---
node: dest_marseille
type: destination
slug: marseille
title: "Marseille"
lead: "Marseille is France's oldest city and its great Mediterranean port, founded by Greek sailors some twenty-six centuries ago. Rugged and sun-baked, it wraps a lively old harbour beneath a hilltop basilica, with limestone sea inlets at its edge."
published: 2026-08-10
updated: 2026-08-10
image_file: marseille.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hafen_von_Marseille-Notre_Dame_de_la_Garde.jpg"
image_author: "Tobi 87"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

Marseille has always been a port and a crossroads, its people drawn from across the Mediterranean, and that mix gives the city its energy and its food. Life centres on the Vieux-Port, the old harbour that has anchored the city since its Greek founding, ringed by the hills and the sea. It is a rougher, more southern city than Paris, and its rewards are the light, the seafood and the wild coast at its doorstep.

## Highlights

The Vieux-Port fills with boats and market stalls below the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde, which crowns the city and gives the widest view. The old Panier quarter climbs in narrow lanes to the MuCEM museum by the sea, and bouillabaisse is the dish to seek out. Just south, the Calanques National Park hides turquoise inlets between white cliffs, reached by boat or on foot.