Table of Contents for this Episode
Category: Provence
Intro
Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 619, six cent dix-neuf.
Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent, and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today on the podcast: Marseille Travel Guide
Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a conversation with Emilie Bonnell from the Marseille Tourist Office and Alexis Steinman a food and travel writer who guides in the city.
We talk about why winter is a great time to visit, where to eat bouillabaisse and panisse, Le Corbusier’s crazy house, which neighborhoods to stay in, and what cruise passengers should do.
Before we start, this show runs on listener support. If you want to [00:01:00] work with me directly, I do itinerary consults.
I’ve written eight tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app, and I can take you on day trips from Toulouse, where I live, in my electric car, and we always have a good time when we do that. Everything is at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
Magazine segment
Annie Sargent: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Emilie and Alexis, I’ll discuss La Forêt de Fontainebleau and why we heard so much about it recently.
Welcome to Marseille
Annie: Bonjour, Emilie Bonnell and Alexis Steinman, and welcome to Join Us in France.
Emilie: Bonjour.
Alexis: Bonjour.
Annie: I’m very pleased to be there. Wonderful to have you. We’re going to talk about the beautiful city of Marseille, which is, of course, on the Mediterranean coast. It is a [00:02:00] large city. I intended to look up the population. I didn’t. How many people live in Marseille? Do you know?
Emilie: It’s almost one million. It’s 900,000 people.
Annie: Yeah, so it’s a big city, okay? Let’s start with that, but it’s a gorgeous city.
Why Visit in Winter
Annie: It’s a city that has a lot to offer, and I think, Alexis, you particularly like it in the winter. I want to hear about that if you don’t mind, because I think, I agree, the weather in the winter must be fabulous in Marseille.
Alexis: Yeah, so when you think about Marseille, it’s the capital of Provence, and all the famous artists would come to Provence for the light, and particularly in the winter because in the winter the sunlight is coming in horizontally and not baking you. Our summers are really hot here. I also find the winter is a way to have the most authentic experience for Marseille because there aren’t a lot of tourists, so you can really be like you are a Marseillais. The Calanques National Park, which is an [00:03:00] incredible park of limestone cliffs and turquoise coves, it’s really nice hiking weather because sometimes in the summer it closes because of fire risk. So it’s a really nice time to be here. The boats run all year long, so you can still go and take a boat on the Mediterranean. And because it’s calmer, that means the prices are lower. It’s easier to get a restaurant. It’s just a nice time to be here.
Annie: Yes, yes, yes. Emilie, tell us about how Marseille has changed over the last five, 10 years. It has a bit of a reputation, and I don’t think it’s deserved anymore, and there are a lot of wonderful things in life where it takes people 10, 20 years to catch up to the realities. So I would love to hear from you how the city has changed.
Emilie: Yeah, exactly. It changed a lot since a few years. Marseille was elected as a European Capital of Culture in 2013, and this event boost Marseille a lot. A [00:04:00] lot of renovation everywhere in the city. The Old Port was renovated by Norman Foster, the British architect. The Mucem, the National Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilization opened in 2013. The Intercontinental five-star hotel. So a lot of new renovation, new amenities in 2013, and now Marseille is considered like an international touristic destination.
The airport also did a lot of development. It’s very well connected to all of the hub in Europe. And also Marseille hosted a lot of big events like the Olympic Sailing Games and football match also in 2024, so that’s why it was a very big event for the city, a very good visibility, and also the World Rugby Cup in 2023. That permits Marseille to grow more and more and to become a very good destination, very [00:05:00] trendy destination now.
Annie: Yes, it’s absolutely fabulous. In my whole life, I might have spent maybe five, six days in Marseille, but every one of them has been really… it’s always beautiful weather, and so it’s fantastic.
And it has this thing that a lot of other places miss. It’s that there’s always something to do in Marseille. So I have a lot of people ask me, they say, “Oh, I want to come to France for Christmas. What should I do? Should I go to, I don’t know, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue?” Fine, you can go to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, but you might find it a bit, like nothing much is happening that time of year, whereas in a big city like Marseille, there’s always something happening for every member of the family, no matter what age they are. You know, you will find stuff for kids, stuff for young adults, stuff for older adults. There’s something for everyone in Marseille, which I think is really important when you travel as a family.
Alexis: For Christmas, we have a Christmas market because there’s a tradition in [00:06:00] Marseille and in Provence called les santons, and they’re these little clay figurines. At first it was the nativity scene, but now it’s all sorts of representations of Provence, so it’s a really nice tradition to take part in.
The city also organizes concerts in churches. For New Year’s, there’s a giant fireworks show at the port. So it’s true, there’s a lot to do for the holidays, and you can luck out and have really nice weather and be sitting outside on a terrace and it’s 55 degrees and sunny.
Annie: Yes, yes, and you really cannot do that in a lot of the very scenic villages of the backcountry of Provence, which are lovely. They’re fantastic, but they’re fantastic on a day when there’s something happening. If it’s a day like any other day, uh…
Emilie: And you know you can stay in Marseille and do excursion for a day or half day for example, to do a wine tasting, to visit a monument outside of Marseille, and come back to Marseille to enjoy the lively city that is [00:07:00] open all year round. And that’s why it’s also a good option to just do an excursion and come back to enjoy the city.
