prison where the

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. Le Centre de la Vieille Charité © Massimo Municchi, OTCM 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. 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 Friche Belle de Mai © JoYanaOTCM Mirrored pavilion on the quayside of Marseille, designed by Sir Norman Foster Ile Degaby © Mickaël A. Bandassak 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 Underwater museum at Plage des Catalans, © La Pieruvre, OTLCM 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 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. Les Goudes, Baie des Singes, passage des Croisettes © LamyOTCM 44 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 45