Are you planning a visit to the south of France? Have you always wanted to visit Marseille? Are you wondering what to see in this town?
This is Day 2 of our visit to the lovely town of Marseille. Read Marseille Day 1 to fully understand what to visit in this vibrant town.
We were travelling independently in France with a car as we are confident travellers and speak a bit of the language. However, if you prefer to be part of a tour and to have everything organised for you, I advise you to book a complete tour with Tourradar.
Tourradar has different kinds of tours that will fit your time and budget. If you book it via my links you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
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Below is a map showing the places we visited on our second day in Marseille:
On our second day, we woke up to a nice sunny day and went downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast at Hotel Hèrmes was very good, with plenty of items to fill you up and start the day.
After breakfast, the first thing we did was to walk to the ticket office at the quai. We wanted to see if the boats were running to the “Île d’If”. Unfortunately, the boats were not running, because the sea was still very rough. It was not suitable for docking at the island. What a shame! We were hoping we could visit the island in the morning and see more of Marseille in the afternoon.
The Île d’If is a small island about 1.5 kilometres from Marseille. The chateau is a fortress built in the 16th century and is famous because it was the setting of the novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas.
As we couldn’t go to the island at that time, we changed our plans and decided to visit “Le Panier”. We decided to go there in the morning and check again for the island in the afternoon.
VISITING MARSEILLE
We strolled through the streets in the direction of “Le Panier”, which is quite close to the Old Port. We went up some stairs and saw some nice street art on the way to our first stop, “Place des Moulins”.
You can explore Marseille out of the beaten track by taking a tour of the impressive street art of the bohemian district. Book this tour HERE.
“Place des Moulins” is a place where windmills were built in the past. In the 16th century, there were about fifteen of them. By the 19th century, only three of them remained.
At that time, the town demolished the buildings in the area and built “Place des Moulins”. It is a genuine Provençal village square with trees and benches. The square is very attractive with a fountain in the middle and lovely houses around it.
We continued our strolling via Rue des Mouettes until we arrived at “Place de la Charité”. On this square, you will find the “Old Charité”, a former alms-house. It houses the “Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology”, the “Museum of Art of Africa, Oceania and Amerindian”, and other cultural activities.
There is a chapel in the middle of the courtyard with a two-storey building around it in the form of a “u”. We visited the chapel and the museums which have very interesting art to see.
There is a very nice walking tour of the “Old Marseille” which covers “Le Panier”. It is a tour and a treasure hunt that should be a lot of fun. Book it HERE.
After the visit to the museums, we explored the streets of “Le Panier” and walked in the direction of Marseille Cathedral “Cathédrale La Major”.
The building is a mixture of two cathedrals. The old one much smaller and the new one built on an enormous scale. It is a beautiful cathedral worth visiting. It has been listed as a monument since 1906.
From the cathedral, we walked to the “Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations”. It is a modern building, on the edge of the sea and can be seen from various points in the city. We didn’t go inside the museum; we just walked around admiring the architecture of the building. Continuing, we went to Fort Saint-Jean next door.
The fort was built in 1660, by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port,. At the same time they constructed another fort on the opposite side of the harbour, Fort Saint-Nicolas.
Fort Saint-Jean became part of the MuCEM museum and is connected by a long steel bridge at a high level. There is also another footbridge connecting the fort to “Le Panier” district.
We visited the “Mémorial des Déportations” as part of the “Museum of Marseille History” on Fort Saint-Jean. Interesting museum also worth visiting.
Once we were on top of Fort Saint-Jean, we crossed the steel bridge to the MuCEM museum. We ended up at their café on the terrace at the top. That was the ideal place to stop and have something to drink. After some refreshments, we decided to pop back at Epicerie L’Ideal for a late lunch. As we had such a nice lunch there the day before, it deserved a return.
After lunch, we went back to the Old Port and checked if the boats were back running. However, it was still not possible to dock at Île d’Ife, so we took the Metro 1 to visit “Palais Longchamp” instead.
The Palais houses two museums, the “Natural History Museum of Marseille” on the west wing and the “Museum of Fine Arts” on the east wing. In the middle, there is a large fountain called “Château d’eau” There are various sculptures and a waterfall at the top of the fountain and the place is very beautiful.