Annie: Right. Right.
Meet the Guests
Annie: So I should mention at this point that Emilie, you work for the tourist office in Marseille. What’s your role there exactly?
Emilie: So I’m a promotion officer at the tourist office and convention bureau of Marseille to promote the destination towards tour operator and travel agent all around the world.
Annie: Right. And so I should say, you reached out to me to figure out who I was and everything, because you heard about me at a tourism convention.
Emilie: Yeah, in Phoenix last November for the workshop of Atout France. And one agency told me about your podcast. That’s why I contact you.
Annie: Right. Right. And this is the first time it’s happened, because the way I functioned, I don’t actually reach out to official tourist promoters because, I don’t know, I have enough to do with regular people [00:08:00] who visit destinations that I typically don’t do this. But since you’re, you know, we hit it off, you invited me to come and stay one night. You paid for one night of hotel. That had never happened before either. So it was very, you know, it was sweet. I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t stop me from going other places that don’t do that, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, so-
Emilie: Yeah, because we think that the best to see all the changes of Marseille is to see by yourself, to be in the city, and to enjoy the city.
Annie: Oh, and especially the very, the hyper city center around the old port, the Mucem, all of that. It’s just fantastic.
And Alexis, you are a tour guide in Marseille, right?
Alexis: Yeah. So I first came to Marseille, I’m actually a food and travel writer, so I write for The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Out, Lonely Planet. And being here, I recognize part of why I moved here was because the city wasn’t being written about in English in a really positive way for people who wanted to visit, and I wanted to tell [00:09:00] good stories.
And also, it’s a very hard city to understand sometimes, and that’s, I think, also why it was delayed in becoming a tourist city. And in doing the articles, I realized articles are a one-way street, and by being a guide, I could actually have a conversation with people and really provide an entry point into the city.
I started off doing food tours. I work with Culinary Backstreets, and food is a really great way to understand the city, even if you don’t speak French.
Annie: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Because the city is really multicultural. It’s been a port for its entire existence, so by tasting food in the city, you are also experiencing the culture and experience its Provence history. And so I really enjoy showing anglophones, kind of providing that bridge.
Annie: Yes. Yes.
Ancient Origins and Museums
Annie: And speaking of history, Marseille is a very old city. Actually, how, it’s… I’ve heard that it’s the oldest city in France. Is that right, Emilie?
Emilie: [00:10:00] So yeah, Marseille exactly is, was created by the Greeks 2,600 years ago. They decided to settle in the calanque of the old port now, and you can still see the antique port in the Marseille History Museum from the Greek period. And Marseille has a lot of heritage to discover because you will see if you come to see all these monuments.
Annie: 2,600 years is a lot of history.
Emilie: Yeah, exactly.
Annie: Yes. And that’s another of the things that I like about Marseille, is that there are several world-class museums that you can visit. The one I visited this last time was the Cosquer Caves, which was the, it’s a reproduction of a cave that was found by Mr. Cosquer in the Calanques, and it’s a painted cave. And so they reproduced it, and you visit it, like, in a little boat. It’s kind of fun.
And I have to say, I have [00:11:00] visited all, almost all the painted caves that you can see in France, and this one ranks pretty high on my list of… I mean, if you’re in Marseille and you enjoy learning about prehistory and Neolithic and things like that, it’s a must-see.
But you also have a gorgeous art museum. What other museums are there? There’s a bunch of it.
Maybe Alexis, can you tell us more about the museums?
Alexis: I think MUCEM is the star because we have a fort. We have two forts that were built by Louis XIV in the 17th century that kind of protect the harbor. And when MUCEM was built, it had to attach to the fort. So there’s something incredibly magical about entering a 17th century fort. They have an amazing video kind of exhibit where you can see the founding of Marseille from 2600 years ago to now.
And then you cross this concrete bridge over the Mediterranean, and the MUCEM itself [00:12:00] is like an architectural concrete web. It is actually free to just walk the perimeter, so if you want to go to the roof, see the incredible views, walk the perimeter, you don’t have to pay. If you want to see the exhibits, you do.
And the exhibits are rotating every year, and the MUCEM is really created for the people, so they’re really trying to focus… Right now we have an exhibit called La Bonne Mère, The Good Mother, which is inspired by our most famous monument, which is a Virgin Mother and Child above a church that beams over the city. And so that’s really a nice way to experience. Also, we’re so linked to the Mediterranean. I call Marseille a Mediterranean city over a French city. And so that’s really nice.
Another museum that I think are great, we have something called the Palais Longchamp, which is this white palace that to me looks like it could be in Rome. It’s like a wedding cake. And there are two museums there. There’s a Natural History Museum, and then there’s a Musée des Beaux Arts, which are museums all over France, and [00:13:00] their claim to fame are these paintings of the plague that came to Marseille in 1720.
Annie: Oh, yeah.
Alexis: That decimated half of the city.
Annie: Yeah.
Alexis: And they’re these paintings that for that era are quite provocative and a little gory. And so it’s a nice way to see the history, and also this palace, though it’s in the center of the city, sometimes the tourists don’t go there. And there’s a beautiful park, an incredible fountain, and it was built to welcome water into the city in the 1860s, which was really our Belle Époque when all of our, I would say, monuments were built.
