Marseilles - Provence

[kirky]

We are porting at Mareseilles for 12 hours on our Med cruise in July. We typically like to do our own touring around and am interested in hearing suggestions for this port. Is Provence close to Marseilles? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[wwinfl91]

I think Marseilles is in the province south of Provence. Here's a link to a map of south France that might help.

 

http://www.guideweb.com/provence/odt/indexa.html

 

Just looking at it I would think that might be a little further than you want to go.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[longislandfamily]

We are also on a Med cruise, in Marseille Aug 7. Marseille, I believe, is the second largest city in France, and is in the region known as Provence. There are lots of interesting smaller towns that are accessible just outside of Marseille, mostly made famous by Impressionist Artists like Van Gogh, etc. We decided to go to Aix-en Provence, where Cezanne worked and lived. It is the centenary of Cezanne's death, so there is a huge exhibit of his work being mounted at the Granet Museum in Aix. There are also tours of the places where he worked and lived (his father owned an estate there). More information is available at the web site, http://www.cezanne-2006.com. We hired a driver, for a pretty reasonable amount, I think. He is buying the tix for the museum in advance. Advance purchase is highly recommended.

 

Other places include Arles - Van Gogh, and some people like to hang out in Marseille. The novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, is set in Marseille. The prison, the Chateau D'If actually exists, and can be viewed from the hills around Marseille.

[Jolimont]

In Marseilles the area called "Vieux Port" is popular, but it wouldn't be my first choice. I'd either go to Aix-en-Provence to walk around the old town and sit at a café or to Avignon to visit the Citée des Papes (audio guides in many languages) and also walk around the old town. In a little place called Remoulins you also have the Pont du Gard which is a very old Roman bridge and really nice, but it's a bit isolated and at least 2 hours drive from Marseilles. I think if I could only do one of those things I'd go to Avignon.

[EASYTRAVEL777]

We too wanted to do Provence on our own. The ship tour to just Aix-en-Provence was $52. We looked at local bus and train options, but the cab fare to the station roundtrip was as much as the ships tour.

 

Then we found Tania. She can be reached at http://provencetours.free.fr/livre_or_uk.htm

 

Her van holds 6, she does custom tours, and speaks fluent English. What a joy it was seeing Provence at your leasuire with no worries. We only had 8 hours in port, but with 12 you could easily reach deep into Provence. Any questions just ask.

[dbh62ark]

I think this thread will be moved to the British Isles/Western Europe section. We were in Marseille for a port stop on a Holland ship in 2004 (we were originally scheduled to stop in Sete but were rerouted to Marseille due to high winds), and we will be in the port of Marseille again this year, so I posted this information on the roll call board for my sailing this year. My husband and I have been to most of the villages in the area and like Aix-en-Provence the best, but it depends on what you like. Avignon, Arles, Cassis, and Les Baux are also very popular.

 

The ship’s docks are in an industrial area that is at least 10 minutes by vehicle from the yucky industrial port to the historic Vieux Port (old port) area of town. So hopefully your cruise line will have a shuttle because I think most of the cruise lines run one in Marseille. When we arrived at the Vieux Port area, we found a tourist information center on the street in the left side of the harbor next to a store with a beautiful blue front, and I think the name of the store was Les Baux (I bought some nice things there). The TI center had a walking tour map of the Vieux Port area of Marseille, and it was a nice walking tour that took approximately two hours. The cathedral in Vieux Port is black and white striped—kind of like prison stripes—and is really a unique site. The walking tour was so easy because there was a red stripe painted on the streets, and we followed that while reading about the sites in our brochure. Then we took a train to Aix-en-Provence. I don’t remember exactly where the train station was, but we had obtained the information from the TI office, and it was very easy. We just walked around enjoying our visit to Aix-en-Provence and think it’s just lovely. In Marseille, there is also another cathedral, the Notre Dame, high up on a hill that you can visit; some of our friends from the ship hiked it, and it was about 25-30 minutes straight up. There is a mini train in Marseille that is basically a shuttle from site to site that looks like one of those shuttles you ride from the parking lot in theme parks, and I think it also goes to that cathedral. You can catch the mini train in the Vieux Port area.

 

Happy travels to all,

Donna

[Houner]

We too wanted to do Provence on our own. The ship tour to just Aix-en-Provence was $52. We looked at local bus and train options, but the cab fare to the station roundtrip was as much as the ships tour.

 

Then we found Tania. She can be reached at http://provencetours.free.fr/livre_or_uk.htm

 

Her van holds 6, she does custom tours, and speaks fluent English. What a joy it was seeing Provence at your leasuire with no worries. We only had 8 hours in port, but with 12 you could easily reach deep into Provence. Any questions just ask.

 

Hi Easytravel777,

We have booked Tania for our Marseille visit on our grand cruise (Just two weeks away!!!!). Glad to hear a positive review of Tania. What places did you visit? What would you recommend? We ar thinking of Aix-en-Provence and Avignon. Is it possible to do both places in our ten hour tour.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[EASYTRAVEL777]

Mike,

 

You will really enjoy your tour with Tania.

She picked us up right where we docked at 8:30am.

We went to Aix-en-Provence to the markets (so-so). Then we toured a Santon factory (very nice). She then drove us to Mt. Victoria in the country side (very pretty) In the afternoon, she drove us to Cassis (a small village on the coast. We went up to the Cape and had a fantastic view down to Cassis and the Med. We hand lunch and shopped in Cassis. Took a boat tour of the first 3 claneques(sp) (fiords like). Cassis was wonderful. Then back to Marseille with a stopover at Notre Dame and some great views. I was able to email her some pictures that I found off of the internet to determine where we wanted to go and have much time at each place. Tania is just great. I'm jealous:D

[kirky]

Thanks for all the information. It is appreciated.

[jdrblue]

We are also on a Med cruise, in Marseille Aug 7. Marseille, I believe, is the second largest city in France, and is in the region known as Provence. There are lots of interesting smaller towns that are accessible just outside of Marseille, mostly made famous by Impressionist Artists like Van Gogh, etc. We decided to go to Aix-en Provence, where Cezanne worked and lived. It is the centenary of Cezanne's death, so there is a huge exhibit of his work being mounted at the Granet Museum in Aix. There are also tours of the places where he worked and lived (his father owned an estate there). More information is available at the web site, http://www.cezanne-2006.com. We hired a driver, for a pretty reasonable amount, I think. He is buying the tix for the museum in advance. Advance purchase is highly recommended.

 

Other places include Arles - Van Gogh, and some people like to hang out in Marseille. The novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, is set in Marseille. The prison, the Chateau D'If actually exists, and can be viewed from the hills around Marseille.

 

I saw the Cezanne in Provence exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington last March. The exhibit is over 100 oil paintings and watercolors. It is assembled from museums, galleries and private collections from all over the world. Here is a link to the brochure http://www.nga.gov/pdf/cezanne_brochure.pdf. The exhibition was quite impressive. I noticed on the link you posted they offer a shuttle to various locations Cezanne painted. I think that would really be interesting. The National Gallery did a great job with souvenirs from Provence. They also had Cezanne prints, coasters, note cards, scarfs, refrigerator magnets, etc. The cafe in the National Gallery was converted into Cafe Provence with the menu created by a chef from Provence and local wines of Provence.

[muffydawg]

We went to Le Beaux (sp?) when docked in Marseille last year. Nice drive through the countryside, past the lavender fields and a little town (whose name escapes me) with some Roman ruins.

[rogfam]

Thanks EasyTravel 777 took your advice and booked Tania. She is showing us Aix, then off to Cassis.