Tours in Marseille

Marseille is the oldest city in France, founded by Greek sailors from Phocaea around 600 BC, and it has never entirely stopped being a port. The Vieux-Port is still the middle of everything, with the fish market on the quay in the morning and the ferry to the Chateau d'If — the island prison of the Count of Monte Cristo — leaving from the same water. Above it, Notre-Dame de la Garde stands on the highest point in the city and is visible from almost everywhere in it. Le Panier behind the north quay is the old quarter, all stairs and washing lines, and next to it the MuCEM sits in a black concrete lattice joined to a seventeenth-century fort by a footbridge. South and east, the Calanques begin almost inside the city: white limestone inlets with water the colour of a swimming pool, reachable on foot or by boat.

The city rewards a guide more than a checklist. Walking tours of Le Panier and the old port explain a place that looks chaotic and is not; food and drink is a category of its own here, from beer tasting to musical aperitifs with local produce. The Calanques are the outdoor draw, hiked from the edge of town or approached by boat from Cassis. And Marseille works as a base for Provence: Aix-en-Provence and its Cezanne country, the wine estates of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Chateau La Coste, Avignon and its papal palace — all under two hours, most of them done as half-days with a driver. Self-guided phone routes cover the old town for the price of a coffee.

Practical. The mistral is the local fact of life: a dry north wind that can blow for three days, scours the sky clean and cancels boat trips. Summers are hot and dry, winters mild, and the swimming season runs June into October. Bouillabaisse is the dish and the tourist trap in equal measure — a real one is ordered a day ahead and costs sixty euros or more; a plate of panisses costs three. Airport transfers into town take about half an hour and are worth arranging in advance, since the airport bus stops at the station rather than the port. The metro and tram are cheap and cover the centre. Tipping is rounding up. Marseille has a reputation for petty theft; the practical version is to keep bags closed on the Canebiere and at the Vieux-Port at night.