Marseille: Discovering the Old Port and Le Panier - EN｜France

Please note that this tour is only available in French.
An art historian trained at the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne, I am also a native of Marseille — and it is this dual perspective, academic and personal, that I offer you to discover Old Marseille.
Thanks to my training in architecture and iconography, I will teach you to read each facade like a text: decipher a coat of arms, identify a style, and understand what the stone tells. You'll never look at a street the same again.
But Marseille is not only understood with the eyes — it is felt. Having grown up here, I'll share with you the contrasts and secrets that only the locals know about.
The tour — 2 hours on foot through the historical heart
We start at Place de Lenche, where the Greeks founded Massalia 2,600 years ago. The journey through time begins here.
From there, we head to the Esplanade Saint-Laurent for a breathtaking view of the Old Port — the perfect moment to understand why this city has always fascinated and worried the great powers.
We head back to the Cathédrale de la Major and the Port de la Joliette, where the stone tells the story of the wild ambition of a city that dreamed of being the capital of the Mediterranean.
We then dive into the narrow streets of the Panier—its reputation, its myths, its rebirth—before stopping in front of the Vieille Charité, one of the most beautiful Baroque complexes in France, whose history is as paradoxical as it is touching.
The route then takes us to the Préau des Accoules and the Hôtel Intercontinental, two places steeped in history that few visitors are aware of.
We finish in front of the Town Hall, where I reveal to you the most unknown and most shocking episode in the history of Marseille — the one that almost wiped out the Old Port forever.
In two hours, you won't just be visiting Marseille — you'll begin to understand it.