Marseille is not only a separate and independent destination for a city-break, but being the capital of the region, it also offers a great possibility to deepen into the nature and discover some truly Mediterranean or Provence atmosphere without going too far. Apart from the lavender fields, Provence has a lot of wonders of all sorts, and to explore them all, one will need to come back there again and again. Exactly what we are going to do occasionally. :) If you have a spare free day which you would like to use to disconnect from the big city noise, we have some suggestions.

Visiting the Calanques is a certain “must” for everybody who travels to Marseille. The local “fjords” are the iconic place of the region, and it would be a shame not to go and see them in one of several available ways.

“Calanque” means “inlet”, it is a sort of a bay (more a fjord, really) formed between the cliffs. With the turquoise Mediterranean water and typical flora, the Calanques look like a surreal paradise, even though 80% of them are actually considered as a part of Marseille city, while the remaining 20% – of Cassis. No to worry, the park is stretched for more than 20 kilometres along the coast, so you will have a whole day to explore this natural wonder.

On foot: the Calanques National Park has lots of walking trails of various distances. Just put comfortable shoes on, take a map in the Tourism Office, get to one of the entrances, and enjoy! Don’t forget, that the park might be closed during the summer season due to the high risk of fires. Anyway, you wouldn’t want to fry under the hot Mediterranean sun.

On a tour boat: Numerous companies organise boat tours both from Marseille and Cassis ports. Short or long, passing by a single Calanque or all of them – the options are endless! The prices vary according to the tour selected, but in average the “Calanques Essentials” tour costs around 25€.

By boat where you are the captain! This is what we tried this time by renting a little motor boat in Cassis that doesn’t require a special license and off we sailed. If you travel alone, it might be a bit pricey – 100€ for half of the day, and 200€ – for the whole one, but if you travel in a company of four, it covers perfectly the price of the Calanques Boat Tour. For us it was a totally new pleasure to explore the gorgeous bays in our “own” boat. It took Xavier 7 minutes to learn how to navigate it, and then we were just like two happy sea mermaids. If only a genius idea to take some food with us on a boat had occurred to us earlier, we would have easily spent the whole day just moving from one Calanque to another, and swimming as long as we wanted.
Where to hire a boat: J.C.F. Boat Services

Do take some time to walk in the beautiful Cassis and try literally the best ice-cream in our whole lives, especially with pistachio flavour.

Definitely Calanque d’En-Vau – it’s closer to Cassis than to Marseille and is absolutely worth a visit.
Calanque de Port Pin – we parked our water vehicle for a tiny hiking tour around – beautiful!
Calanque de Sormiou and Calanque de Sugiton, which we visited 5 years ago while hiking in February.

The legendary train line along the coast is called la Côte Bleue. This is a trip that can only be done by the TER train, which means the regional trains. A bit more than 60 kilometres of fantastic sea views on a picturesque old-school train trip, so make sure you take a right side to face the sea.

The Blue Coast line includes several stops, so you can get off the train, spend some time in one of the villages then take the following train until the next stop. If you set off early and calculate the time, and especially if you manage to avoid all sorts of strikes, you can do the whole trip in a day.

The Bleu Coast Train Line departs from Marseille and ends in Miramas passing by at least nine cute villages situated in a mini version of calanques, and 18 gorgeous viaducts dated from back in the 19^th century. Everything is indicated on the map in the end of the article.

Niolon and Sausset-les-Pins

The best thing about it, is that this train journey is extremely budget friendly – only 11€ for one-way ticket! Even if the total distance is very short, you will have enough to fill your day with, including some delicious seafood. In order to book your ticket, use the official site of SNCF, and make sure that you get the Blue Coast Train, and not the one, which passes through the land.

L’Estaque

Time to move further from the coast and discover some true spirit of Provence, which doesn’t really show up in Marseille. Aix-en-Provence is one of the most famous towns of Provence, it represents exactly what people come to look here for. Southern beauty, good food, a light touch of bourgeois spirit, constant reminders that Aix-en-Provence is the hometown of the great French impressionist – Paul Cézanne, not to forget the worldwide know novelist – Emile Zola!

It takes only an hour to get to Aix to get to an entirely different atmosphere. Following the steps of Cézanne, checking one of the numerous fountains, having a look at so many deliciously smelling with lavender products in the authentic shops of the city-centre – there is a lot to do.

If you want to see even more of Cézanne spots or just discover more of this beautiful area, why not going to the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, the favorite place of Cézanne, dozens of times pictured in his art. The Mountain Sainte-Victoire is quite close to Aix-en-Provence, so we just hitchhiked to Le Tholonet, Beaureceuil, walked back to enjoy the unexpected “Grand Canyon” with the surprisingly red soil, and then to Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, where we could walk enjoying the view that used to inspire the great artist.

It was a very pleasant day, the locals were happy to give us a lift and tell about the region, while complaining about the weather. :) From our side we absolutely recommend this little trip, which remains close to Marseille but shows a completely different – more authentic – face of Provence.

It is far from being everything, as there is still LOADS to see around Marseille, let alone in the whole region of Provence, but one step at a time. Already looking forward to being back!

Have you already visited Provence? What are your favorite spots? 

Don’t forget you can open the map in a separate window by clicking on the “full screen” button.