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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 1:41 pm
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nicolas75
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Originally Posted by lancebanyon
I'm going to be spending the better part of a week in the Vieux Port area at the Holiday Inn Express Marseille-Saint Charles. What I'm reading online makes it seem like that area is notoriously sketchy, even in daylight. Any thoughts as to whether it's really any worse than any other inner city center/ train station area? Any areas nearby that I must absolutely avoid?
The Holiday Inn Express is just opposite the Saint Charles main train station.
The district is quite cosmopolitan, but I would not say that it is not safe.
Basic rules should be applied as in any other large cities.

Concerning Marseille:


Originally Posted by nicolas75
Marseille is a beautiful city that does not amount to Canebière, la Bonne mère and the Vieux Port.

The city offers to lovers of architecture, many monuments of great interest, and districts with multiple colors and moods:

- Le Panier, popular historic district of the city, close to the Vieux Port, with the beautiful Vieille Charité, Hospice of the XVIIth century old hosting the Museum of Mediterranean Archaeology, the Museum of African Arts, temporary exhibitions and a cinema theater

- The Palais de Longchamp, majestic building of the Second Empire with a fountain of Neptune which leaves the waters that feed Marseille via an aqueduct

- The Cours Julien district dedicated to the arts since the early nineteenth century (many restaurants and concert halls)

- Docks de la Joliette, full and beautiful industrial architecture of the nineteenth century,

- The housing unit by Le Corbusier, a master work of architecture of the 20th century. Built in the '50s, the building incorporates the theories of the "Radiant City" made by Le Corbusier (pile structure, duplex apartments, interior street with shops, a magnificent terrace at the top which offers a breathtaking view over the city, and welcoming nursery school and playground)

- Cantini Museum, in a beautiful mansion on the fashionable rue Grignan, houses one of the richest public collections devoted to French art of the twentieth century (Derain, Matisse, Dufy, Picasso, Miro, Ernst, Tapies, Alechinsky , Dubuffet, Bacon)

- The Museum of Contemporary Art: a museum which has opted for sobriety of the building to better showcase the works exhibited. Close to the Borély park, pleasant garden in the residential area of the Prado, lined with the elegant white facades of nineteenth-century mansions.

- A secret beach: following the chemin du Génie, a small creek hanging on the Corniche, to have a sunbath in privacy.

Have a dinner at Petit Nice Passédat, stay at Sofitel (superb view over the Vieux Port) or Pullman, have a brunch at Café Populaire
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