Vieux Port

Ships have docked for more than 26 centuries at the city’s birthplace, the colourful Old Port . The main commercial docks were transferred to the Joliette area on the coast north of here in the 1840s, but the old port remains a thriving harbour for fishing boats, pleasure yachts and tourists.

Guarding the harbour are Bas Fort St-Nicolas on the south side and, across the water, Fort St-Jean, founded in the 13th century by the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem. Inside its square Roy Renée tower are exhibitions hosted by the national Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée.

The port’s southern quay oozes culture: the curtain goes up on mainstream dramas in Marseille’s old fish-auction house (1909), now the Théâtre National de Marseille at No 30; alternative theatre and stuff for kids goes down in a trio of small venues on Passage des Arts at No 16; the hip and cool play pétanque at night inside legendary nightclub Le Trolleybus at No 24;and restaurants and cafés buzz until the wee hours a block east on place Thiars and cours Honoré d’Estienne d’Orves.

Don’t leave the Vieux Port without tasting the local firewater at La Maison du Pastis and relaxing over a coffee or cocktail at the best seat in the house – the balcony at La Caravelle. If it’s full, board the public-transport Cross-Port Ferry in front of the town hall and sail across the water to Bar de la Marine, the 1930s bar where Marcel Pagnol filmed the card-party scenes in the first of his early-20th-century cult-classic trilogy, Marius.