Travelling by the Book: Marseille by Colleen Marshall

Travelling by the Book: Marvellous Marseille

When a friend invites me to join her in the South of France for a holiday, I am not in the habit of saying no! 

We based ourselves in Nice, Avignon, Marseille and Cannes during the month of June, enjoying the famously beautiful climate of Provence and the Côte d’Azur. 

I was looking forward to exploring Marseille, France's second largest city, and I wasn't disappointed. It is France's oldest continuously-inhabited city, founded by Greek colonists in 600BC. The natural harbour of Marseille's beautiful Vieux Port (Old Port) was its attraction. It is now a pleasure port containing 10,000 berths which provide mooring for all manner of boats, ranging in size from the fishermen's quaint barques Marseillaises to huge ultra-sleek superyachts. According to a recent TV programme, 70% of the world's superyachts are somewhere along the coast of the South of France during the northern summer!

Our holiday happened to coincide with the Euro 2016 Football Championship. Marseille was one of the host cities, and the city centre was very lively and colourful with visiting fans and supporters. There was also a highly visible presence of armed police and soldiers - Russian and British hooligans had been rioting the week before we arrived.

Our apartment was located in the Panier, the oldest district in Marseille, situated on the northern side of the Vieux Port. We went on a tour of this district with a guide from the tourism office, and found out that the street in which our apartment was located, Rue Caisserie, was the original main street of the Greek colony. Nearby Place de Lenche had been the ancient Agora, and later, when the Romans invaded, the Forum. During the second World War, the occupying Germans dynamited the Panier, as the densely populated area harboured Jews, Communists and members of the Resistance. Fortunately the 'fascist aesthetic' spared the beautiful Hôtel de Ville and the Pavillon Daviel from demolition. After the war, apartment blocks were built in this area, including the one in which we were staying. While excavating for these buildings, many archaeological remains of the Roman occupation were found. Directly beneath our apartment building, remains of the Roman docks were uncovered. They were left in situ and now form the Musée des Docks Romains, which can be visited for free. On display in the Musée d'Histoire de Marseille are the remains of a ship's hull from the 2nd century, reputedly the best preserved hull of this period in the world.

The entrance to the Vieux Port is flanked by two fortifications - Fort Saint-Jean built by the Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John during the Crusades, and Fort Saint-Nicolas built by Louis XIV. Beside Fort Saint-Jean, and linking it with a footbridge, is the J4 building, a spectacular piece of cube-shaped modern architecture which houses the MuCEM (Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée). You can walk across the bridge from the fort to a terrace and restaurant on the top floor of J4. Sun loungers are scattered about for people to relax and admire the view of the Mediterranean through the concrete latticework, inspired by Mantilla lace, that covers the building.

Marseille was famous for its soap-making industry, and we were seduced by many shops with colourful arrays of Savon de Marseille for sale. For soap to earn the label of Savon de Marseille, it must be made in Marseille or the Bouches du Rhône region, and contain at least 72% olive or other vegetable oils. It is traditionally green or white, and cube-shaped. We visited one of the small soap factories (savonneries) still in operation, La Licorne, where production is very hands-on and artisanal. Some of the machinery they were using was up to 100 years old, and the soap base was made using a secret recipe handed down through the generations. I bought a soap dish fashioned as a barque Marsellaise as a memento.

For a day out of the city we travelled north of Marseille by train along the Blue Coast, an area relatively unknown to tourists and popular with French holiday makers and the Marseillais. We strolled along a seaside trail from Carry-le-Rouet to Sausset-les-Pins. Lunch was octopus salad, eaten at a pavement table outside a small port-side restaurant run by a husband and wife team…bliss!

Recommended books:

Marseille by David Crackanthorpe. A comprehensive portrait of Marseille's geography, history, architecture, art, film and literature, industry, faith and immigration.

Provence by Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls. These authors are my favourite travel writers, who have written many books for Cadogan Guides. They are the best for history, art, culture and architecture, and their writing is always humourous. This edition was published in 2009 so the entry on Marseille doesn't cover the redevelopment of the J4 pier in 2013.

The Best Natural Homemade Soaps: 40 Recipes for Moisturizing Olive Oil-Based Soaps by Mar Gómez. Try your hand at making soap like savon de Marseille!