Marseille

The Vieux-Port, the rectangular harbour at the foot of the Canebière, is where the city gathers and where its boats leave. Every morning fishermen sell their catch from stalls on the quay at the head of the harbour, beside a polished steel canopy whose mirrored ceiling reflects the crowd below, and from the same quay boats sail for the Château d'If, the Frioul islands and the Calanques. Cafés and fish restaurants line the quays on either side, under the masts of the marina. A few minutes' walk north, the Musée d'Histoire de Marseille looks over the excavated quays of the Greek and Roman port in the garden beside it, the Jardin des Vestiges.

North of the harbour, Le Panier, the oldest quarter, climbs the hill where the Greek city stood: stepped lanes and small squares, pastel and ochre façades with washing strung between them, murals on the walls and shops selling the city's olive-oil soap. In its upper streets the Vieille Charité, a former almshouse built around an arcaded courtyard with a domed chapel at its centre, houses museums of Mediterranean archaeology and of African, Oceanian and Amerindian art. On the quarter's western side, the lower streets lead down to Fort Saint-Jean and the waterfront.

At the harbour mouth, the MuCEM — the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations — is a glass cube wrapped in a lattice of dark concrete that throws patterned shade over its galleries and over the ramps climbing round the building to a roof terrace above the sea. Its exhibitions explore the cultures that share the Mediterranean. A slender footbridge crosses from the museum to Fort Saint-Jean, a 17th-century fortress built around older towers, whose ramparts and gardens face Fort Saint-Nicolas across the harbour entrance. A second footbridge links the fort to Le Panier, so a visit can start in the museum and end in the old town.

The basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde stands on the limestone height south of the Vieux-Port, its striped neo-Byzantine bell tower topped by a gilded Virgin and Child that the city calls la Bonne Mère. Inside, beneath gold mosaics, the walls are covered in ex-votos left by sailors and their families — painted storms and shipwrecks, and model boats hung from the vaults. The terrace looks out over the whole city, the port and Le Panier, and across the bay to the Château d'If and the Frioul islands. A bus climbs from the Vieux-Port; on foot it is a steep walk of half an hour or more.

Marseille cooks from the sea and from the far shores of the Mediterranean, and its dishes make one of France's regional kitchens. Bouillabaisse made to the Charte de la Bouillabaisse, the restaurants' own standard, is a long and costly meal of several kinds of rockfish served in two courses: the saffron broth first, with croutons and garlicky rouille, then the fish. Panisse, chickpea batter set, cut into sticks and fried, and chichi frégi, sugared doughnut sticks, are the snacks of the seafront kiosks at L'Estaque, on the north side of the bay, and the navette is a boat-shaped biscuit flavoured with orange blossom. Just off the Canebière, the streets of Noailles are the city's market, with stalls of spices, olives, flatbreads and North African pastries and small restaurants serving couscous and tagines.

Uphill from Noailles, the Cours Julien is a long pedestrian square whose stairways, walls and shutters are covered in murals and graffiti, ringed by bars, small restaurants, record shops and music venues and busiest in the evening. Further out, behind Gare Saint-Charles, La Friche Belle de Mai fills a former tobacco factory with artists' studios, exhibition halls, performance spaces and a broad roof terrace over the city.

South of the harbour mouth, past the gardens of the Palais du Pharo, the Corniche Kennedy follows the sea south from the little Catalans beach, a seafront road with a long stone bench along its wall, and the shore road carries on to the broad Prado beaches, where the city goes to swim. On summer afternoons, swimmers spread out on the rocks below the road and dive from them into the sea. Beyond the Prado, the coast road runs on past the marina of Pointe Rouge to Les Goudes and Callelongue, fishing hamlets at the end of the road where the Calanques begin.

A short boat ride from the Vieux-Port, the Château d'If stands on a bare islet in the bay: a 16th-century fortress, later a prison, that Alexandre Dumas made famous by locking his Count of Monte Cristo in its cells. Visitors walk through the cells and up to the terrace, with the city and Notre-Dame de la Garde across the water. The same boats sail on to the Frioul islands, where Ratonneau and Pomègues, joined by a sea wall, have a small harbour, coves for swimming and paths over bare white rock, and no cars. Landings on If depend on the sea, and a strong mistral can call them off.

From Callelongue to Cassis, some 20 km of white limestone cliffs drop into clear water, cut by the narrow inlets — the calanques — that give the national park its name; the park takes in the sea as well, and the Riou archipelago offshore is a diving ground. Sormiou and Morgiou, on the city side, shelter fishermen's cabins and small beaches; Sugiton lies below the Luminy plateau; and En-Vau, nearer Cassis, is a narrow slot between sheer walls with a pebble beach at its head. The trails are rocky and steep, with little shade and nowhere to refill water.

Trains arrive at Gare Saint-Charles, on a rise above the centre, where a monumental staircase leads down towards the Canebière; the Vieux-Port is about 20 minutes' walk downhill or a few minutes by metro. The metro and trams cover the centre and La Joliette, and buses do the climbing — to Notre-Dame de la Garde, along the Corniche to Les Goudes and Callelongue, and out to Luminy for the Calanques. Saint-Charles is on France's high-speed network: TGVs reach Paris in a little over three hours and Lyon in about 1 hour 40 minutes, and trains along the coast reach Nice in about 2½ hours. Ferries for Corsica sail from the port terminal at La Joliette. As in any French city, pickpockets work crowded metro carriages and station ticket machines, and France's health and safety basics hold here too.