Marseille boat trips – those words belong together. But beaches and the Château d’If are also great ideas for trips out from Marseille and so this episode covers all three. Then there are suggestions for other little excursions, to l’Estaque and Cassis, which both mix boating and arty vibes, plus a trip on a coastal train with views a-plenty and ideas for stopping off to explore. To finish, there's a little flavour of the Count of Monte Cristo’s daring – and fictional! – escape from the Château d’If.

Reading Suggestion The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Links The Château d’If The Calanques How to get to the Calanques Marseille’s Beaches The Underwater Museum of Marseille L’Estaque Cassis Cassis Museum of Art and Folk Traditions More on visiting La Côte Bleu

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

This episode covers two main Marseille art galleries, the Musée des Beaux Arts and Regards de Provence, and focuses particularly on work on local themes - Marseille itself, and the provençal hinterland. Then there are pointers to 4 more galleries in the city, featuring ethnic, modern and decorative arts, plus a little coverage of some of the most famous artists associated with Marseille: Pierre Puget, César Baldaccinni and Paul Cézanne. Lastly, a reminder that in in this city, art often means street art!

Links for this post Musée des Beaux Arts Regards de Provence Vieille Charité Musée Cantini Museum of Modern Art Museum of Decorative Arts

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

This post takes you around La Joliette, the new port area in Marseille and looks at what there is to do there. That includes the city’s two newest must-see museums – one gives you a tour of Mediterranean culture, the other takes you on a virtual exploration of the incredible caves discovered nearby, where the artwork dates back 30,000 years. We also find time for plenty of shopping, eating and culture in both historic and ultra-modern settings, all with a magnificent sea-view backdrop.

Reading Suggestions Marseille et le Mucem (French only) Cosquer Méditerrannée (French only)

Links for this post Guide to La Joliette The Mucem The Cosquer Museum Guide to Les Terrasses du Port Guide to Les Docks

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

This post focuses on the Le Panier district of Marseille, the oldest and most atmospheric part of the city: think hills, narrow roads, colourful houses, flowers, little restaurants in pretty squares, artisan shops and plenty of street art. Plus two of the city’s big sights, La Charité, the former poorhouse, now a museum centre and the stunning 'Major' Cathedral. As the author Jean -Claude Izzo wrote. ‘To linger in Le Panier is to feel the old heart of Marseille throbbing’.

Reading Suggestions

Garlic, Mint and Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo The Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle

Links for this post

Self guided walk around Le Panier La Vieille Charité La Major Cathedral Discover Street Art in Marseille Blogpost: Street Art and Charm in Le Panier

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

This episode centres on Marseille’s most popular sights, the Old Port, the hilltop church of Notre Dame de la Garde, and the Canebière, the wide avenue leading back from the port into the heart of the city. After a few snippets of history, we tour such sights as the fish market, the iconic canopy built to mark Marseille's year as a City of European Culture in 2013, an ancient tower and a surprising link to Odessa in Ukraine. We might take the little ferry across the harbour, we'll certainly walk - or maybe take the 'petit train' - up the hill to Notre Dame de la Garde, where a huge golden statue of Mary the Virgin watches protectively over the city.

Reading Suggestions

The Wicked City by Nicholas Hewitt Marseille Port to Port by William Kornblum Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo

Links for this post

The Saint Jean Fort Deportation Memorial The Petit Train Notre Dame de la Garde Boat trips from the Old Port

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

There are 26 centuries of history in Marseille, which is the oldest city in France! This episode runs through 10 places where you can find traces of key moments in the city's past. They range from the plaque commemorating the founding of Marseille in about 600 BC to the site where you can still see bullet holes from the fight to liberate the city from German occupation in 1944. They’re listed in chronological order, with a few of their stories attached and although this makes a good overview, we've saved some of the 'big-hitters’ such as Notre Dame de la Garde and the Château d’If for later episodes where they'll get a fuller treatment.

Reading Suggestions

The Wicked City The many Cultures of Marseille by Nicholas Hewitt Marseille Port to Port by William Kornblum

Links for this post Roman Docks Museum Saint Victor Abbey Memorial of the Marseillaise Provencal Museum Deportation Memorial Museum of Marseille History

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

Bienvenue à Marseille. Welcome to Marseille, the lively southern French city whose name rhymes with 'soleil'. There's beauty in the Old Port and the stunning coastline, there's history and culture a-plenty in the museums, there's a Provencal feel - boules and bouillabaisse - overlaid with a vibrant multi-ethnic mix. There's a little grit too, for this is the home of Marseille Noir crime fiction and the notorious Château d'If so graphically portrayed in The Count of Monte Cristo.

This introductory episode will help you get your bearings and pick up the basic facts which underpin everything. As the French say, 'On y va!' - Let's go!

Links and Reading Three useful websites for tourist Marseille Tourist Office Marseille Tourisme.fr About France: a short guide to Marseille

3 Guide Books The Rough Guide to Provence and the Côte d’Azur Marseille Travel Guide by Angela J Rea Marseille Travel Guide by Betty Vanslyke 4 books on Marseille Culture The Wicked City The many cultures of Marseille by Nicholas Hewitt Garlic, Mint and Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo Unveiling Marseille Your Insider’s Guide to the Multicultural Marvel by Tailored Travel Guides Taste the World in Marseille by Vérane Frédiani

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website to find more episodes from our Marseille series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!

Our introduction to literary Bordeaux begins with the 3 most famous Bordeaux authors, the ‘3 Ms’, that is the philosophers Montaigne and Montesquieu and the novelist François Mauriac. There are statues of them all in the city. There are mini biographies and pointers to their works. Then we follow up with more books set in and around Bordeaux - historical fiction, two very different detective stories and the true account of the web of spies – French, German, British – operating in Bordeaux during World War II.

Reading Suggestions

The Essays A Selection by Michel Montaigne How to Live A Life of Montaigne in 1 Question and 20 Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell Persian Letters by Montesquieu The Knot of Vipers by François Mauriac Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick Bordeaux Private Eye by Rorie Smith Game of Spies by Paddy Ashdown Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie

Link for this post Musee d'Aquitaine

City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time! Check our website for the blogpost accompanying this episode, to find more episodes from our Bordeaux series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk

We love to receive your comments and suggestions! You can e mail us at citybreaks@citybreakspodcast.co.uk And if you like what you hear, please do post comments or a review wherever you downloaded this episode. That would be very much appreciated!