60.
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The most eccentric component of Marseilles' public transport network is Le Ferry Boat, which conveys passengers the 283m across the Vieux Port in under five minutes. It's arguable how much time this shortcut actually saves, but it's a much-loved city icon, running since 1880. At a half-euro fare, it's also the cheapest way to get out — however briefly — among the yachts in a harbour that has sheltered ships since 600BC. As to the strangely Anglophone name, the 'boat' part is often pronounced 'boîte' (box) in French.
rtm.fr/ferry-boat
Marseilles must surely be Europe's best big city for climbers, given the limestone cliffs that rear up all around it. Whatever your experience level, with a climbing guide you'll gain vertical feet and panoramic views unavailable to others, in and around the Calanques National Park south of the city. Excursions (outside the hottest summer months) range from half-hiking itineraries using ropes anchored to fixed points, to multi-pitch routes where climbers progress along ridge lines, and winch their way up cliff faces with Mediterranean waves breaking on the rocks far below.
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Though blessed with its coast, Marseilles as a city is short on green space. One of the largest parks lies to the east of the grand, 19th-century Saint-Charles station, at the even more splendiferous Palais Longchamp. Fountains and cascades descend from a colonnade that links the two wings, one housing the city's main collection of fine arts, the other an old-school natural history museum. The zoological gardens behind them are long-gone, but you can still see their eccentric pavilions and more recent colourful fibreglass models of animals in the former enclosures.
marseilletourisme.fr/en
Bouillabaisse is a dish that doesn't travel well outside its home city, so if you have a taste for seafood, try to reserve one of your meals in Marseilles for this aromatic fish stew. Much debate goes into evaluating different restaurants' versions, but most agree you won't find the best at tables along the Vieux Port, however scenic. Instead, traditionalists go for addresses on or near the Corniche Kennedy, such as Chez Michel, Chez Fonfon, L'Épuisette and Le Rhul — or a more fancified take on bouillabaisse at three-Michelin-star Le Petit Nice.
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The most spread-out world heritage site includes buildings in countries as far apart as Argentina and Japan, and has a major representative in Marseilles, too. Le Corbusier more or less defined modern architecture, and his concrete housing complex La Cité Radieuse, completed in 1952, was hugely influential. One of 17 of his works given Unesco protection, it's known in local dialect as La Maison du Fada (The Madman's House). Booked tours allow visitors inside the building, 2.5 miles south of the centre, and it also houses an offbeat hotel.
citeradieuse-marseille.com
It isn't just the Palais Longchamp that manages to fit two of the top museums in Marseilles into a historic building. La Vieille Charité is a 17th-century former almshouse in pinkish stone on the edge of Le Panier, which is worth a visit for the architecture alone. But it also houses two museums that echo Marseilles' historic role as France's southern gateway. The MAM covers Mediterranean archaeology, from Egyptian statues to Etruscan vases, while the MAAOA is dedicated to African, Oceanian and Amerindian art, including masks and bronzes.
musees.marseille.fr
One of the city's newest museums may also be its most unusual. The Musée Subaquatique de Marseille is a sculpture park lying 5m deep, off the beach at Plage des Catalans. It's still in its early stages, with more works to be added, but the experience of gliding serenely among the statues will only get more Atlantean as they gain a patina of sea life. While the museum is free to visit at one's own responsibility, local underwater archaeology group GRASM also runs group scuba dives to the site.
musee-subaquatique.com/fr
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Additional reporting by Imogen Lepere and Richard Mellor