Marseille City Highlights Ideas for How to Spend 3-Days

Welcome to Marseille, a city with history, culture, and scenic views. Whether you’re interested in historic landmarks, lively markets, or beautiful natural spots, Marseille has something special for everyone. Here are three days of attractions and dining suggestions to make your visit unforgettable.

Day 1: Explore the heart of Marseille. Starting at the Vieux Port, visit MuCEM, Musée Regards de Provence and Fort Saint-Jean. In the afternoon, explore the historic Le Panier district. Le Panier was once the neighbourhood where Marseille’s fishing community lived. Walk around and enjoy the street art. You might even feel like you have been transported to Naples, Italy.

Day 2: Take in the views and the water. A visit is highly recommended for the city and water views, situated high on a hilltop, Notre-Dame de la Garde Basilica. However, since you climbed up the hill, don’t skip the church’s interior, which is beautiful and filled with mementos from fishing families. Since there is probably no better way to see Marseille than by water, book a boat trip to the Iles de Frioul (four islands) and the Calanques National Park.

Day 3: Marseille is dynamic. There are plenty of museums and galleries to visit during your stay, but one that is well worth visiting is the History Museum to appreciate the city’s past better. If shopping is your thing, wander the bustling streets of La Canebière, the city’s main thoroughfare, lined with shops, cafes, and historic buildings. In the afternoon (or for lunch), grab a water taxi to Les Goudes, a tiny seaside hamlet on the city’s eastern edge.

Continue reading here for the Barefoot Blogger’s Marseille lover’s suggestions about what to see, do and where to eat in Marseille.

Marseille is a City for History Buffs

A Brief History of Marseille

Marseille has a long history and many layers. Today, it is France’s second-largest metropolis by population. An attractive location on the Mediterranean, it has archival evidence of human settlement as far back as the Paleolithic era (60,000 BC). However, it was the Phocaeans who founded Massalia in roughly 600 BC. The Romans followed and established organized trade routes for olive oil, grapes, cloth and more.

Like many European centres, Marseille’s Middle Ages period was challenging. While the settlement benefitted from marine traffic and trade, it was dangerous. The bubonic plague arrived in Marseille by ship in 1347 and spread well beyond the city’s borders. Several waves of the Black Death hit Marseille’s population and the Kingdom of France between 1347 and 1352. However, it would not be the last time. Despite sanitation protocols, the “Great Plague” arrived with a vengeance in 1720, killing over 100,000 people in the region.

In 1720, a ship called the Grand-Saint-Antoine arrived from the Levant, carrying a rich cargo destined for the annual trade fair in the Provençal town of Beaucaire. Before landing, the captain reported that several seamen had died during the voyage, possibly from the Plague, meaning the ship should have been quarantined. But this would have meant missing the trade fair, which was to begin just a few weeks later.

This was bad news for the cargo owners because the Beaucaire trade fair was one of the largest in Europe, where fortunes could be made. The great ship was not sent to quarantine but allowed to unload its deadly cargo in the port. Desperate for a way to stop the spread, the leaders of France and the Comtat Venaissin decided that the solution was to build a stone wall. Read more about this wall in “The Plague Wall of Provence – Mur de la Peste.” As a note, today’s beautiful Hôtel Dieu Intercontinental Hotel was the medical center for caregiving during the Plague.

Visitor’s Guide to Marseille

Marseille Must-See Sites

After skirting the sea, we arrive at the Notre-Dame de la Garde Basilica. The people of Marseille call her the “Good Mother”. The Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde is an emblematic figure of the city of Marseille. It is located on the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde hill and thus benefits from an exceptional panorama. She watches over sailors, fishermen and all Marseille residents. It is a huge monument with a giant golden statue of the Virgin and Child at its top. This statue measures 11.2 meters.

Do not miss Fort Saint-Jean and the MuCEM museum. Discover the public gardens located on the top level of the old fort. Along with the MuCEM rooftop, these gardens are public spaces, so you can enter and wander around. Fort St-Jean once guarded the city entrance, and the gardens have stunning views over the old port, Le Panier, the old town looking towards La Joliette and the newer part of the city.

MuCEM, the Musée des Civilisations et d’Europe, is an architectural beauty beautifully paired alongside the ancient Fort St. Jean. The city’s most iconic symbol, Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica, has glorious golden mosaics and nautical ex-votos. Nicknamed the “Bonne Mère,” the “Good Mother” is also the tallest point in Marseille, so it serves up a stellar 360° view. I also think Le Corbusier’s Brutalist Unité d’Habitation, his utopian vision of urban living, is a must for design buffs.

La Cité Radieuse was built by Le Corbusier in the 1950s. The building was a revolutionary concept at that time. Le Corbusier designed a structure with everything people might need. The Cité radieuse is built in the form of a bar on stilts. Interior streets separate 337 apartments. There are more than 1500 inhabitants. It’s an authentic little village on its own. This project seems so crazy that the Cité Radieuse is called the “Maison du Fada.” Fada is a Provençal word which means “crazy.”

Learn French and visit Marseille.

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Deborah Bine

The Barefoot Blogger, aka Deborah Bine, loves to share tales of her solo life in France as an American expat who speaks no French. Retired from a career in advertising and marketing communications, and divorced after a 40-year marriage with children, Deborah left Beaufort, South Carolina and all of her belongings last year to move to the south of France. Now that she has found her "bliss," her passion is to encourage others to break away from whatever is holding them back and to go after their dreams. "We're on life's journey alone. Be certain you love where you are."

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