Marseille

Marseille is France’s oldest city and its great Mediterranean port. The Vieux-Port, the Calanques, the Mucem, the hilltop basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde and a cuisine of the sea give it a raw, luminous energy quite different from the polished Riviera further east.

Greek settlers from Phocaea founded Massalia around 600 BC on the inlet that is now the Vieux-Port, and the harbour still organises the city. Fishermen sell the morning catch on the Quai des Belges; the old quarter of Le Panier climbs the hill behind the Town Hall; and the forts of Saint-Jean and Saint-Nicolas guard the narrow entrance. Above everything, the gilded Virgin of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde watches over the sailors from her limestone summit.

Since 2013, when Marseille was European Capital of Culture, the waterfront has been remade. The Mucem, wrapped in its lattice of concrete lace, is linked by footbridge to Fort Saint-Jean, and the restored docks of La Joliette extend the city northwards. To the south, the Corniche runs past the tiny fishing harbour of the Vallon des Auffes towards the Calanques, the white cliffs and turquoise inlets protected as a national park since 2012.

Spring and early autumn are the best seasons: warm, bright and calm enough for a boat along the Calanques or a long lunch of bouillabaisse at the water’s edge. From June to September the massifs of the Calanques may close to walkers on days of high fire risk, and some of the most popular inlets are regulated in summer, so plans on land need a little flexibility.

July and August are hot and lively, with the Festival de Marseille of dance and theatre and open-air concerts in the forts and on the beaches of the Prado. The mistral, the cold north wind of the Rhône valley, can blow in any season, clearing the sky and chilling the sea for a few days. Winter is mild and uncrowded, with the Christmas santon fair on the Canebière, a Provençal tradition since the early nineteenth century.

Marseille’s luxury hotels are few, and all of them face the sea. InterContinental Marseille – Hotel Dieu occupies the eighteenth-century former hospital above the Vieux-Port, its terraces looking across the harbour to Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde; Sofitel Marseille Vieux-Port stands at the harbour mouth beside the Pharo gardens; and Le Petit Nice Passédat, a Greek-style villa on the Corniche held by the Passédat family since 1917, is home to Gérald Passédat’s celebrated cuisine of Mediterranean fish.

LVXVRY books the InterContinental through IHG Destined — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. For the Sofitel and Le Petit Nice, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay. A day in the Calanques by private boat and a table at Le Petit Nice are best reserved at the same time as the rooms.