Two Afternoons in Marseille

The best piece of information you’ll ever discover as a resident of Aix under 25 years old is that with the free special card, the bus to Marseille is only €2. One Friday I took my first ever trip into Marseille, as my lessons are over by midday on Fridays – the perfect start to a weekend. It only took about 45 minutes for it to go from the bus station in Aix to the bus station in Marseille!

Jess, Josh and I walked along the market in the Vieux Port, which had (of course) lots of stalls selling overpriced Savon de Marseille, as well as the classic lavender pouches, cheap jewellery, and mini succulents. It was so lovely just to breathe in the sea air and look at water for a while.

We ate lunch in a popular little cafe called Maison Geney, which is a couple of roads up from the port. Unlike eating out in Aix, it was refreshing to be able to pay only €9 for a meal! They did a lunch deal where you could get a foccacia or hot meal with a drink and a dessert – I’m looking forward to coming back again.

We spent most of the afternoon wandering around Le Panier district in Marseille. This is an area full of small shops and boutiques with street art everywhere, though sadly more upmarket than we could afford. The area is so big that we took two and a half hours exploring it all and taking in the scenery. My favourite find was a Petanque Museum – only in France!

As we made our way back to the Vieux Port via la Rue de la République, we stopped into many different homeware shops to dream about how to decorate a hypothetical home that’s more than just one room. Josh also made a stop at a macaron speciality shop and reliably informed us they were very tasty.

After a disappointing visit to Seconde Vie – a pricy vintage designer boutique instead of a thrifty second-hand shop – we met Jennifer and Grace at Amorino in the Vieux Port for an ice cream. By this point it was getting late in the day; we headed back towards the bus station. Both at the bus station and in town is a Hema, a Dutch shop which has recently opened at major train stations and airports in the UK, which I was delighted to find! I shan’t be going without my chocolate letter this St Nicolas’ Day.

A Second Visit

The day Will and I came to Marseille for my second time was deceptively warm; by the time we arrived we were already in sore need of a drink and a sit down, which I happily found at A Cup of Tea. This is a drinks-only cafe on the same road as Maison Geney (I had eyed it up on my last trip into Marseille for future reference) with a selection of world literature translated into French inside available to buy. In line with the cafe’s name, they had a suitably good list of teas – though I must admit I chose an Orangina on account of the temperature instead! I will definitely return here with a course book that needs reading another day!

Walking along the Vieux Port, I noticed that the market was much more animated and with a greater number of stalls on the Saturday. We ended up at the Fort Saint-Jean, which the public can access for free, and gives lovely views over the Mediterranean. There is a footbridge over which you can walk to the Mucem (Museum of Mediterranean Civilisation), regularly displaying various exhibitions. As an AMU student, I get into the museum for free, and the particular exhibition we went to was free for under 25s anyway, so neither of us had to pay! It was a really interesting exhibition which linked up French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Turkish, and Algerian history through the common ground of sea trade. The Mucem also has a fantastic bookshop on the ground floor, lacking only a decent sized section for theatre.

Once out, the sun had set and the lights on the top floor terrace were lit up, providing a wonderful romantic atmosphere to look at the lighthouse across the sea (and causing me to neglect taking any photos).

I’m already looking forward to my next trip back to Marseille, and to find out how many more exhibitions I can attend for free!

A plus,

Zoe x