Marseille Travel Guide

Marseille is France’s electrifying second city. With nearly 2 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area, it best embodies the vibrancy, energy, and multiculturalism of modern France. The cuisine is epic too.

It’s also the country’s oldest metropolis, founded as a port by the Greeks in the 6th century B.C. Author Alexandre Dumas called teeming Marseille “the meeting place of the entire world.” He wasn’t wrong. A view from the high basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde reveals the colorful Vieux Port, with its elegant historic buildings, boat-filled harbor, and the Mediterranean beyond, from where so many arrivals originated from. The city is large but its cosmopolitan mix of sounds, smells, and sights are well connected by tram, Metro, ferries, and electric scooters.

Marseille’s residents do not feel overshadowed by their wealthy cousins in Paris. Nor by their neighbors in pristine, picture-book cities like Avignon and Lyon. The city, while noisy and beaten-up in places, boasts huge amounts of civic pride. This is best seen in friendly parks, al fresco restaurants, and in social interaction schemes, including a new gourmet restaurant inside a maximum security penitentiary.

City spirit is most prominently vocalized at the 67,000 seat Stade Vélodrome, home of ace soccer squad Olympique de Marseille. The stadium hosts matches during the 2024 Paris Olympiad, while a new Olympic marina welcomes 300 sailors competing in ten nautical events.

One tip: arrive hungry. Marseille is the nation’s foodie go-to, with street food so good that tourism bosses regularly host TikTokers to stream the city’s eats. Tuck in.