MARSEILLE TRAVEL GUIDE: How to Feel, Eat and Live Facing the Sea

Marseille has never once turned its back on the sea. This guide follows you down from Saint-Charles station into the turquoise chaos of the Vieux Port, up through the oldest streets in France in Le Panier, and onto the hill where a golden Virgin has watched over sailors' prayers for generations. You'll hike limestone cliffs that plunge into water so blue it looks unreal, learn the grammar of bouillabaisse and the ritual of pastis, wander a market louder and more layered than any postcard version of France, and cross by ferry to the island prison that inspired Dumas. Beyond the city, vineyard hills in Cassis and Cézanne's own light in Aix-en-Provence round out a stay built around one unapologetically plural Mediterranean port.

Written in immersive second person, this is not a checklist of sights but an invitation to feel a city that faces the sea because it's never had any interest in facing anywhere else.