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” change into a bit too… trivial, if not outright nonsensical?

Whether they’re doing it for the Instagram algorithm or just because they’re clueless sufficient to assume an especially standard European metropolis that’s been flogged to demise can nonetheless match that standards, it’s all getting a bit comical.

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

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

This is admittedly how far we have come when it comes to lazy, poorly-researched, AI-spun journey writing?

Why Marseille Is Anything But A European Hidden Gem

I couldn’t imagine 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 significant cruising hotspot as Europe’s most criminally underrated coastal getaway, or a “top 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 vital port for over 2,600 years.

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

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

In phrases of cruise passenger 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. While we go round in circles in these ineffective discussions, everybody’s forgetting to ask crucial query.

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

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

Well, it’s the truth that it’s not the sanitized, over-polished, Disney-fied France from the films, 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.

If you’ve been to the French Riviera earlier than—the “Nice‑r”, Turkey-teeth, Rolls Royce side of it—it’s best to know Marseille is a special 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 messy, ‘foh shoor‘, to cite our darling President Emmanuel Macron, nevertheless it feels inequivocally democratic:

The Vieux-Port, or Old 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 offer a, hem, flying flamingo about highway indicators, and motorcyclists and vehicles instinctively weaving round pedestrians.

Because that is the best way it is all the time been, and the way it all the time will probably be.

Of course, the Vieux-Port is the center of Marseille’s fishing scene, and the place you’ll find a few of the heartiest Marseillaise fish stews on the town, or, as locals name it, bouillabaisse*. You have not been to Marseille till you have had one in every of these.

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

If Unapologetic Was A City…

Bordering the port, Le Panier is Marseille’s Italy-like, hilly ‘Old Town’ space. It’s 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 regularly carry Italian household names, are a transparent reflection of the historic Genoese presence within the space.

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

You’ll seemingly hear furious marseillaise mothers having a proper go at their children behind inexperienced shutters, come throughout mischievous teams of 15-year-old frérots skipping college, vaping within the sq., away from their dad and mom’ 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 lots 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:

If you come to Marseille anticipating a superbly manicured Old World film set, or you do not know how you can hold your wits about you in densely populated areas identified for his or her excessive charges of pickpocketing—greater than Paris, even—you may depart both terribly disillusioned, or worst case situation, with out your telephone.

As you get off the prepare in Gare Saint-Charles, you may be just a few 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—it’s best to undoubtedly go and test it out for your self—however so you do not parachute right here fully unaware of what you are stepping into.

The similar applies to artsy, hip districts like Cours Julien, a neighborhood youth hotspot filled with cafés and quirky retailers. They’re touristy and, for essentially the most half, protected, although provided that you are aware of your environment and may hold flashy jewellery at dwelling.

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

This metropolis is uncooked and has no intention by any means of sprucing up anytime quickly.

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

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

It actually implies 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 just a few extra issues that make Marseille the black sheep of the French household.

Its cathedral, the imposing La Major, is just not 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 time you’ve strolled across the Port or Panier space, likelihood is 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 prime of the tower, maritime-themed decorations, and ship fashions which might be displayed alongside partitions and hanging from the ceiling—provided by sailors asking the Virgin for cover forward of a voyage.

Marseille’s cultural id is solid 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, perhaps the French (in addition to Europeans basically) would discover the concept of Marseille being a lesser-known vacation spot like some minor Mediterranean hub within the league of Albania or Montenegro, which really belong in this category, laughable.

Marseille Is Just The Latest Victim Of… Hidden Geminification

The means I see it, this “hidden gem‑inification” phenomenon tells us extra about sure information sources’ determined want for clicks by way of 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? Fine. Have a go at it.

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

But 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.