# Marseille, the Old Port and Le Panier — The South of France
> France’s oldest city, a working harbour ringed by cafés, a hilltop basilica watching over it, and a new museum on the water. Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

*Source : https://the-south-of-france.com/en/provence/marseille-vieux-port/*

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By **The Editors** — _Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône_

Spring 20268 min read Share LinkMail

Marseille was founded by Greek sailors twenty-six centuries ago, and it has never stopped being a port — loud, salt-stained, impossible to tidy and entirely itself. The **Vieux-Port** is still its heart, a rectangle of water where the fishing boats land and the whole city seems to pass by before lunch.

## I. The Old Port and the morning fish

At the quay’s head the **fish market** sells the morning’s catch straight off the boats — rascasse and conger for the **bouillabaisse**, the city’s great saffron-and-rockfish stew. Above, a mirror canopy by Norman Foster reflects the crowd upside down; behind, the cafés and the long climb of the city begin.

“A port first and a city second — and it would not have it any other way.”

From the notebook

![Fishing boats and cafés around a rectangular harbour](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1578330466360-bd27f92d2fb1?fm=jpg&q=74&w=1400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The Vieux-Port at mid-morning — the catch landed, the cafés filling.

## II. Le Panier and the MuCEM

North of the port, **Le Panier** is the oldest quarter, a hill of washing-lined lanes and painted shutters climbing to the **Vieille Charité**. At the harbour mouth the **MuCEM** — the museum of Mediterranean civilisations — stands in a black concrete lattice linked by a footbridge to the old **Fort Saint-Jean**, the new city shaking hands with the old.

![A modern museum in dark lattice beside an old fort](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1614888773798-df30e12a9b6c?fm=jpg&q=76&w=2400&auto=format&fit=crop)

The MuCEM and Fort Saint-Jean — the city’s two ages at the water’s edge.

## III. Notre-Dame and the sea

Over everything stands **Notre-Dame de la Garde**, the gold Virgin on the highest hill, watched by every sailor leaving the port and the whole city laid out at her feet. From the **Corniche** below, the road runs south to the fishing cove of the **Vallon des Auffes** and on toward the white cliffs of the Calanques.

The Practical Carnet · Carnet pratique

### Plan the _visit_

Getting there

Marseille-Saint-Charles is 3 h from Paris by TGV; the centre and port are a short metro or walk away.

When to go

Spring and autumn; the Vieux-Port is best very early, with the fish and the light.

Where to stay

**Hôtel C2** or **InterContinental — Hôtel-Dieu**, above the port, for the view down to the water.

Read next

[The Calanques of Cassis](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/provence/calanques-de-cassis/)

E

About the Author · L’auteur

#### Élise Marchand

Travel Editor — based in Marseille

Élise has been driving the back roads of the Midi for the journal since its first issue. She pays for her own rooms and her own lunches — and only writes about the places she would return to.

[More by Élise Marchand — voir ses articles](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/journal/)

Continue reading · À lire ensuite

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