August 2026
Sometimes when you plan a trip with a lot of stops, there's one you're most excited about before you've even left. For me that was Marseille.
Something about the rocky cliffs running into the sea. A big city full of sunshine, salt water, restaurants, a creative pulse. A place I kept seeing come up but that still felt slightly undiscovered. You could call that a new hot spot, but it also just felt like it was going to be a perfect fit for what I want out of a place.
We came in on the train from Nice, slightly hungover, and took an Uber XL from the station, five of us, out to an Airbnb on La Corniche, the road that runs along the coastline. Sea view, on a busy stretch where locals and tourists both stop for a cheese sandwich at La Meulerie or coffee and pastries at Pompe and carry it down to the rocks at all hours to bask in the sun and dip in the salt water. The first day we did exactly that.
It's August, so it's hot. You step outside and you sweat. The bus down to the port is packed and sweaty. None of it bothers me. My one true love is sunshine, and Marseille is a city built for it, everything arranged around getting into the light and then into the water. There's also something about the pulse of a big city that makes me feel alive, even when I'm dehydrated and need another coffee. I like being around people.
Marseille has a little chaos in it. Buses, cars, motorbikes. Not Buenos Aires chaos, but close to the right amount. Enough that I knew I didn't want to drive the rental car we were picking up at the end of the stay anywhere near the city center. The city is shaped by North Africa as much as by France, and you feel it in the food, the markets, the music, the languages on the street. It was different from what I'm used to at home, and that was a lot of the pleasure of being there.
In the center we went to Maison Empereur, which bills itself as a hardware store and is really a general store, run by the same family since 1827 and said to be the oldest in France. Three floors and something like fifty thousand items: copper pots, Marseille soap, enamelware, brushes, linen, Opinel knives in every size. It's the rare shop where you want to buy something not as a souvenir but because it's better made than the one you own at home.
We had dinner at Livingston, on a side street off Cours Julien. The facade is covered in murals and so is most of the neighborhood, thrift shops and flea markets and graffiti on everything. This is the creative heart of the city and also its rougher side, and it was completely alive, people flooding the streets to eat and wander and enjoy themselves. Orange wine and small plates, then bars nearby and dancing after.
Part of the appeal of Marseille is also what's around it. One day we took an uber out to Les Goudes and Tuba Club, about thirty minutes south of the city, for a late lunch of fresh seafood and several bottles of wine, then swam off the rocks in the afternoon. Another night we got ice cream at Loulou and took it up to the rooftop patio to watch the sun go down over the water.
I'm writing this with a Google Flights alert already set. Next time I'd get out on a boat, a sunset sail or a full day on the water, and I'd make it into Calanques National Park to hike and find the beaches we never reached. There's a version of this trip with more of that in it, and I'd like to go back and take it.
