Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting Around
Unlike most of Provence, which is best seen with your own wheels, you will be grateful in
Marseille and Aix-en-Provence
not
to have a car. Driving is difficult, parking expensive.
Public transport is super in both cities. To really explore Les Calanques and to drive the
jaw-dropping Route des Crêtes near Cassis, though, a car is handy.
THREE PERFECT DAYS
Day 1: Sensory Marseille
Engage in Marseille's frenzy of sights, sounds, smells and flavours: follow the sound of clinking masts to the
Vieux Port fish market. Grab a coffee at La Caravelle (
Click here
) and sail to Château d'If (
Click here
)
. Explore
Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (
Click here
)
and get lost in Le Panier (
Click here
)
.
Then take a seaside stroll to Vallon des Auffes for
bouillabaisse
(
Click here
)
.
Day 2: Gorge on Green
Hike into Les Calanques (
Click here
)
, booking a table in advance at one of the seaside restaurants. Post-lunch,
take a scenic drive around Cassis (
Click here
). Wine taste in the afternoon and sup on sea urchins and crisp white
wine at Cassis port.
Day 3: Cézanne Chic
Stroll Aix-en-Provence (
Click here
)
: from the windy streets of Vieil Aix to its elegant
hôtels particuliers
(private
mansions) and the Musée Granet (
Click here
)
. Follow in the footsteps of Cézanne (
Click here
)
, then explore
Montagne Ste-Victoire (
Click here
). End with a starlit dinner in best-kept secret Ventabren (
Click here
).
Advance Planning
»
Accommodation
The best rooms get snapped up fast - book ahead. Aix-en-Provence
fills fast during its fiesta of festivals and at weekends year-round. Its tourist office runs a
booking office and, November to March, books hotels offering two nights for the price of
one.
»
Sormiou & Morgiou Calanques
To revel in the natural beauty of Marseille's best-
known
calanques
at sunset, minus a stiff walk in the searing heat, reserve a table at a
Sormiou or Morgiou restaurant, which grants you the right to drive right down to the wa-
ter's edge.