Sunny Marseille!!! Ancient Port and Modern Mecca

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Wow! I just got back from Marseille last night on the late TGV, and what a trip we had! Marseille was definitely a good way to end our eight day trip to Provence- the whole trip was kind of a build-up to the culmination, which was the vibrant port city on the Mediterranean. By far the largest city in the region, Marseille is the 2nd largest city in France (with a population of 800,000) and is incredibly old- it was founded as Massilia by the Greeks in 600 B.C. Legend has it that a band of Greek sailors anchored in the bay and were welcomed by the local tribe, and on the night of a feast the princess of the tribe had to choose a husband from among the participants…her eye fell on the handsome young captain of the Greek fleet, and the rest was history! If that’s not a good founding story, I don’t know what is… (Pocahantas, anyone?)

Marseille has a reputation for being bright, brash, somewhat dirty, and politically corrupt…but also incredibly diverse, vibrant, changing, and exciting. From my short stay, I would say that there are elements of truth in all of those characterizations. Because of its location on the coast, it has long been the point of arrival for immigrants from North Africa, and the racial diversity of the city is very high- I felt like the minority for once, rather than part of the Caucasian majority (which is the case in centre-ville Paris, if not the suburbs). But there is an energy to the city that appeals to me, and the gorgeous weather (18 degrees Celsius in November…t-shirts!) and perpetual sun make it even better. Personally, I never felt unsafe, but we were careful not to go into any of the back streets after nightfall either…the line between ‘tourist zone’ and ‘immigrant quarter’ is very distinct and very close…so we stuck to the Vieux Port and the Canebiere (the main avenue that bisects the city) just to be safe. It’s definitely seemier than Paris, and the streets are not as clean, but it also seemed more relaxed and informal…which was nice.

I don’t know much about the politics, but a week before we arrived the city was in an uproar following a bus-torching incident by some delinquent adolescents, which gravely injured a young Senegalese university student. This was an isolated incident and nothing like the riots that rocked the country last November, but it did make me cautious in the days before we got there. I was impressed, however, by the efforts the city is making to improve its image- there is construction work everywhere as crews install a new above-ground tramway system like the one that used to run in the 1800s. They are obviously trying hard to modernize the city, and I think its reputation as an undesirable tourist destination is totally underserved. The good points definitely outweigh the bad points, and Toni and I made sure to see as much of the city as we could. I think we did a pretty good job! Here’s what we did:

Tuesday morning we arrived via bus from Aix and left our luggage in the storage lockers at the Gare St. Charles. Around 11am we set off to ‘see what we could see’ and what we saw was:

-the abbaye St. Vincent, which is an ancient church, originally built in the 5th century on the foundations of an even older church
-the fort St. Nicolas and its counterpart, the Fort St. Jean, which together guard the entryway into the Vieux Port
-the Vieux Port and the fish market on the Quai des Belges: everything in Marseille is centered around the Vieux Port, which for millennia was used for shipping and industrial purposes, although today it is more a giant dock for pleasure-craft. Extremely picturesque, it is cradled in the center of the city, which spreads away from it up into the hills surrounding the city. The fish market- held most mornings on the main street in front of the harbor- is a fascinating mix of salt-of-the-sea fish vendors haggling over prices and immigrant street-hawkers trying to sell their cheap sunglasses to the tourists that (surely) must crowd the docks during the summer season.
-Rive Neuve: on the south side of the Vieux Port, this strip of harborfront contains the Pharo (a public garden perched over the entrance to the harbor, given by Napolean III to his wife); the abbey St. Vincent; the Theatre de la Criee (a renowned theater located in the old fish-market hall); the Fort St. Nicolas; the Arsenal; and several popular café-spots grouped in old squares.
-Toni and I ate a REALLY good meal of the Marseillais specialty (bouillabaisse) in a restaurant called l’Escailler in the Place des Thiars. It was definitely a highlight of the trip! Somehow the highlights all seem to revolve around food…hmmm….well, anyway, for 12 euro I got French bread, a seafood salad, a large helping of excellent bouillabaisse (a fish stew made with the catch of the day- I got mussels, a white fish, and conga eel!), and a lemon tart for dessert. You can’t beat that price for fresh seafood! Even better, the service was great and the waiters were friendly; we had such a good time that we went back for lunch our last day there!
-we also saw the Opera, the Bourse, the Canabiere (the main avenue in the city, called the Can-‘o-beer by the American sailors who used to be based there), and several other churches and cathedrals (they’re everywhere!)
-on Tuesday afternoon we took a boat trip out to the Chateau d’If, a small fortress on the Ile d’If just outside the harbor. It was built in the 1500s as a defense for the city (or maybe as a defense AGAINST the unruly, independent-minded people of Marseille!) but never saw combat. It was quickly converted to a prison, and that is where Alexandre Dumas imprisoned the Count of Monte Cristo in his famous novel. The prison is interesting, but nothing spectacular- the primary exhibitions all revolve around Dumas and his famous (but fictional!) count. However, the views of the Vieux Port and the coastline from the boat and the island are unmissable, so it’s worth the 10 euro to make the trip. We got to watch the sun set over Marseille from the Chateau d’If, and I love the story of Monte Cristo…so it was a cool experience!

