City Breaks

The author and film-maker Marcel Pagnol is inextricably linked with Marseille – where he lived, set some of his early works and is buried – and with the Provencal countryside around the city.  The area's garrigue landscape provides the backdrop to his popular autobiographical works, La Gloire de Mon Père (My Father's Glory) and Le Château de Ma Mère (My Mother's Castle) and is also the setting for his gripping novels, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources.  This episode gives a little biographical information, an idea of where to ‘find’ him in the area today and some appetite-whetting snippets of his work.

Reading Suggestions

Autobiographical works

3 Plays set in Marseille (in French)

Two novels set in Provence

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This post introduces you to two great pleasures in this Provencal city: Marseille food and Marseille shopping, beginning with the signature dishes and key ingredients of the city's cuisine, plus a few ideas on where to look for restaurants. Then, we outline key items to buy as souvenirs of Marseille, followed by a rundown of the city's main shopping areas and what you can expect to find in each one.  

Reading Suggestions

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More Information 

Shops and places to visit

3 Santons shops in Marseille 

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!

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Marseille boat trips – those words belong together.  But beaches and the Château d’If are also great ideas for trips out from Marseille and so this episode covers all three. Then there are suggestions for other little excursions, to l’Estaque and Cassis, which both mix boating and arty vibes, plus a trip on a coastal train with  views a-plenty and ideas for stopping off to explore. To finish, there's a little flavour of the Count of Monte Cristo’s daring – and fictional! – escape from the Château d’If.  

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This episode covers two main Marseille art galleries, the Musée des Beaux Arts and Regards de Provence, and focuses particularly on work on local themes - Marseille itself, and the provençal hinterland.  Then there are pointers to 4 more galleries in the city, featuring ethnic, modern and decorative arts, plus a little coverage of some of the most famous artists associated with Marseille: Pierre Puget, César Baldaccinni and Paul Cézanne.  Lastly, a reminder that in in this city, art often means street art!

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City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!

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This post takes you around La Joliette, the new port area in Marseille and looks at what there is to do there. That includes the city’s two newest must-see museums – one gives you a tour of Mediterranean culture, the other takes you on a virtual exploration of the incredible caves discovered nearby, where the artwork dates back 30,000 years. We also find time for plenty of shopping, eating and culture in both historic and ultra-modern settings, all with a magnificent sea-view backdrop.

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This post focuses on the Le Panier district of Marseille, the oldest and most atmospheric part of the city: think hills, narrow roads, colourful houses, flowers, little restaurants in pretty squares, artisan shops and plenty of street art.  Plus two of the city’s big sights, La Charité, the former poorhouse, now a museum centre and the stunning 'Major' Cathedral.  As the author Jean -Claude Izzo wrote. ‘To linger in Le Panier is to feel the old heart of Marseille throbbing’.  

Reading Suggestions

Garlic, Mint and Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo

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Self guided walk around Le Panier 

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This episode centres on Marseille’s most popular sights, the Old Port, the hilltop church of Notre Dame de la Garde, and the Canebière, the wide avenue leading back from the port into the heart of the city. After a few snippets of history, we tour such sights as the fish market, the iconic canopy built to mark Marseille's year as a City of European Culture in 2013, an ancient tower and a surprising link to Odessa in Ukraine.  We might take the little ferry across the harbour, we'll certainly walk - or maybe take the 'petit train' - up the hill to Notre Dame de la Garde, where a huge golden statue of Mary the Virgin watches protectively over the city.   

Reading Suggestions

The Wicked City by Nicholas Hewitt

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The Saint Jean Fort

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There are 26 centuries of history in Marseille, which is the oldest city in France!  This episode runs through 10 places where you can find traces of key moments in the city's past.  They range from the plaque commemorating the founding of Marseille in about 600 BC to the site where you can still see bullet holes from the fight to liberate the city from German occupation in 1944.  They’re listed in chronological order, with a few of their stories attached and although this makes a good overview, we've saved some of the 'big-hitters’ such as Notre Dame de la Garde and the Château d’If for later episodes where they'll get a fuller treatment.

Reading Suggestions

The Wicked City The many Cultures of Marseille  by Nicholas Hewitt

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City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!

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Bienvenue à Marseille. Welcome to Marseille, the lively southern French city whose name rhymes with 'soleil'.   There's beauty in the Old Port and the stunning coastline, there's history and culture a-plenty in the museums, there's a Provencal feel - boules and bouillabaisse - overlaid with a vibrant multi-ethnic mix.  There's a little grit too, for this is the home of Marseille Noir crime fiction and the notorious Château d'If so graphically portrayed in The Count of Monte Cristo.  

This introductory episode will help you get your bearings and pick up the basic facts which underpin everything. As the French say, 'On y va!' - Let's go!

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3 Guide Books

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!

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Our introduction to literary Bordeaux begins with the 3 most famous Bordeaux authors, the ‘3 Ms’, that is the philosophers Montaigne and Montesquieu and the novelist François Mauriac.  There are statues of them all in the city.   There are mini biographies and pointers to their works.  Then we follow up with more books set in and around Bordeaux - historical fiction, two very different detective stories and the true account of the web of spies – French, German, British – operating in Bordeaux during World War II.  

Reading Suggestions

The Essays A Selection by Michel Montaigne  

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