Annie: Yeah, that’s fantastic.
How Long to Stay
Annie: So there is so much to do. How many days do you think you need to see Marseille, Emilie? I mean, my idea is you really need four nights to make… I mean, that’s what I would guess, but I wonder what you would say, Emilie. When you have family that visit, take off the professional hat for a bit. You [00:14:00] have family that visits.
Emilie: Yeah.
Annie: How many days do you tell them to stay?
Emilie: Yeah, exactly. It’s like two, three, three nights minimum. After, it’s better to stay one week to enjoy the city. Marseille is the second city of France, so it’s a big city with a lot of districts. We used to say Marseille is the junction of 111 villages.
Annie: Wow.
Emilie: Little by little, yeah, they join us together. And you can see different atmosphere everywhere. You have the beachside, so you can enjoy the beachside and the national park.
After you have the city center with all the lot of museum, the activity of the Cosquer Cave, for example, to discover the prehistoric underwater cave. So it takes a lot times.
Also, you can go to the stadium to visit the area and to see the Corbusier UNESCO building. There is a lot to see.
So that’s why you need to stay two, three nights minimum, more it’s better to take your time to [00:15:00] feel the authenticity and to feel the vibes of Marseille. And after you can do, as I told you, some excursion for a day in Provence because Marseille, you know that this is the capital of Provence.
Annie: Right, and from the tourist office, I assume you organize day trips to different things, right?
Emilie: Yeah. We have a DMC department, and guided tour department. And so in Marseille you can use the city pass. That is very useful because it’s for one, two, or three days, and public transportation are included and everything.
So it’s very good option. And after, for example, if you are a family, you can do a Monte Cristo tour, you know, because Marseille, we have the If Castle. You can do a electric bike tour, electric tuk-tuk tour. You can enjoy also workshop with locals. You can also do a eat a bouillabaisse in a typical fisherman house in the national park. So there is a lot of way to, lot of [00:16:00] experiences, exclusive experiences that you can do in the city.
Food Classics and Where to Eat
Annie: Right, and that’s where I was going to go next, Alexis, is if you are going to stay several days, you can enjoy more of the gastronomy. And including take a tour with Alexis, that would be wonderful.
But if you’re in Marseille, what should you order at restaurants, and are there any favorite restaurants that you have?
Alexis: So Emilie talked about our famous bouillabaisse. So it was a soup that arrived also by the Greeks, and it used to be a soup of the poor. It was like the leftover catch of the fishermen would put the scraps in a pot, saffron, fennel, garlic, and make this soup.
It has since, when it was brought to Paris, it became a gastronomic dish, and so now it is all over the city. You sort of want to know where to go because there are people who are going to turn it into a tourist trap, and then there are people who are going to make it authentically.
So my two favorites are Chez Michel, which has been open since, like, the ’40s, and it’s really, like, waiters in [00:17:00] white jackets, and it’s very pomp and white tablecloths and fantastic wine. The other place I like is the Grand Bar des Goudes. He just won the World Bouillabaisse Championship.
Annie: Wow, there is a world Bouillabaisse Championship?
Alexis: And what’s great about that is Les Goudes is basically the last village in Marseille, and it’s the gateway to the Calanques. And you can imagine this super picturesque port where the boats, the fishing boats are leaving from it. You’re sitting on a patio, so you’re really, like, as far as terroir goes, you couldn’t be more closer to where the fish is coming from.
The other things that are really prominent in Marseille, we have something called panisse. Panisse come from the Ligurians. It’s a chickpea fritter, so in Liguria it’s called farinata, in Nice it’s called socca, and in Marseille it’s called panisse.
Annie: Okay.
Alexis: And it’s literally just chickpea flour and olive oil, and they come in these kind of round discs, and this is really what we do for apéro. [00:18:00] Apéro is probably the most important thing you do when you come to the city because this is where you can really experience this joie de vivre of the South, and it’s very social, and it’s also where you can taste the pastis, which is, we’re very proud of our pastis. It was created in 1932 by a wine merchant named Paul Ricard because there was a ban on absinthe, and he wanted to create something that had the same flavor. And traditionally Provence is very into kind of tinctures with all the herbs, the fennel, the rosemary, the sage. And pastis is really something, it’s something you drink with a lot of water, so it’s very, very refreshing. And it’s something that you see people start drinking at 10:00 in the morning.
Annie: Whoa.
Alexis: But usually you drink it, like, before lunch. You can start at 4:00 or 5:00, but it’s really something that is the flavor, I think, and really of the whole Mediterranean because every country, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, has their own anise [00:19:00] beverage. So I think it’s also, like, a way to connect to the other parts of the sea.
Annie: Yeah. So which… Okay, so at my house we probably have a bottle of Pastis 51 right now, but there’s also the Ricard. But there, I’m sure there’s also local brands.
Alexis: There is, and one of the nice things you can do, there’s two local brands that I really like. One is called Pastis de la Plaine, and that’s a young guy who started a brewery and now makes pastis. And you can actually go and make your own pastis and take a bottle with your name on it, which is a fun thing to do as a tourist.
There’s also an incredible man in Guillaume Ferroni, who’s sort of the cocktail historian of the city, and he makes a pastis that is very refined because it actually has a vintage. So each year is different. He ages it in barrels, and that’s called Château des Creissaux.
