Why Marseille Is Not Europe’s New ‘Hidden Gem’

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Is it simply me, or has all this discuss of “hidden gems” and “undiscovered spots” turn out to be a bit too… trivial, if not outright nonsensical?

Whether or not they’re doing it for the Instagram algorithm or just because they’re clueless sufficient to assume a particularly well-liked European metropolis that’s been flogged to demise can nonetheless match that standards, it’s all getting a bit comical.

Initially, if each single secondary, mid-size metropolis American TikTokers come upon is a “hidden gem”, then by default, nowhere is. We get it, they’re normally ping-ponging between Paris and London, and wherever else quantities to a fantastic off‑path journey, however come off it.

Secondly… Marseille? As in, France’s large Mediterranean port metropolis of Marseille?

That is actually how far we have come by way of lazy, poorly-researched, AI-spun journey writing?

Why Marseille Is Something However A European Hidden Gem

I couldn’t consider my very own eyes after I got here throughout a bunch of articles, churned out by some main publications this yr, crowning France’s second-largest metropolis and a serious cruising hotspot as Europe’s most criminally underrated coastal getaway, or a “high hidden gem”.

Marseille and crime do go hand in hand, however criminally underrated? Not so sure about that.

A metropolitan zone dwelling to over one million individuals, wedged between Mediterranean massifs and the turquoise sea itself, Marseille has been France’s most essential port for over 2,600 years.

Not that an iPhone-wielding, beret-clad influencer in her flying gown would know that, nor a type of big-brained journalists with levels, apparently… however anyhow, I digress.

Marseille hosts on common 5 million vacationers per yr, and it normally ranks third or fourth in France for recognition, behind Paris (30–35 million), Good (5–7 million), and both tied with/or immediately beneath Lyon (roughly 5 million).

By way of cruise passenger site visitors, it locations third after Barcelona and the Balearic Islands.

Slapping the ‘hidden gem’ tag on Marseille is as ludicrous as calling, I do not know, Los Angeles a secret coastal village. Whereas we go round in circles in these ineffective discussions, everybody’s forgetting to ask a very powerful query.

What precisely units Marseille aside from different French cities, if it may’t be anonymity?

If Marseille Is Not A Hidden Gem, Why Are They Labeling It One?

Properly, it’s the truth that it’s not the sanitized, over-polished, Disney-fied France you understand from the flicks, and that is sufficient these days for a ‘Hidden Gem’ tabletop journey brochure seal.

It’s a metropolis that lives and breathes at its personal frantic tempo, doesn’t care if you happen to can’t fairly sustain, and actually doesn’t decelerate to make itself extra palatable for guests.

In the event you’ve been to the French Riviera earlier than—the “Nice‑r”, Turkey-teeth, Rolls Royce side of it—you need to know Marseille is a unique flavour of the Med altogether.

Out with the Côte d’Azur’s invitation-only seashore golf equipment and star-studded, roped-off oceanfront; in with wild, rugged calanques and a beach-interspersed Corniche the place everybody’s welcome free of charge. It appears to be like messy, ‘foh shoor‘, to cite our darling President Emmanuel Macron, nevertheless it feels inequivocally democratic:

The Vieux-Port, or Outdated Port, is Marseille’s organized chaos personified: assume cafés and seafood eating places proper on the water, fish markets, buzzing streets the place nobody appears to present a, hem, flying flamingo about street indicators, and motorcyclists and vehicles instinctively weaving round pedestrians.

As a result of that is the way in which it is at all times been, and the way it at all times will probably be.

After all, the Vieux-Port is the guts of Marseille’s fishing scene, and the place you could find among the heartiest Marseillaise fish stews on the town, or, as locals name it, bouillabaisse*. You have not been to Marseille till you have had considered one of these.

That mentioned, portside eateries might be on the pricier finish, however if you happen to’re after a smaller, much less‑flashy, native‑frequented various, strive Chez Michel on Rue des Catalans.

If Unapologetic Was A Metropolis…

Bordering the port, Le Panier is Marseille’s Italy-like, hilly ‘Outdated City’ space. It is the town’s oldest neighborhood, with centuries upon centuries of Greek, Italian, and North African immigration woven into its multicultural tapestry.

The slim streets, slender pastel buildings, and trattoria-style eateries, which frequently carry Italian household names, are a transparent reflection of the historic Genoese presence within the space.