And all of THAT was only our first day there. We took the Fluobus (night bus) back to our hostel about 5 km to the south of the center city, and this was definitely my favorite hostel. It’s the auberge de jeunesse de Bonneveine, and it was lively and young-feeling…actually staffed by people my age, rather than 50+ adults like the other two hostels. Recommended!

The next morning we decided to detour from the beaten track…literally…and hiked for 6 ½ hours on the Calanques outside of Marseille. Right on the coast, the massifs des calanques are massive, rugged cliffs cut by narrow inlets (a “calanque”: almost like the fjords of Norway but much smaller.) The scenery was absolutely beautiful and we had the luck to be there almost by ourselves…no tourists were there in November, only the locals who were taking advantage of the stunning terrain. We met some really nice people along the trail during the day, who helped guide us along the path when it became difficult to follow…it’s better to bring a hiking map, for those of you who might try it! We were told at the youth hostel that we didn’t need one, but I think the guy underestimated us…we went a lot farther than he expected! But it was absolutely a fabulous thing to do and I loved the uniqueness of the experience. I think that was the ‘farthest from civilization’ I have been since arriving in France!

That night we were so completely exhausted that we barely made it into the city for dinner, first stopping off at the hostel for a super-hot shower which did wonders to wash away the dirt and the aching in my muscles…heavenly! Sufficiently refreshed, we headed back to Marseille via metro (note: a fast system but limited: it only has two lines and it closes at 10pm). We were too tired to be creative, so we ate in a restaurant right across from our lunch success of Tuesday, and had a very leisurely hour and forty-five minute meal of aioli, a local specialty, complete with a good red wine and chocolate mousse dessert. Wine + chocolate + 7 hours in the fresh air hiking = 2 very sleepy, relaxed girls, so we hopped on the Fluobus afterwards and went straight to bed. A great day. One of the best of the trip, I think.

Thursday was our last day and it dawned bright, sunny, and warm again. I finally got to wear the jeans skirt I had been expecting to make such good use of! Better late than never, I suppose…

We spent the morning exploring le Panier district, the oldest part of the city and the traditional point-of-arrival for newly-arrived immigrants. This maze of tiny, twisted, steep little streets to the north of the harbor is really about as ‘authentic Marseille’ as you get, so I enjoyed wandering around and watching the women lean out their windows to string colorful lines of laundry from the windowsills. In the middle of the Panier is a building called the Vieille Charite, (Old Charity), which was built as a poor-house during the 1600s to assist the hard-luck immigrants of the neighborhood. In the 1960s this building was renovated and turned into museums, and today houses a library, a research center, and two excellent museums: the Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology and the Museum of African, Oceanic, and Amerindian Arts. We only had time to see the museum of archaeology, but it was excellent: a good collection of local Provencal artifacts dating back thousands of years, and good classics collection, and best of all, the second-best Egyptian collection in France outside of the Louvre. That was really a pleasant surprise for me, and I definitely recommend the museum. The cloistered courtyard and renovated church of the center are worth the visit alone- the city did an excellent renovation job!

After the museum we wandered through a couple churches before eating lunch at our new-favorite restaurant, l’Escailler. It was really really good (yet again!) and we used the refueling to propel us up the 430 m hill to the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, which is a gigantic basilica built in the late 1800s perched on a hilltop overlooking the city. The panoramic views from the top are incredible, and the mosaics covering the ceiling of the church inside are really impressive. Crowning the cathedral is a gigantic gilded statue of the Mother and Child, which you can see from throughout t

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