The “Longchamps Park” is behind the palace and still holds many buildings used by the zoo that occupied the site in the 19th century but had been closed many years ago.
We visited the outside of the Palais and went behind the fountain at the entrance to the park. We took many photos as the place is very Instagramable.
From there we took the metro and went to the Church Notre-Dame du Mont. This is a simple church that sometimes is confused with the Notre-Dame da la Garde. It is located in the artist’s district and a residential area.
The church houses various works of art from the former convent that occupied the site on the 6th century.
After looking at the church inside and outside we decided to go down to the Old Port on foot. On the way we passed “Cours Julien” and the “Escalier du Cours Julien” on the route. These are very typical and popular areas in Marseille.
As it was already late, we went back to our hotel for some rest. We managed to cover a lot of ground on this second day.
We left the hotel later in the evening for dinner. This time we went to the other side of the Quai, to “Cours Honoré-d’Estienne-d’Orves”. We saw many restaurants while walking through the streets of Marseille in that area.
We looked around and picked a restaurant called “Maison Mediterranée”. Dinner was OK food-wise, and we sat at a table outside. However, some people at the tables around were smoking and it spoiled our dinner.
It is not pleasant for non-smokers to eat while breathing other people’s cigarette smoke. We left as soon as we finished as we could not bear the cigarette smoke any longer.
This was the end of our visit to Marseille. We felt that we needed at least another day to visit a couple more museums and the Île d’Ife. We will go back because we enjoyed the city a lot and would like to explore it more.
Below is a reel from The Travelling Surveyor Instagram account with more photos of Marseille. Check it out and follow me on Instagram as well.
The next day, we would leave Marseille and drive to Hyères. We wanted to visit “Porquerolles Island” for the day. In the next post, I will tell you everything about our day on the island.
I hope this post will give you some idea of what can be done in a day in Marseille and will help you plan your own visit there.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in Marseille. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
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** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
PLEASE NOTE: Every hotel, restaurants and attractions I mention on my blogs are not sponsored reviews and we always paid the full price when visiting. We give our own opinion of the place and detail our experience, good or bad.
WHAT TO SEE IN MARSEILLE
ATTRACTIONS
1 – Île d’Ife and Chateau d’Ife
2 – Le Panier – ***
3 – Place des Moulins – ***
4 – The Old Charité – ***
5 – Marseille Cathedral – ***
6 – Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (Mucem)
7 – Fort Saint-Jean – ***
8 – Mémorial des Déportations – ***
9 – Palais de Longchamp – ***
10 -Church Notre-Dame du Mont – ***
11 – Escalier du Cours Julien and Cours Julien – ***
WHERE TO STAY
ACCOMMODATION
1 – Coup de Coeur Vieux Port – République – 4 * – ££
2 – Hôtel Life Marseille VP – Vieux Port – 3* – ££
3 – Satycity Aparthotels Marseille Centre Vieux Port – 3* – ££
4 – Maisons du Monde Hôtel & Suites – Vieux Port – 4* – £££
5 – Hotel C2 – 5* – £££
6 – Le Petit Nice – Passedat – 5* – £££
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WHERE TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 – Epicerie L’Ideal – *** – £
2 – Maison Mediterranée – *** – ££
3 – La Poule Noir – £££
4 – L’Avant Cour – £££
5 – La Delicatesse – ££
6 – La Mercerie – £££
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like to read:
On this trip to France:
1 – Lyon – Day 1
2 – Lyon – Day 2
4 – Marseille – Day 2 –
5 – Porquerolles Island – Coming Soon
6 – Saint-Tropez/PortGrimaud/Grimaud – Coming Soon
7 – Cannes – Coming Soon
8 – Monaco – Coming Soon
9 – Aix-en-Provence – Coming Soon
10 – Arles – Coming Soon
11 – Camargue – Coming Soon
12 – Avignon – Coming Soon
13 – Dijon – Coming Soon
14 – Fontainebleau – Coming Soon
15 – Paris – Day 1 – Coming Soon
16 – Paris – Day 2 – Coming Soon
17 – Paris – Day 3 – Coming Soon
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