36 Hours in Marseille

 Trip date: September 2022

After a week in Paris, I headed south with my friends Forest and Cliodhna, for a little weekend in Marseille. Even though we had a 7:30 am train ( SO EARLY!) out of Gare du Lyon, I was excited to return to Marseille; my last visit had been in 2010! 

It's a very pretty 3 hour train trip down to the oldest city in France, and the weather was lovely. We brought mimosa makings on board and had a little breakfast picnic. Once we arrived at the main station it was an easy walk to our Airbnb in the Opera neighborhood, which is right near the old port. It was only 11am but we were able to leave our bags at the key pick up place until check in.

You don't go to Marseille without eating bouillabaisse and we were headed to the 70+ year old family restaurant Chez Fonfon to have ours for lunch. Fonfon is in the tiny port of Vallon des Auffes which is just a short Uber ride away. We somehow scored a very posh Cadillac SUV Uber that was decked out with party lights and leather pillows on the seats! Fancy! 

Bouillabaisse is serious business in these parts and there are traditions that are followed religiously by local chefs. Typically the dish must contain 4 species of fish, one must be the bony rockfish rascasse, and all fish must come from the Mediterranean Sea and caught that day. 

First, you are served a bowl of the broth, heavily flavored with saffron, which you eat with rouille, a spicy aioli which you spread on toasted bread and float on the bouillabaisse. Then they will bring you your cooked fish and more broth so you can have it all together. It's not the prettiest dish but oh my it is delicious!! 

After lunch, we walked around a bit and had some wine at a little bar overlooking the Mediterranean, watching the swimmers and sunbathers on the rocks. It was a lovely afternoon!

We headed back to check into our Airbnb and grab our luggage. The space was very pretty and the location was just perfect. We walked that evening to the speakeasy Carry Nation for cocktails.

This spot was a big hit with all of us. Sometimes speakeasies can be quite pretentious but the staff was wonderful and the drinks were great. Also the menu had a Ramos Gin Fizz on it, and if you put that on your menu I am 100% ordering it without apology.

It was a stunner!!

From here we headed to Copper Bay; a favorite of mine in Paris so I was very happy to check out their Marseille location. No surprise that the cocktails were fab!

The next morning we walked along the old port; the area has been spruced up quite a bit since my last visit, there's now a mirrored roof over the fish and flower vendors, lending an arty vibe. 

On the other side of the port there are lots of little kiosks selling local products and souvenirs. It's all very cute and bustling. And right across the street was our lunch destination, La Caravelle

Inside the adorable old bistro, we scored a window table with incredible views of the cathedral across the harbor. Pastis was ordered, and rosé, and we had an absolutely wonderful lunch. My salad of melons, feta, jambon, and olives was crazy good and only €15!

After lunch we continued our walk all the way to the end of the port to the Saint John Fort and the MuCEM (Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée). Walking on the ramparts around the fort give you amazing views of the city in all directions. 

Once you've made your way around you'll see the MuCEM, it's an absolutely stunning building! We didn't go inside but we walked across the (high and slightly scary) bridge and had a drink on their terrace. 

This is a great walk! Highly recommend!

From here we walked back through the port area of town and made our way to the Intercontinental/ Hotel Dieu. It's a gorgeous grand old hotel and Capian Bar turns out very delicious martinis. 

We chose to have ours on the terrace with another great view of the cathedral. It's really a beautiful spot for a drink.

The entire weekend had been very sunny and warm but as we walked back to our Airbnb the skies turned dark and the wind kicked up. It was pretty dramatic!

That evening we had a very good dinner at Ourea, a charming neighborhood restaurant filled with locals. 5 courses for €52! 

As we were finishing dinner a MASSIVE rainstorm happened! The streets started flooding and Forest and I remembered a similar night in New Orleans years ago! Even though our apartment was just blocks away, there was no way we were braving that in our dresses and heels! Thanks Uber! Our walking in Marseille was officially over.

We had a few nightcaps back at ours and said our goodbyes to Cliodhna as Forest and I had a 9am flight to Corsica the next morning and would be out the door quite early.

I had been wanting to go back to Marseille for years, in fact Forest and I originally had a trip scheduled in May of 2020... we know how that went. It was so good to be back and so fun to be with these two lovely ladies! 

All Marseille photos here.

