City of Marseille

With around one million inhabitants, Marseille is the second largest city in France. Its population is a real melting pot of different cultures. Forget the Canebière, forget the “savon de Marseille” (Marseille soap), forget the clichés, and just have a ride from l’Estaque (map) to Les Goudes (map). You will not forget it.

The city’s main thoroughfare (the wide boulevard called the Canebière, map) stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. The centre of Marseille has several pedestrianised zones, most notably Rue St Ferréol (map), Cours Julien (map) near the Music Conservatory, the Cours Honoré-d’Estienne-d’Orves (map) off the Old Port and the area around the Hôtel de Ville (map).

Most of the attractions of Marseille (including shopping areas) are located in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th arrondissements.

Vieux Port (old harbour, map). Watching fishermen selling their stock by auction is a must. Arriving into Marseille in the Vieux-Port on a summer evening is something you will never forget. There is also a nice view on the harbour from the Palais du Pharo (Pharo Palace, map).

Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde (map). The big church which overlooks the city. Old fishermen used to have their boats blessed in this church. From there it is one of the nicest view of the city. You can use the tourist train (petit-train-marseille.com) from the Vieux Port to reach the church – you can get off the train, look around and board a later train back to the port.

The *French Riviera (Côte d’Azur, map), in southeastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Parisian region. Main cities on the French Riviera include Nice (map), Antibes (map) and Cannes (map); Cap Ferrat (map) is also a popular destination.

Provence – numerous famous natural sites can be found in the region, as the Gorges du Verdon (map), the Camargue (map), the Calanques National Park (map) and the typical landscape of *Luberon.

Loire Valley – This World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise (map), Angers (map), Blois (map), *Chinon (map), *Orléans (map), and Saumur (map) >> +*Châteaux of the Loire Valley)

French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (map) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions. Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble (map), Chamonix (map), Annecy (map) is called “the Venice of Savoie”, Chambéry (map), Évian-les-Bains (map) and Albertville (map).

Corsica – is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. It is a popular attraction for tourists with both cultural aspects (cities *Ajaccio and *Bastia) and geographical features (Parc naturel régional de Corse, map).

The Régie des Transports de Métropolitains (RTM) – public transport network.

The Pilote website, includes all the bus, tram and metro schedules but is easier to read than the RTM sites.

⇒ Public transport (parisinfo.com) • Getting to France (uk.france.fr)