Marseille is France’s Capital of Cool

Marseille is France’s Capital of Cool – nowhere has its finger on the pulse quite like this city. Often, when I’m travelling around France, I feel like time has stood still. That adds charm of course: walled cities, old towns with cobbled streets, turreted châteaux and — dare I say it — a Medieval reluctance to include a vegetarian option on a bistrot menu.

Marseille is France’s Capital of Cool

Marseille, on the other hand, evolves in dog years. If I haven’t been for a year it feels as though seven have passed, and it’s not hard to see why celebrities — everyone from Lily Rose Depp to Sadie Sink — are flocking here. I’m always intrigued to see what’s the latest building that has been turned into the city’s new, must-go club, restaurant or bar. Former factories, car parks and military forts have all made the jump, and there’s even a restaurant inside a working prison, run by inmates.

I’ve always found overly cool cities a bit oppressive. Who wants to spend hours queueing in silence, stony faced in the hope of looking aloof enough to get into Berlin’s Berghain, for example? Why do I get funny looks if I wear all the colours of the rainbow in Paris? Marseille’s cool is different. There’s nothing oppressive about it, because it doesn’t impose rules. Which is lucky, because in a city this chaotic they’d get broken anyway.

Arty Marseille

Let’s start with the art. The Louvre can keep its Mona Lisa and jewels — if they manage to keep them safe from future heists. Fine art isn’t what Marseille is about, although there are some fantastic fine art galleries. Palais Longchamp, a 19th century palace framed with cascading water fountains, is where you’ll find the Musée des Beaux-Arts, and it’s well worth a visit before you pretend you’re too cool for classical statues and seek out something edgier.

Le Centre de la Vieille Charité, a beautiful pink and white stone building, was built as Marseille’s poorhouse. It looks like a monastery, with a courtyard garden encircled by covered passages with stone arches, and in any other French city you’d probably find a few paintings of the virgin and child. Not in Marseille: the exhibitions here are anything but classic. Recent exhibitions have included the history and cultural significance of tattoos, and marine life, with dozens of model fish hanging from the domed ceilings.

If there’s one cultural centre that epitomises Marseille’s edginess it’s La Friche la Belle de Mai, a former tobacco factory turned skate park, food court, club and museum. The events schedule is as varied as the colourful street art which covers almost every available outdoor space. Rooftop DJ sets, all-night electro parties, theatre, writing workshops, painting — something, or sometimes multiple things, are happening every day. There’s also a fantastic anarchist bookshop on site.

Le Cours Julien is a free, open-air gallery, a road so covered in street art that you can only guess at the original colour of the stone. Many of the murals and painted staircases change faces every couple of years. It’s packed with thrift shops, artist studios, restaurants serving every kind of world cuisine and, naturally for Marseille, plenty of clubs and bars.

Transport and taste in Marseille

Getting anywhere in Marseille feels like jumping into a fast-paced video game. Road rules are questionable, and cars, scooters and motorbikes career up and down steep hills and over flyovers. The metro is surprisingly limited for a city of this size, with the bus network much more developed, although it’s often a game of sardines to rival the London Underground at rush hour. Since rainfall is so low, one of the best ways to get around is by pay-per-use ebikes LeVélo, but you’ll need nerves of steel. Not everywhere has designated bike lanes.

Ask French teenagers what makes Marseille cool and they’ll likely tell you the music. Soprano and Jul are from here, some of the most successful rappers in the country. Or perhaps they’ll say sports — the city’s football team, Olympique de Marseille, has a cult following. They probably wouldn’t say food, but they should. In Marseille, I’ve eaten at some incredibly quirky restaurants that very much combine style and substance.

There’s the first restaurant in Europe which cooks their dishes exclusively using solar power. At Le Présage, many of the herbs and veggies grilled to perfection using sunlight are grown in the restaurant’s own garden, and when they’re not, they’re sourced locally. There’s an island château-fort, formerly owned by the military, where you can swim from the island’s private slipway at sunset, before sipping chilled rosé with views over Château d’If, the former island prison where the fictional count of Monte Cristo was locked up. Île Degaby only opened in 2024, and there’s the choice of a gourmet restaurant or bar snacks. Or try La Ola, an ultra-cool restaurant serving exclusively natural wines, which welcomes rotating chefs in residency all year.

Beaches of Marseille

Perhaps the secret ingredient to Marseille’s effortless, laidback cool, though, is its location. The closest beach, Plage des Catalans, is just a 30-minute walk from the main port. Sure, it’s not all white sand and palm trees swaying in the breeze, but in Marseille, you can even see an exhibition whilst at the beach. Don a snorkel mask and freedive down 5m below the white buoy just offshore to see an ethereal collection of underwater sculptures, increasingly being claimed as habitats by local marine life. The sculptures include a giant octopus, a travelling man with a suitcase and people inspired by mythology. You’ll need good lungs to see the statues face on, though, and I very much got the aerial view.

Alternatively, head out to the calanques, a national park made up of 26 limestone inlets stretching all the way to the seaside town of Cassis, to laze the day away under the warm embrace of the Mediterranean sun. It’ll help you recharge your batteries before hitting an all-night warehouse rave.

Anna Richards is a writer & guidebook author living in Lyon. Her work has appeared in Lonely Planet, National Geographic and many more.

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