Destination #26 - Marseille, France

When I had initially planned this trip, I had heard of Marseille but I actually had no idea of what it was like. In the lead up to my departure for this trip, I had a told a few people that Marseille was one of my stops. Instead of getting excited, their reactions were a little held back. I ended up actually educating myself on the city and supposedly, it has always been depicted as grungy, poor, and dirty. However, the city is supposedly "fighting back", not only improving its tourism with an abundance of museums, but it also was European Capital of Culture for 2013.

It was a 2 hour flight from Porto but I was jumping ahead an hour as well so the plane didn't touch down until 10:45pm. I don't give myself enough credit for the little French I do know because unlike Spain and Portugal, I was able to understand signage a bit better already. From the airport to the central station was a shuttle bus and once arrived, it was getting closer to midnight. I'll admit, I was a little on edge walking through the streets of Marseille to my hostel. I did want to give this city a chance despite the bad rep it was getting. I finally arrived at my hostel after walking at a slightly faster pace and went straight to bed.

When I had breakfast the next morning, I was surprised at the amount of people at this hostel that were French, and I'm talking about the majority of them. Even my roommates were French. I guess France is a big country but I don't think I met a Spanish person at any of the Spain hostels and same for Portugal.

Anyway, first stop of the day was another climb up a massive hill to see the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde, probably the most famous landmark of Marseille. At the top, I got a great panoramic view of Marseille and even better, it was free entry to the Basilique. It was stunning on the inside.

Once climbed down the hill, I took a peak inside the Abbaye Saint-Victor and walked around the South side of Vieux Port (Old Port) of Marseille. So many boats!

From there, I walked up to Cours Julien, an area of Marseille known for its graffiti art, restaurants, and small shops. I didn't take too many photos here because I felt like as a tourist, I was sticking out like a sore thumb with my big camera. It felt like this was the place to be for locals.

Afterwards, I went along the east and north side of the Vieux Port before seeing the Marseille Cathedral and Le Panier, Marseilles old town. Although it was quiet, this area had a funky vibe to it with lots of street art around on the walls.

I then went to go over to MuCEM (Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean), Marseilles main museum, to find that they are closed on Tuesdays...

Today was Tuesday.

My last stop of the day was the Parc Longchamp where it had an amazing structure and fountain.

It wasn't a very eventful day in Marseille but I felt like I saw enough of the city. It was grungy, yes, but I could see how one might perceive it as "cultural". It had some really pretty sights to it and I don't regret going.

Next:
Nice
Turkey
Rhodes