Annie: Okay.
Alexis: The other thing you really need to eat here, the city is so diverse and multicultural, and that’s to me what makes it different from the [00:20:00] rest of France. France is a multicultural country, but it’s not necessarily as obvious, whereas Marseille is, like, a complete mix of all these cultures. So we’re famous for our pizza, which was brought by the Italians, which has anchovies on it. We also have a lot of couscous because we have a big Algerian community. We have a giant Corsican community, so you need to eat figatelli, which is like a pork liver sausage, which is only in the winter also, so another reason to come in the winter.
So that’s really a way, as far as my favorite restaurants go, I think Boîte à Sardines is, like, a must. It’s a fish restaurant, but the chef is making fish in a way that’s a bit creative, but you still get to taste the fish, and it’s run by a fishmonger, so he has all these relationships with the small fishermen.
I also think to eat pizza you have to go to Chez Etienne or Chez Zay. Both are really Marseillaise place. In Marseille, you eat pizza sometimes as an appetizer, so [00:21:00] you all share the pizza at your table, and then you eat other things, which I think is a really nice way, and again, it’s really this sharing.
Traditionally French is you have your appetizer, entree, dessert, and you are not sharing, whereas in Marseille it’s very convivial, and I think that also represents it.
Annie: Wonderful.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
Château d’If Tips
Annie: One of the things I wanted to do when I was in Marseille last, which was just a few months ago, was to go to the Château d’If, because I love books and I read the Count of Monte Cristo when I was a kid, and I have the big thick copy of my grandmother’s copy of the Count of Monte Cristo in French, which I’ve, is a prized possession of mine.
But I wanted to go. I went to the port. I was there like at 7:00 in the morning. I saw there was a line to get tickets to go to the Château d’If, and I thought, “Oh, I’ll come back.” And by the time I came back, all the tickets were sold out for the [00:22:00] times I could go, and I tried to buy online and I couldn’t.
So,I would recommend to people to book that in advance, and I’m assuming, Alexis, that for these restaurants that you recommended, these are also things that you should book in advance, right?
Alexis: Yeah. I mean, I think Marseille’s not like, you know, New York or Paris where you have to book a month in advance, but I definitely think you should try to book in advance. A lot of places do not have websites. The more modern places do, because we have a really hip, trendy young chef scene. But a lot of places are literally just making a phone call, sending a text. And one thing you also want to do is have cash on you because some places do not take credit cards.
Annie: Right. Right. So, for the Château d’If, Emilie? Is their website working most of the time, or is it on and off?
Emilie: I know they had a problem just a few weeks ago, and still now because of hacking. But the best is to go on the site on, on the old port early in the morning and to take your [00:23:00] tickets for the day, and to select the hour that you would like to go. The best is to, for the moment, is to do that, to go early in the morning.
And it’s only, you have a shuttle boat, it’s only 20 minute from the old port by boat to get to the If Castle, and to visit the very famous prison of the Count of Monte Cristo, this is the national monument that inspire Alexandre Dumas to write the Monte Cristo book.
Annie: Right. Yeah. A great book, great adventures.
Emilie: Yeah.
Annie: Great adventures in there, yeah.
Emilie: And it was built by Francois I to protect the city, and to protect the port of Marseille because Marseille is a very strategic in the Mediterranean Sea.
Annie: Yes, French kings really loved it. I mean, like Louis XIV spent a lot of, I guess, treasure to build it up. So did Francois Premier. I mean, you will hear, if you go and you’re into history, you will hear about a very long history with development by French royalty.
Rebel City and Pop Culture
Annie: [00:24:00] And Marseille was attached to France fairly early, or was it still with the Counts of Provence for a long time? I’m asking because I don’t know.
Emilie: Yeah, Marseille was a part of the Kingdom of Provence before, and after it was attached to the Kingdom of France. That’s why the city was a rebel city. And that’s why Louis XIV built the fortress at the entrance of the port to show its power to the inhabitants and to consolidate his power.
Because Marseille always been a rebel.
Annie: Right, because a lot of France, like where I’m from Toulouse area, was attached to the French kingdom in like the middle of the 1200s. After the crusade against the Cathars, the Albigensian Crusade, Toulouse was already part of the French kingdom. So we got our asses kicked very early on and became French a long, long time ago.
Other parts like [00:25:00] Bordeaux and the Counts of Provence, it was a little later, which is one of the reasons why France has this wonderful regional character. Like every region of France has its own character, and Marseille definitely has its own character. I mean, there’s whole books and movies about this, you know.
Our listeners might have heard of Manon des Sources. What was the other… that whole series of three books?
Alexis: Oh, yeah, well,there’s Pagnol, who did the trilogy of Marseille which is like the real cliché films. There’s also Jean-Claude Izzo, who did, we have Marseille Noir, which is kind of, a sort of fiction police stories, which I think was also based on this rebellious city. That really captures it, and it has been translated into English, too.
Annie: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: There was the famous show on Netflix, Marseille, which kind of put the city on the map. We have a really strong film industry now, and we’re building it up. Netflix is very into the city, and it’s also a nice thing because [00:26:00] there’s a lot of youth in the city, and it’s a way to provide jobs for people. I also think Stillwater, which was a Matt Damon film in 2019, does a really good job of showing the city in all of its diversity and complexity. And because that’s a story, it’s a little more accessible, I think, to people.
