MARSEILLE - A GUIDE (Marseille)

Member Name:

Product:	Marseille
Date:	05/11/01 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great city, Cheaper than England, Easy to get to

Disadvantages: High crime (like all big cities), High pollution (like all big cities)

Having spent 2 weeks in Marseille I feel quite qualified to write this opinion. I feel I have seen more than just the tourist attractions and feel that I know Marseille better than I know other places I’ve wrote opinions on such as Crete.

~~

Well first off – where is it?

Er somewhere in the south of France?!!?

South East France to be exact!

~~

Now how do I get there?

Well despite Marseille being right at the bottom of France it is still remarkably easy to get to and you do not have to rely on the plane. Firstly the obvious way to get there is by plane – British Airways, Air France and Buzz (only from Stanstead) fly there.

Now if you’re not too keen on the travelling by plane you can go entirely by train to Marseille. (When I went to Marseille I went by plane so I don’t know how much this option will cost but I imagine a fair bit more than an airfare). To get to Marseille by train you need to get to Waterloo Station (in London) and catch the Eurostar to Paris. And then from Paris catch the TGV to Marseille. I’m not sure what the exact journey time would be if you went to Marseille that way but I think the Eurostar takes a 2 or 3 hours and the TGV from Paris to Marseille takes just over 3 hours. The French TGV is the fastest train in the world and TGV are probably the best trains in the world. So it is slightly better than Virgin Trains or Connex South Central!! (The French government seem to take expenditure on rail travel seriously)

And the other way to get to Marseille is by car; a long, long way but some people do it. I saw several English number plates whilst I was in Marseille.

Oh yeah and you could also swim to France then hitchhike through France – though your insurance probably won’t cover you if you hitchhike and are brutally murdered by a crazy French lorry driver so I can’t advise you to use that option.


Marseille also happens to be a very big port; so another way to get there would be by being a stowaway. Though I also can’t recommend this option as it again won’t be covered on insurance and is a little slow.

~~

Right I’ve told you where Marseille is and how you can get there now I’ll tell you a bit about Marseille itself.

~~

Marseille is a great city, it has the traditional French charm to it, the hopelessly incompetent roads, cafes dotted about everywhere, restaurants serving great food for a reasonable price and everything else that you think of as French. But if that was all there was too Marseille it would be nothing special – it would be just Paris in the south of France. And that isn’t it. Marseille has its own identity on top of being French; the food isn’t just French its Marseillion or whatever the word is. Even the spirits they drink are not typically French, after a meal they drink Pastis. Pastis is a spirit made in Marseille and a spirit you can only buy in Marseille. Being in Marseille I had to try some. Well I’ll be honest it tasted like s**t but that’s not the point. In England we don’t get a traditional Leeds drink do we that people only drink in Leeds and can only be bought in Leeds? I just know someone’s going to prove me wrong here though but as they say in France – c’est pas grave.
Marseille has got lots of shops like all big cities and it has shops to suit all tastes and budgets. At the top end it has the fancy Donna Karen shop with no prices and the posh, cosy Rolex shop. And at the bottom end there’s the dodgy French markets specializing in off-the-back-of-a-lorry goods and merchandise. And if you’re really missing England you can always pop in Marks and Spencer’s (Supposed to be closing at the end of 2001 but it could stay open longer) or the Clarks shop. Though you may even feel at home at many of the F
rench shops, they seem to love the Union Jack flag and lots of shops pin cotton union jack flags up on the wall.
There are lots of nice shops in Marseille and you can easily buy good stuff fairly cheaply – or cheaper than in England. The centre of Marseille is nice, a bit polluted with traffic though but still the main shopping area is all pedestrianised.

~~

I know there always swarming with Japanese people clutching their cameras and 20 boxes of Fuji Films but if your abroad in a big city you have to visit them. Yup I’m talking about the big tourist attractions.

~~

Notre-Dame de la Garde is perhaps the most well-known tourist attraction of Marseille and it is one definitely worth visiting. Notre-Dame de la Garde is a cathedral overlooking Marseille. The view is magnificent and from Notre-Dame de la Garde you can see all of Marseille. You can go inside the cathedral which is historical but frankly nothing particularly different to any other cathedral. Though I don’t know of any other city having the cathedral overlooking the city. But this is a must visit if your in Marseille if only just to see the view.
And don’t forget your camera like I did!! The postcards for sale are of poor quality and are a rip-off!

The other big tourist attraction of Marseille is Le Chateau D’if is a tiny island just off Marseille that is unspoilt and untouched. There is quite a long story to it, to put it short it was used as a prison or something a few centuries ago but you’ll find all about that when you visit. To get there you need to take a ferry from Marseille, which takes around 30 minutes.

~~

Eating out in Marseille is cheap and easy. French cafes are cheap and usually pleasant, at lunchtime a croque-monsieur can be got for £3 or £4, which is a simple ham and cheese toastie. Though you can always have a burger – there’s McDonald’s dotted around Marseille and
there’s also lots of Quick restaurants dotted around. Quick is very like McDonalds apart from the chips and burgers come in different packaging. It’s a very similar price too.

~~

What lets Marseille down is its high crime rate, which is because of the high number of Algerians in Marseille. As a result of many Algerians being in Marseille the National Front are very popular and even have several seats in Marseille so this provokes all sorts of problems too.

~~

Overall Marseille is a great place, it even has its own mini underground system to help you get around the city. Its also only a 2 hour trip away from Italy, an hour trip to millionaires playground Monaco. I know these times because while I was there I travelled to these places.

Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Iguana2001

Summary: