Visiting Marseille, France

The Vieux Port and Notre Dame
de la Garde
(a photo by christian_loverde)

Marseille is the second largest and famous city of France after the capital Paris. In its long history the city has went through periods of prosperity and periods of decline. Its privileges were often taken away by different French kings or enemy armies, it has suffered plagues, religious fanaticism, republican or royalist terror, but always managed to recover its fortunes. Marseille even lived its own storming of the Commune and Bastille similarly to Paris. So many Marseillaise people took part in the famous march of the revolutionaries from Rhine River to Paris, that the popular Hymn of the Army of the Rhine, which later became the national anthem of France, was renamed to La Marseillaise.

Nowadays Marseille has recovered from many of its past problems, living something like a renaissance. The city has managed to change its reputation for dirty streets and high number of crimes and to attract much more tourists. The recently opened TGV link has helped making the city more easily accessible by the visitors from the northern regions of France and today it is a usual thing to see many weekending peoples renting cars at the central railway station of St. Charles on Friday evenings. The pretty façade of the historic buildings along the central La Canebière Street are already shinning and a variety of elegant and fashionable boutiques can be found in the surrounding area. The rapid progress has its negative sides too. Very often prestige civic projects are abandoned and become ugly, bottle-strewn modern remains. There are notorious city areas, such as the intersection of rue Glandevès and St. Saëns where you can see street prostitutes and various criminal elements, and the area is just a few steps from the beautiful Opera House and the pleasant and popular restaurants in the district of Vieux Port. But theses negative features are an inevitable part of the life in every cosmopolitan and vital metropolis, such as Marseille.

Notre Dame de la Garde
(a photo by Andrea Loria)

The city is divided into 15 quarters or arrondissements, focusing around the Old Port (Vieux Port). North from Vieux Port is located the oldest part of the city, the site of the ancient Greek colony-polis of Massalia, and beyond it is the quickly progressing district of Les Docks. The elegant and broad boulevard La Canebière, which starts from the Old Port, is the major east-western artery of the city. North of this boulevard lies the Centre Bourse and the narrow streets of the Belsunce quarter, while the major commercial area of the city is situated south of it. The main north-south transport artery of Marseille comprises rue d'Aix, cours Belsunce, rue de Rome, avenue du Prado and boulevard Michelet. One of the most modern and lively city district – the area around Jean Juares Square and the elegant cours Julien are located east of rue de Rome. Starting from the Old Port, the corniche passes through beautiful residential districts on the Marsseille’s seafront, heading in southern direction to the beaches, the promenade and the intense night life of Plage du Prado.