Annie: Yeah, yeah. I mean, there’s been like mafia sort of themes and, you know, like it’s a dangerous place, whatever. It’s a big city, okay? It’s a big city. You have parts of a big city in any city that are not for tourists to go.
Best Areas to Stay
Annie: Do you have favorite districts to send people to when you recommend hotels? Which areas are best? Let’s start with Emilie, but then we’ll go to you, Alexis, as well. Do you have favorite kind of districts to stay in when you come to Marseille?
Emilie: Yeah, I think it’s very good to be in the city center or next to the Mediterranean Sea, next to the beach side. There is two [00:27:00] nice district, but you have also the business district. La Joliette, we call it, after the Mucem museum. It’s a new renovated district, too.
And, also Alexis told you about like an artistic district, the Cours Julien, and next to the Longchamp Palace also. It’s not too far from the city center. It’s a very nice district also that you can stay in Marseille.
But if you want to feel the old port, the marina, and to enjoy all the activities, the central point is on the old port.
Annie: Yeah, the old port is fantastic. It is very loud, though. That’s where I was staying, and I went to bed kind of 10:30, and I was like, “Mm, I hope it calms down soon.” It quiets down. You really need to be paying attention to getting a hotel with windows that face away from the main drag because it can… I mean, it’s a big city. There’s people partying, and it’s, you know, [00:28:00] they’re having fun. It’s normal, there’s nothing wrong with it, just something to consider.
Alexis: At the port are two five-star hotels. The Sofitel and the Intercontinental are set back. So it’s a way to have the incredible views, but without being kind of in the middle of it. It’s also nice to… Some people really like to stay in a neighborhood, so Endoume and Malmousque are right besides the sea.
Annie: Can you spell those?
Alexis: Endoume is E-N-D-O-U-M-E.
Annie: Okay.
Alexis: And Malmousque is M-A-L-M-O-U-S-Q-U-E. And those are really ways to be… You know, some people who come to France really want a neighborhood, right? And so they want to be able to go to their boulangerie and their cafe and walk everywhere and kind of feel what it’s like to live here.
Longchamp, next to the palace, is also really pretty, and near the city center, but way more quiet. And I think also, too, we have hotels. Some people really want a beach experience in Marseille. So [00:29:00] there’s a hotel called Les Bords de Mer, which is right above a beach, but still in the city center. And then some people really want to go further. The thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to go to the beach and go further down the coast, we have 26 miles of coastline, then you’re going to be further from the city center. So sort of something to think about. Some families prefer that they can walk to the beach.
Annie: Yeah.
Alexis: And want to be there. I recommend when people come for a second time to get something near the beach, because then you can really experience it. Our beaches, we have sandy beaches, but to me, the most interesting part of Marseille are these beaches that are kind of rocks and coves and really wild and really like nothing I have ever seen in the South of France.
Annie: Nice. Nice.
Cruise Stop Planning, Old Port Highlights
Annie: Let’s talk a little bit about visiting Marseille on a cruise ship, which is something I have done, and I know hundreds and thousands of people do a stop on a cruise ship. What would you recommend they do beside… I mean, of course, when you’re on a cruise ship, you can always just book an excursion [00:30:00] and just do that.
But if people want to do something on their own, what would you recommend, Emilie?
Emilie: Yeah, so the best, I think, is to come in the city center, on the old port, in the marina, to enjoy the atmosphere, to visit, for example, in the morning, the daily fish market. And after, they can take the little touristic train to go up to the basilica, the Lady of Our Guard (Notre dame de la garde), the Good Mother of Marseille, to have a panoramic view on the city, a 360-degree view. So you can admire the view, and after they can go back on the port to eat something, and they can also visit the historical district, Le Panier. And to finish visit the MUCEM because it’s, like, a very lively museum you can enter in it without paying, you have to pay for the exhibition, like Alexis told you. And so you can admire the sea, the sea view, and all the architecture very specific of this museum.
Annie: Yeah. It’s very nice.
Cruise Port Transport
Annie: And I assume that the city has [00:31:00] city buses to take people from… Because the port where big cruise ships dock is not the old port. They dock further away. They’re a few kilometers away. I assume
cruise ships probably give you a bus or have something ready. But if not here’s city buses.
Emilie: Yeah, there is city buses. You have taxi. But also if you have a little boat, very like Silversea, Le Ponant, they can park, and people can disembark next to the MUCEM. It depends on the boat. If you have MSC or Costa boat, you are in the old the port… further away, and so you can take a taxi or the public bus.
Annie: Yeah, I wouldn’t try to walk it. Because I sometimes… I love a cruise, and I’ve done a lot of different cruise lines. And some places, you’re close enough to the city center that you can hoof it, but I wouldn’t do that in Marseille, personally. I wouldtake a bus or a taxi or something. And then the little tourist train is always a good [00:32:00] option. I know it’s silly, but you know what? They will take you everywhere you need to go, and you will get at least the highlights of the place. And then if you can find a restaurant that will serve you a good bouillabaisse or something, that’s also pretty good.