Other posts from this trip:

Paris For Free

Paris by the Numbers 

(Michelin) Stars in Paris

Exploring Corsica

Beautiful Marseille!

It's been a heck of a busy summer, which of course is my excuse for having not posted about our June trip to the south of France. That and an unfortunate situation in which our camera memory card went missing and a weeks worth of photos from Marseille & Provence were lost. Only a few random shots captured on our iPhones remain. And those that our friends nicely sent to us to help with our loss. Let me tell you, I don't wish that experience on my worst enemy. It was heartbreaking to say the least. But as Dayne said we are lucky to have our amazing memories and so with that, on this cold and rainy Seattle day, I am going to dive into a little recollection of the sunny weekend we spent in Marseille.

As mentioned it was tough to get here but once we did we were charmed. Our room at the Grand Tonic Hotel was perfect! A large, corner room looking right out onto the port was just what we had hoped for.

Setting off to wander the port, the evening was warm and sunny and it was time for a cocktail! We grabbed a table on the sidewalk at Om Cafe which had both gin fizzes and whiskey sours on their cocktail menu. This would not be our only time ordering refreshing and well made gin fizzes from Om.

Next up we spent a wonderful evening at the well known Restaurant Miramar feasting on the local specialty- Bouillabaisse. The huge bowls of seafood were presented to us first followed by the even larger bowls of broth which was incredibly rich and filling. We could barely make a dent in ours (after 1st courses of foie gras and a crab, mango and avocado millefeuille) but watched the rest of the diners sop up every last bit with toasts.

The following day was all about sightseeing! We strolled past the fish vendors, their catches set up on card tables. The local chefs and housewives inspected their goods- most still alive or so fresh they were stiff with rigor mortis. A public bus took us through the city and up to Notre Dame de la Garde. The cathedral sits on the highest point in Marseille offering amazing views in every direction of the city, the port and the beautiful blue sea. After lunch we stumbled upon a wedding and then went tasting pastis at Le Maison du Pastis. Finally just as the day was the hottest we set off on a 2 1/2 hour cruise of the Calanques. These incredible limestone cliffs cut deep back into the land creating little coves of clear blue water which visitors anchor their boats in. The calanques are jagged and steep and many people hike and rock climb them. It was really stunning and unlike anything I've seen before!

There was a big street festival going on that evening and we walked past the stages set up for music and dance on our way to Chez Entienne.  This small, family run grill has no menu and they don't speak English but they are quite well known for their cheese and anchovy pizza. We started with that and some pastis followed by a pavé of beouf for two which came perfectly cooked and accompanied with salad, roasted potatoes and penne in tomato sauce. Our dinner with a bottle of wine, espresso and shared creme caramel came to only 68€! Unfortunately they only take cash, which we were shy of, so a fellow patron explained to Dayne where the nearest "distributor" was. I finished the wine and espresso and hoped they wouldn't put me to work washing dishes :)

It was a perfect little weekend, although rough in the start and too short over all. I'd go back to Marseille in a minute!

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner...

On our flight from Seattle to Marseille yesterday we had a stopover in Amsterdam, unfortunately that stop over ended up being a sleepover due to France having an all day general transportation strike.

Luckily for us we have friends who live in the city and were gracious enough to invite us over for dinner in their beautiful apartment. The evening was so warm and pretty that we decided to sit outside on their rooftop deck, the views of Amsterdam stunning.




We brought along some cold Taittinger champagne to start the night, Klary made a delicious dinner of cheesy baked penne, roasted broccoli and green salad with apples, prosciutto and mozzarella . There was dessert of yogurt, strawberry rhubarb compote and stroopwaffel (Dayne's favorite). It was a perfect and relaxing evening, catching up with friends we don't see often and getting to know them even better. To wrap up the evening Dennis held a Genever tasting with 3 very nice subjects- Schermer's Oude Jenever a light style at 36% made in Amsterdam; Filliers 125th Year Jubileum Graanjenever, a very whisky flavored Belgium spirit at 42% and finally Filliers 8 year old 50% Grand Jenever which was my favorite!




We feel lucky to know people in different countries and luckier still to call them friends. Klary and Dennis turned what could have been an overly frustrating situation into an incredibly enjoyable evening in a city we already love. Thank you and see you in October!


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Location:Amsterdam, Netherlands