Wandering Marseille, Marseille, France

Some cities make you work hard to discover its personality and flavour. Others are easy. No real planning ahead is required as you’ll discover much just by strapping on a pair of good walking shoes and wandering. Of course, you’ll miss plenty of the lesser obvious sites but that’s okay – it just means you have an excuse to visit again. This style of travel is especially good if you’re only in a place for a weekend. By not researching ahead of time, you are forced to take in the essence of a place rather than rushing from site to site. I learned this lesson in Marseille.

While the city is known as a major centre for history and art, all I really knew about the place was that it’s a port and that photographers and artists rave about the natural light. And for the first time in my travels, that was enough. I wandered around Marseille for one weekend, visiting sites as I found them. Here are some things for which you should keep your eyes peeled in your own visit:

There are many churches scattered throughout the city. One is the 19th century Cathedral of Sainte-Marie-Majeure. It’s a huge building done in the Romano-Byzantine style and even the outside is pretty ornate. The other church is the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde – it lies high up on a hill overlooking the city. The building that you see today was built in the mid-19th century but it stands on the spot of an older church of the same name – that one had been built in 1214. This church is especially interesting to see as it was built with green limestone found near Florence and you can see numerous bullet marks on the outside walls from a battle during the Liberation of France near the end of WWII. Once finished examining the church, don’t forget to explore the grounds as there are some fantastic panoramic viewpoints! ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).