Le Corbusier in Marseille
Annie: You mentioned earlier Le Corbusier, L’Unite d’Habitation. I’d be interested to hear a little bit more about that, because we’ve done a fair bit about architecture on the show, and there’s people who are interested in that. Tell us what it is and, you know, how you visit it. Maybe Alexis take that one?
Alexis: Yeah. So Le Corbusier is a famous architect, architect who’s Swiss, and he came to Marseille. He had these ideas called an Unité Habitation. And they were really revolutionary at the time, in the early ’50s, because he basically imagined a vertical village in the sky, and he also wanted it to be democratic, that everyone could have the space and the view, but not have to pay a lot of money.
So there are actually five of them in France, but the only one that is still being [00:33:00] used is the one in Marseille. It also was the first one, and it really remembers, like resembles a cruise ship, so that I find makes it interesting for the city. It’s brutalist architecture, so it was made in concrete. So when it was first built, the city did not like it. They called it the Maison de Fada, which means the Crazy House. But since it’s become really kind of a symbol of the city, people who love architecture come from all over the world to see it, because there are apartments, and you can do… The only way to get into an apartment is to do a tour with the tourist office. And I really recommend it. That’s how I first discovered the tourist office, because you have someone really explaining every decision that Corbusier made, because he has something called, not the golden ratio, the something man, I’ll remember it.
Annie: It’s basically that every space is basically created for that man’s size, which is, like, the average size of a human. [00:34:00] So even though his spaces are small, you still feel like you’re really breathing in them. So to visit, you can go. You can go for free. You just won’t be able to go into an apartment. But you are able to visit. There’s a restaurant. There’s a cafe. Then there’s also a few bookstores, art galleries, and then you can go to the roof, which is incredible, because the roof has kind of a view of the city, and you can really see his architecture come to life there.
Mm-hmm.
Alexis: And it’s open, you know, kind of from 9:00 to 6:00 every day, and then if you want to have a special experience, I recommend doing a tour to go really in-depth.
Annie: Would it be modular?
Alexis: Yeah, so modular is… Yes, it’s the modular man, exactly.
Annie: Yeah, okay, okay.
Alexis: And when you first arrive at the building, you can see this man standing there, like, carved into the building.
Annie: With his hand up?
Alexis: Exactly, yes.
Annie: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Fantastic.
Marseille Beyond Stereotypes
Annie: I mean, honestly, I liked Marseille more than I thought I would, because, you know, even among French people, [00:35:00] when we watch the news, the news from Marseille is typically not about the beautiful things you can do there, but about something that’s happened far away from the city center, you know, the low-income sort of areas that are where the social problems typically happen. But you know what? It’s the same in Paris.
Alexis: Yeah.
Annie: It’s the same in Toulouse. It’s the same in every city. Every city in France has these issues. But it’s not fair to base a city just on bad news bits that you might have heard or whatever. And even among my French family, when I told them I’m going to Marseille for a couple of days, they’re like, “What you going to do there?” I’m like, “I’m going to visit it. It’s a lovely place. It’s beautiful. Let’s go together someday,” you know?
And I’m with you, Alexis. I think in the winter, it’s got to be really, really nice.
Alexis: I think you have to remember that since the beginning of the city, Marseille has [00:36:00] had this rebellious reputation. So when Julius Caesar came, he decided not to destroy the city, because he was almost afraid of us. And so what has happened is this reputation has also, I think it’s like people love a cliché. They love a myth. And so that is what people say about the city.
And now that it’s kind of uncovering these clichés and stereotypes, it’s a really fascinating place to discover, because it’s not Paris. Paris is a postcard. Paris is truly a museum that is awake. What I find about Marseille that’s so special, and I would not live anywhere in France except for this city, is that it’s a city to just be in it, like, to walk in it, to breathe it, to smell it, to hear its noise.
So many writers have come here and have done the same thing and have just been seduced by it, and that’s what really, I think, makes it special and why you need to make your own [00:37:00] opinion and just come here.
Annie: Yeah. Visit it. Yeah. That’s fantastic. All right. Anything we didn’t discuss that you think we should bring up that I forgot?
Well, one more thing I’m thinking of is, do take some boat excursions out of Marseille. You know, if it’s not Château d’If, go to the Calanques. You have boats that will take you to the Calanques either starting from Cassis or from Marseille. Either way, they are gorgeous. You’re at the sea. Enjoy the sea, whichever way, you know?
For someone like me, a quiet little boat ride on a tourist boat is great, but maybe you want to go, I don’t know, do something more, rent a Sea-Doo or Ski-Doo, whatever those, those things are called. You know, you can… There’s all sorts of sea activities you can do in Marseille.
Alexis: Exactly.
Yeah, you can do diving. Marseille is very famous for diving. You can do snorkeling, kayaking. You can [00:38:00] privatize a lot of different type of boat, like catamaran, speedboat, sailing boat. Marseille is very famous for nautical activities, and you can enjoy the sunset on the sea. That’s very nice. You can have an, for example, you can picnic, or you can take a drink on the sea on a boat during the sunset. That’s, it is very nice, and you can do it all year long.
Annie: Exactly. It’s nice weather most of the year, honestly.
Mistral And City Character
Annie: It can get a bit windy, right, in winter months?
