France
Marseille
Marseille is France’s oldest port and structurally the closest to Split. The city is arranged around the harbour, and the harbour is still somewhere people go out to.
It also carries a reputation that has followed it for decades. As far as we saw, in the parts we walked through, we ran into nothing of the sort.
We were thereAugust 2023
The old town
The Vieux-Port is literally the middle of the city. Cafés and restaurants down both sides, a fish market on the quay in the morning, and two forts guarding the mouth, one facing the other.
Behind the port is Le Panier, which is the oldest quarter. It is steep and narrow and full of small studios, and the part that most resembles what we are used to seeing in Split.
Beside Fort Saint-Jean is the MuCEM, the museum of the Mediterranean, joined to the old fort by a bridge over the water. The building and the crossing are something in themselves, even without going inside.
Palais Longchamp
The Palais Longchamp is the least expected thing in the city: a monumental staircase with a waterfall and a colonnade, built around the arrival of the city’s water supply.
Behind it is a park to sit and enjoy. It is one of the few places in Marseille where you cannot hear the traffic.
One wing of the palace holds the natural history museum, which is worth going into. The halls are old and high, the collection is large, and what holds a child is the mounted animals at full size. It is cheap to enter and an hour covers it.
Beaches
Marseille has no beach in the centre, but it has a coast that carries on south of the city, pebble and rock and far fewer people than you would expect.
The road out to the beaches passes small harbours wedged between the cliffs, full of boats with houses stacked above them. They are worth stopping for and walking down into.
Past that the deep inlets between white cliffs begin. You reach them by boat or on foot, and they are something you should certainly go and see.
Eating
Prado is the beach we would recommend, and the one with the most cafés and restaurants around it. You can spend a whole day there without going back into the city.
Of the restaurants we would single out La Grande Italia, where we had very good pizza.
If you are travelling with children, there is a Haribo shop in the Avant Cap shopping centre at Plan de Campagne. It used to sit beside the factory in Marseille and moved out here in 2022. It carries the whole range, including things you will not find elsewhere, and you can try some of it before you buy.
The evening
In the evening a good deal of it comes back to the harbour. Both sides of the Vieux-Port fill up, and from the wheel and the terraces above it the whole inlet is visible at once.
The terraces are full of people, especially in summer, and stay that way until late.
Marseille or Split?
The old town
Marseille
The Vieux-Port is literally the middle of the city.
Split
Split and the Riva beside the ferry port give much the same feeling as Marseille. Except that in Split you can carry straight on from the ferry port into the old town.
Green space
Marseille
The Palais Longchamp is the least expected thing in the city: a monumental staircase with a waterfall and a colonnade, built around the arrival of the city’s water supply.
Split
Split has Marjan, which is larger and wilder, but nothing like this kind of formal park in the middle of town. Zvončac is the closest thing to it, but a good deal more modest.
Beaches
Marseille
Marseille has no beach in the centre, but it has a coast that carries on south of the city, pebble and rock and far fewer people than you would expect.
The road out to the beaches passes small harbours wedged between the cliffs, full of boats with houses stacked above them. They are worth stopping for and walking down into.
Split
This is what Split and Marseille share most: a rocky shore right beside the city, reached without planning. Kašjuni and Bene are much the same thing.
The evening
Marseille
In the evening a good deal of it comes back to the harbour.
Split
Split’s Riva is much the same. From it you also see the boats and the harbour, and sitting there gives a similar feeling.
Common questions
Is Marseille similar to Split in structure?
Yes. Marseille is France’s oldest port and structurally the closest to Split.
Does Marseille have a beach right in the centre?
No. Marseille has no beach in the centre, but it has a coast that carries on south of the city, pebble and rock and far fewer people than you would expect.
How do you reach the inlets between the cliffs?
You reach them by boat or on foot, and they are something you should certainly go and see.
Of all these cities Marseille is the closest to Split in how it is put together, and we enjoyed our stay there.
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