Trip Updates

Marseille

Prior to leaving on our trip, Jackie was discussing our plans for France with a friend of ours. Jackie indicated that we were not going to the Mediterranean in France as we would be visiting Italy and Greece later in the trip. Our friend responded that “it would be criminal to go to France in August without visiting the Mediterranean”. Fortunately, we listened to our friend. We added Marseille to our itinerary and it provided one of the highlights of the trip so far.

We initially booked 2 days in Marseille, thinking that would be plenty of time to explore the city before moving on. While on the train from Paris, however, we decided that we were too tired to move that fast. We would add a rest day and stay for 3 days instead.

The cities architecture and vibe stood out to us the moment we arrived. The city felt fun, casual, and energizing with a very different architecture than Paris.

We walked across the city to our BnB where we met our enthusiastic, eccentric host. Take a look at the following screenshot of the email we received from her when we booked a room. Our host’s personality perfectly matches the formatting of this email. She was fun, kind, helpful, and generally great but also scattered, a bit disorienting, and occasionally exhausting.

We used that evening to plan out our time in Marseille. We added a trip to the Calanques, filling up our extra day. So much for resting!

Touring

Calanques

Near Marseille, there is a gorgeous landscape along the ocean of soaring rocky cliffs plunging to inviting bays filled with beautiful blue water. This seascape is formed when rocky limestone mountains are eroded by streams or caves formed by seawater collapse into the ocean. The result is our favorite spot in France thus far, a place of natural beauty with great hiking and swimming.

Tragically, our initial plan for Marseille did not include a trip to the Calanques. We had considered driving but that required renting a car and was uncertain (cars are often banned from the Calanques due to forest fire concerns). We had also considered taking a boat tour but that was expensive (70 Euros each) and would not let us do any hiking.

We researched more and discovered that city buses go to the Calanques. This solution was perfect. Buses are cheap (2 Euros per person each way), more certain (buses run even when cars are banned), and flexible (the buses we took run every ~15 minutes from early morning until near midnight).

With transportation selected, we planned and prepared for our day. Our day would include: take a bus to Luminy University (1 hour), hike down to Calanque de Sugiton (45 minutes), swim and eat in Sugiton (1 hour), hike along the water to Calanque de Sormiou 2 Calanques away (2 hours), hike up to the town of Sormiou (1 hour), and catch a bus back to our BnB (1 hour). We had a long day ahead of us so we bought picnic food, packed 7 liters of water, and went to bed early.

The next morning we had a quick coffee, grabbed our bags, and set out on an adventure. We stepped off the bus around 10 AM in Luminy and began our hike. 30 minutes later we were greeted with our first view of the Calanque and, naturally, had to stop for handstand pics.

We spied a lookout we hadn’t known about and took a short detour which rewarded us with this view.

We returned to the path and made our way down into the Calanque, stopping frequently to admire the view and take more handstand pictures. At the bottom we found dozens of locals and tourists already enjoying the water.

We found a small piece of beach, ate lunch, visited with a small group of college students, took a refreshing swim, and Wyatt jumped off one of the cliffs.

Thanks to all the detours, handstand pics, and time spent admiring the view, we were running a bit late. We packed up our stuff and started hiking towards Sormiou. This is where we learned something important. Never trust Google Maps hiking travel times. Maps estimated that hiking from Sorgiton to Sormiou would take 1.5 hours (First image below). We budgeted 2 hours to be “safe”. In reality, hiking from Sorgiton to Morgiou (less than half the distance) took us nearly 2 hours (Second image).

Apparently Google Maps doesn’t take climbing down 25 foot rock wall into account. Who knew?

By the time we reached Morgiou, we were tired, hot, hungry, and low on water. With the sun on its way down, we decided it was time to head back into the city for dinner and rest.

We walked from Morgiou to Les Baumettes (a town a 1 hour walk away) and caught a bus back to the city. We were exhausted but very happy, having just finished the best day of our trip thus far.

The City of Marseille

We’re cheating a bit on this one but the city of Marseille, in general, stood out to us more than any specific attraction housed within it. Marseille seamlessly combines the vibe of a beach town with that of a medium-sized city. As a beach town, there’s a small port surrounded by touristy restaurants and shops with locals swimming literally anywhere they can reach the water. As a city, the streets are full of locals going about their days with many restaurants and tourist sites to visit throughout the day.

During our time in the city, we hiked to the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde for an amazing view of the area, we climbed over rocks bordering the ocean, we visited the Cathedrale La Major, and more.

Iles du Frioul

Frioul Island is a short 20 minute ferry ride from the main port in Marseille. It’s a small, rocky island with nice views of the city and mini-Calanques where you can swim. The ferry to Frioul stops at Chateau d’If on the way and we got off to tour the small castle. It is mildly interesting but not worth the extra 6 Euros and time spent waiting for the next ferry so we would recommend skipping it and going straight to Frioul. On Frioul we had some lunch, walked to one of the mini-Calanques for a swim, then returned to the mainland late in the afternoon.

Observations

Swim Anywhere

Marseille has nearly no beaches but the locals don’t seem to care. If a rock toches the ocean, you can bet a local has their towel on that rock while they swim nearby. If you look closely in this picture, you can see a towel sitting on the rocks.

Time

Everything seems to be shifted 2 hours later in Marseille. For example, most restaurants don’t open until 7 PM with peak hours starting around 8 PM. This brings up a related point. Most restaurants are only open from 12-2 and then again from 7-10. Hope that’s when you’re hungry.

Overall

We really liked Marseille. The Calanques were a highlight of the trip but there was a variety of other things we enjoyed about the city.

  1. People were nicer than in Paris. Jackie wants to speak French and people were more willing to be patient with her in Marseille.
  2. The city is very walkable. We never took the subway and only took a bus to get to the Calanques. We walked the rest.
  3. Most restaurants were open.
  4. Marseille is much more affordable than Paris. Most tourist attractions were free and the food was 30% less expensive. The most expensive tickets we purchased were 16 Euros each for the ferry to Frioul.
  5. There were very few lines. We only waited in line for the ferry to Frioul.
  6. Staying at a BnB was perfect. In an AirBnB, there’s no one to talk to. In a hostel, there are so many people that it feels awkward to start a conversation. In a BnB, it feels more awkward to not talk to the others staying at the place.

Bonus

If you’re in Marseille, Simla Restaurant Indien – Bengal has the best Palak Paneer we’ve ever eaten. The rest of their food was good but that Palak Paneer was exceptional.