Alexis: Well, we have the famous Mistral wind, which is a wind that blows from the Alps, and it is intense, and it can be like almost hurricane force. It comes all year long, it’s just colder in the winter. And when you see on your phone that it says wind, take it seriously.
But it’s also part of our charm because everyone has to deal with it. It’s also why the sky is so blue, because it’s, like, cleaning the sky.
And our [00:39:00] wineries, the vineyards around Provence are really happy because it basically dries the grapes so that they don’t have humidity and mold. So it’s like anything, there is good and bad.
My opinion of Marseille and what people say about it, it’s a city you love or you hate. It’s not for everybody, and the ones who love it, I have guided at least 1,000 people. The ones who love it are enamored, are, like, truly feel something that takes them in their heart. And the ones who don’t, don’t.
Annie: Yeah, yeah. It has a lot of character, and that’s a wonderful thing to have in a city because you don’t want bland. You don’t want vanilla. Marseille is definitely not vanilla.
Alexis: No.
Annie: It’s got all the flavors, okay? It has the whole panel of flavors.
Emilie: Yeah, it’s multicultural, cosmopolitan. It’s a mix of culture.
Annie: Right. You could go to Nancy if you wanted vanilla. I was just in Nancy a few days ago. Very [00:40:00] vanilla. There’s something for everyone, and Marseille is for people who want to experience a side of French culture that is not exclusively French, but it’s also part of France.
Alexis: No, and I think what you said about the sea is really important. You have all these cities on the sea, but it’s not necessarily easy to access it. And if you’re really someone who wants a vacation that is both city and beach, this is an excellent place for it.
Annie: Yeah.
Alexis: So you can get your museum, culture, and then you can go to the sea all in the same trip. So that’s really nice, I think, for families, for couples, for retirees. It’s really, like, a combination that I find easier than a city like Barcelona or Naples where it requires a little more effort.
Annie: Yeah.
Soccer And Family Options
Annie: I was,just yesterday, I was talking to a couple who are coming to France, and the lady said she wants to go see some museums, but he would like to go watch soccer in a bar. And I’m like, “Well, that’s fine. In Marseille that would be really easy, right?” Like, go to any [00:41:00] bar, they’re going to be showing the soccer. If there’s soccer, they’re going to be showing it, because there’s a big old Marseille team. We didn’t mention it until now, but Emilie, you want to tell us about the team?
Emilie: As Olympique de Marseille is a very famous team in France, and we have the big stadiums, Orange Vélodrome stadium. So you can do, for example, the tour for families if they want to see the backstage of the stadium. But that’s true that, the football in Marseille is like a religion for some people.
Annie: Yeah.
Emilie: And there is a lot of animation. It’s very lively when you are going to see a match in the stadium.
Annie: Yes, yes. And Toulouse it would be rugby, but in Marseille it’s the soccer, and that’s also wonderful. And plenty of places where, you know, a family could say, “Okay, so this afternoon I’m going to go to the museum, and you go to the soccer field.” Or, “Do you go to a bar to watch the game?”
Emilie: Or to the beach or to the park.
Annie: Exactly.
Emilie: And you can combine [00:42:00] cultural activities or nature activities.
Annie: And I really think that’s what makes a vacation special for families, is when you’re not all forced to do the same thing at the same time. I think anybody would enjoy the Mucem. Just walking around the area is gorgeous. But going into an art museum, that’s not for everybody. But that’s the beauty of a big city, is you have so many options.
Tourist Office Tips
Annie: And I do recommend that people stop at the tourist office, not just because you’re here, Emilie, but I always say this. First thing you should do when you arrive somewhere is take a quick stop at the tourist office, see what they have to offer. They can tell you about what’s happening this, today, tomorrow, the day after.
Emilie: Yeah.
Annie: Websites, I’m sure the Marseille website is outstanding, but sometimes there’s some, like, specific interests that it’s hard to find them on a website.
You can interact with people who are living in the city, and we can advise you. We know everything about what to do, and [00:43:00] the good tips and everything.
Yes, yes. Wonderful.
Alexis: I think I’m a, you know, as a travel writer, I’m always communicating with tourist offices. And I have to say, I’m biased because I live here, but what I like about the Marseille tourist office is they really try to do authentic things. I find sometimes a tourist office is just really kind of basic. And there’s a real initiative to see the city in a way that isn’t just the five big sites, both to respond to over-tourism and also to make sure people are getting an authentic picture. So they really are trying to do things with the makers, with locals, and I really think that’s a nice thing to help people plan their trip, particularly if they don’t speak French.
Annie: Right. And one of the answers to over-tourism is to not all go at the same time. Which is why it’s good to have places that are wonderful in the wintertime, because then you spread it around, you know?
Getting There Without A Car
Annie: If you’re coming to, I don’t know, you’re coming to, you land in [00:44:00] Paris, how long does it take on the TGV, Paris to Marseille? Is it four hours?
Emilie: No, less.
Annie: Less?
Alexis: It’s about three hours, 15 minutes.
Annie: There you go.
Alexis: From Nice, we’re two hours. From Lyon, we’re two hours. So the Paris– there’s even a TGV from the Paris airport. So if you fly to the airport, and you don’t want to stop in Paris, so that’s really convenient too.