Le Panier can also be filled with galleries, colourful (and thought-provoking avenue artwork, and artisan retailers, besides in contrast to in different components of Provence, all these lovely historic edifices you see have not been totally transformed into Airbnbs.

You’ll doubtless hear furious marseillaise mothers having a proper go at their youngsters behind inexperienced shutters, come throughout mischievous teams of 15-year-old frérots skipping college, vaping within the sq., away from their mother and father’ watchful eyes, and kerbside bars with terraces that spill onto the cobbled alleys the place French voices are louder than English ones.

In sum, sure, it’s a little tough across the edges, and there’s rather a lot lets say in regards to the cleanliness and normal repairs of the place, however you possibly can’t deny it feels brutally genuine and lived-in.

This Is Not Paris.

This brings me to my subsequent level:

In the event you come to Marseille anticipating a superbly manicured Outdated World film set, or you do not know the best way to maintain your wits about you in densely populated areas identified for his or her excessive charges of pickpocketing—increased than Paris, even—you will depart both terribly disillusioned, or worst case state of affairs, with out your cellphone.

As you get off the prepare in Gare Saint-Charles, you will be a number of steps away from an African-dominated Quartier Saint-Michel, with its energetic ethnic markets, Maghrebi-style bazaars, and pedestrian chaos.

Some love the multiculturalism, some deplore it, however one factor each side of the dialogue agree is that pickpocketing, poverty, and littering are rampant issues in Marseille’s central space. I let you know this to not put you off visiting Marseille—you need to undoubtedly go and test it out for your self—however so you do not parachute right here utterly unaware of what you are moving into.

The identical applies to artsy, hip districts like Cours Julien, an area youth hotspot filled with cafés and quirky retailers. They’re touristy and, for probably the most half, protected, although provided that you are acutely aware of your environment and may maintain flashy jewellery at dwelling.

For the umpteenth time, and for the love of God, that is NOT Good.

This metropolis is uncooked and has no intention in any way of sharpening up anytime quickly.

Suppose beautiful fin-de-siècle buildings lined in unappealing graffiti, heavy site visitors, and the standard city issues that include fast, disruptive metropolitan progress. Some say this is not even France.

There’s an previous Provençale proverb that goes one thing like: après Gare Saint-Charles, c’est Alger!

It actually signifies that, when you pull as much as Marseille Central Station, you are mainly in North Africa. Act accordingly.

The Sea Is Marseille, And Marseille Is The Sea

There are a number of extra issues that make Marseille the black sheep of the French household.

Its cathedral, the imposing La Main, will not be Gothic or Romanesque in character, however a striped green-and-white Neo-Byzantine stonework. None of Notre-Dame de Paris’s solemness, ribbed-vaults, and rose home windows: this one has daring mosaics, marble chapels, and a a lot bigger nave.

Marseille’s most iconic non secular constructing, nonetheless, is not its precise cathedral:

By the point you’ve strolled across the Port or Panier space, chances are high you’ll have already got noticed it from a distance:

Notre-Dame de la Garde sits on a limestone hill 162 metres above sea stage, and it’s identified for its golden statue of Mary, positioned on the high of the tower, maritime-themed decorations, and ship fashions which are displayed alongside partitions and hanging from the ceiling—supplied by sailors asking the Virgin for defense forward of a voyage.

Marseille’s cultural identification is cast by centuries of seafaring and commerce between clashing civilisations: the ocean is as important to the town as the town is to the ocean.

So, I do not know, possibly the French (in addition to Europeans usually) would discover the thought of Marseille being a lesser-known vacation spot like some minor Mediterranean hub within the league of Albania or Montenegro, which truly belong in this category, laughable.

Marseille Is Simply The Newest Sufferer Of… Hidden Geminification

The way in which I see it, this “hidden gem‑inification” phenomenon tells us extra about sure information sources’ determined want for clicks by absurd claims—particularly when concentrating on wide-eyed travellers but to go to Europe, who’ll swallow their each sensationalized phrase prefer it’s gospel—than the precise locations they’re banging on about.

You wanna name Marseille underrated? High-quality. Have a go at it.

There may be an argument to be made for underappreciation right here, with out resorting to the standard over-the-top, hyped-up rhetoric.

However you higher have the on-the-ground data to again it up, otherwise you would possibly simply find yourself sounding like an utter… hem… excuse my French… cagole.