Summer in Marseille

29 July 2026 – Marseille, France – J and I agreed we wanted to take the hop-on-hop-off bus to see the city, since none of the excursions enticed us.  Prior to last October in New York, I’ve never done a hop-on-hop-off bus, but they really are a good way to get a glimpse of the city and figure out what is next to where.  Affordable, and they include a map which is helpful for that initial orientation to a new city.  Plus we can easily get off and explore, but then take the bus back to the dock and make our way back to the ship.  Easy peasy.

We drove past gorgeous buildings in the classic French styles, with mansard roofs and all sorts of embellished and decorative moldings, balconies, window frames, doors – you name it, it was fancier on these buildings than the average structure we see in North America.  We passed beaches both rocky and sandy, full of hardy souls swimming in the chilly morning sea, or sunning on the beach or the rock jetties and breakwaters.  Two huge cathedrals, one in town and the second larger one up on a rocky hill overlooking the Mediterranean.  Forts along the waterfront, and the oldest fort up on another rocky hill.  Tiny fishing neighborhoods, gorgeous gardens, posh neighborhoods, and tons of Art Nouveau apartment buildings.

We even passed the island housing the Chateau d’If, the former prison which inspired Dumas’ story “The Count of Monte Cristo!”  It was much closer to shore than I had thought when I read the novel, though definitely with rocky coasts surrounding the island as well as along the Marseille side. 

Marseille is sort of the gateway to the Provence region of France, so we got off in what seemed to be the center of the city but still along the waterfront.  Mandatory bathroom stop which of course included a snack – I had a gorgeous tarte au framboises, a raspberry tart.  I was so excited to taste it, I forgot to get a photo to show how pretty it was!  Not only did it have the pâté brissé crust (sort of a sweet shortbread pastry crust), and had a base of cream to hold the raspberries, but each raspberry was filled inside with a tiny dollop of raspberry jam!  Seriously delicious!!!  (Especially with a little café au lait on the side.)

Most cafés seemed to feature "the real bouillabaisse," complete with all sorts of seafood and shellfish.  Prices for this regional dish were high, but then, it also is full of shrimp and lobster and crab.  But it was a hot day, and a huge tureen full of steaming hot soup-stew just didn't sound appetizing.  All the ice cream (glacée) stands looked more refreshing, but we never did buy any.  Besides, I had my delightful tarte au framboise.

The vendors market across from our café was full of wonderful finds – tins enameled to show the landscape of Provence, and often filled with bars of locally made lavender or rose soap.  (I bought at empty tin because it was so pretty, but it nicely holds a stash of teabags for travel.)  I also bought a bag of herbes de Provence, which I’ll use to fancy up my grilled chicken. 

We walked along the waterfront to the Fort Saint-Jean, which is now a museum.  It’s called the Mucem – not the normal French spelling, so perhaps regional.  Huge stone walls and sprawling, this fort was built in the 1660s during the reign of Louis XIV – though it encompasses an earlier structure built in the 1100s, which housed the Knights of Saint Jean (St. John the Baptist), hence the name.

We wandered around a bit, and thought it was about time for lunch.  The elevator to the rooftop café wasn’t working, so we walked up something like four or flights of rickety metal stairs (hello vertigo), up some tower and then across battlements or parapets – whatever one calls the crenellated parts where archers and later marksmen stood to shoot at whatever enemy was invading.  There was also a narrow bridge crossing over the street below to another part of the museum, but no thank you!

We had a delightful lunch of frittata con legumes (veggie frittata) which sat on a bed of Greek yogurt seasoned with lemon zest.  Perfect for a hot sunny Mediterranean day!

Using our bus map, we found the nearby stop and waited.  And waited.  The bus supposedly came by every 15 to 20 minutes, but after half an hour we decided this wasn’t working.  We could see that part of the street was closed for the Marseille Éte event – Summer in Marseille, which seemed to be a month-long festival.  But the city bus was coming past the stop, so we couldn’t figure out why the hop-on-off bus wasn’t coming by.  Consulting the map, we realized the stop after the museum fort was the stop where we first got on the bus, near the striped cathedral and not far from the docks.  No idea how far it was, probably a kilometer or so – maybe a mile or a bit under.  So, we walked.  Not much else we could do.

However, once we were back at the beginning of the bus route, we saw we still had a few more hours before we needed to be on the ship for sail away.  So we hopped back on the bus, found seats on the open air upper deck that had a bit of shade, and we went for another complete loop of the city – about a 90 minute ride. 

We did ride past the huge basilica Notre Dame de la Garde – Our Lady of the Guard.  This is another striped building in dark and light built of limestone (the light part) and Florentine stone (also known as green stone).  The edifice dates from the mid 1800s, and features a huge gilded copper statue on top of the campanile (or bell tower).  She can be seen for miles and miles across the see, and from nearly everywhere in Marseille!