Annie: Yeah, yeah. There’s one to Bordeaux as well, but you can rarely make it because for people coming from North America, the TGV from CDG to Bordeaux, they leave too early. They’re all gone by 11, they’re all gone. But honestly, don’t all go to Paris, okay? See the rest of France. See the rest of France.
Emilie: The South of France.
Annie: The South of France is wonderful.
Emilie: And Provence, especially Provence.
Annie: Provence is fantastic. I mean, the whole thing is fantastic, but there’s a lot of things that require a car. If [00:45:00] you’re going to go to see the Provençal villages, whatever, it’s best with a car. Whereas in Marseille, you don’t really need a car.
Alexis: No, and you can, when, you know, the excursions that Emilie was talking about, you can take the train to Arles, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence. Like, a lot of villages are accessible by train so that you never have to have a car.
Annie: Well, Aix-en-Provence is not a village.
Alexis: You’re right. Aix-en-Provence, I think, is the 11th largest city in France. But like Cassis, a lot of people like to go to Cassis because it’s a little picture postcard port, and that’s just a half-hour train from Marseille.
Annie: Exactly.
Alexis: So it’s nice if you want to explore, you can take the train to the Camargue. So it’s true that some people who don’t want to have a car, it’s a nice way to get around.
Annie: Yeah, yeah.
Goodbyes and Links
Annie: Thank you so much, ladies. It’s been very informative. I enjoyed the conversation very much. And hopefully, people– I don’t think people will meet you at the tourist office, Emilie. You don’t do the front desk, do you?
Emilie: No. Only with professional, tourism [00:46:00] professional.
Annie: Right, all right. But like Alexis, I’ll put a link to your website. What’s the best way to reach you, Alexis? Is it your website?
Alexis: Yeah. So you can just go to my website, which is my name. It’s thealexisteinman.com. And yeah, I can’t wait to show you around the city. And thank you for giving us the time to talk about the city that we love.
Annie: Wonderful.
Emilie: Thank you.
Annie: Thank you so much. Au revoir, and maybe I’ll be back in Marseille soon. I would like that, especially when it gets… You know, in Toulouse, we’re in the South of France, but it gets foggy here in the winter. I don’t think Marseille gets foggy ever.
Emilie: No, we have the Mistral.
Alexis: Just the wind.
Annie: Merci beaucoup.
Alexis: Merci, à bientôt.
Emilie: Merci, au revoir, à
Annie: (Mid-roll ad spot)
Patron Thanks And News
Annie: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get [00:47:00] several exclusive rewards for doing that. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus. And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
Fontainebleau Fire Update
Annie: Fontainebleau Forest, oh, what burned and what comes next?
Maybe you haven’t heard about this, but this was major news in France during the summer of 2026. A big part of the forest of Fontainebleau burned. Fontainebleau is in the Seine-et-Marne, southeast of Paris, and it’s one of the forests Parisians love most for hiking and getting out of the city.
This summer, fire went through about 2,000 hectares of it. That’s roughly 10% of the forest. For those of you who think in acres, that’s close to 5,000 acres. Most of the forest reopened to the public on [00:48:00] Saturday, August 22nd, but about 20% is still closed, around 4,000 hectares, which includes the 2,000 hectares that actually burned, plus another 2,000 hectares kept as a buffer zone.
The people in charge are the ONF, l’Office National des Forêts, the National Forestry Office. Two months after the fire, they’re assessing the damage, and a lot of the trees that are still standing are still dangerous.
The outside of a trunk might only be burned up to a meter or a meter and a half, but the roots underneath are completely burned out. Then a gust of wind or a bit of rain comes along, one tree falls, and it takes others down with it. So many of them have to be cut down to make the area safe. The good news is that a lot of that wood is still usable.
The trees are mostly Scots pine and in many cases, only the outer layer burned. The ONF plans to sell as much of it as [00:49:00] possible for building timber, construction panels, and packaging, all used within about 150 kilometers of the forest.
The wood they can’t sell will be left on the ground to help rebuild the soil.
They’re not replanting right away. The plan is to wait a few years and let nature do its thing first. Some plants are already coming back. Ferns have started to turn green again in the burned area. Once that natural regrowth slows down, they’ll start planting, and they are choosing more southern species that handle the drought better.
The service tree, which is le cormier in French, the downy oak, and the Pyrenean oak. But we’ll have to be patient. The ONF says it will take somewhere between 50 and 80 years for the trees to get back to the height they were before the fire.
So if you’re planning a trip to Fontainebleau, most of the forest is open, but check before [00:50:00] you go which areas are still off limits.
Newsletter And Wrap Up
Annie: One more thing before I let you go, if you like the podcast, the newsletter is worth your inbox. It’s short, it comes out around each episode,
and it’s the place I actually talk about what’s going on behind the scenes, not just the show notes. And you can sign up at joinusinfrance.com/newsletter.
My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan.
Next week on the podcast
Annie: Next week on the podcast, an episode with Elyse about Gustave Courbet and his, well, interesting perspective on, well, let’s just say ‘things’.
And also about Ornans, the lovely town I visited where he was born and raised.
Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together. Au revoir.
Copyright
Annie Sargent: The join us in France Travel Podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent and copyright [00:51:00] 2026 by Addicted to France. It is released under a Creative Comments, attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.[00:52:00] [00:53:00]
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Episode PageCategory: Provence