From the regal Canebière to the working-class Noailles: a journey into the heart of Marseille

Hello, Meet People community! I’m Élodie, a tour guide and lecturer, and I’ve created an eco-friendly tourism concept that combines nature, culture, and well-being. I offer themed outings: mindful walks, yoga walks, hiking trips, storytelling outings on a sailboat, farm visits, immersive craft workshops, and scenic walks in the countryside with tastings of local products.

Come discover the soul of Marseille with Elodie Marie, a tour guide and lecturer. We’ll journey through Marseille, just as one journeys through a memory, traveling back in time between the dreams of the powerful and the lived experiences of its residents today. Greek Massalia, Roman Massilia—which would become the cosmopolitan Marseille under the Ancien Régime. A rebellious, impoverished, vibrant, multicultural, and diverse city.

Come explore La Canebière and Noailles, two complementary neighborhoods: one reflects the urbanized, gentrified city—a showcase of Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries; the other reveals the intimate, working-class, vibrant city. My heart is torn between the two.

The Tour

Close your eyes and stroll along the Canebière, Marseille’s answer to the Champs-Élysées. Soak in the atmosphere and imagine the Empire’s ambition: The Palais de la Bourse, horse-drawn carriages, grand cafés, café-theaters, luxury hotels, movie theaters: a magnificent atmosphere. Marseille would turn away from the sea to open up toward the north, shaping the Canebière in three stages all the way to the Réformés. Mayor Flaissières said of it: “This street is no ordinary street; and when one sinks into an Oriental pouf, when people in northern countries speak of Marseille, they speak of the Canebière.”

We’ll leap from one era to another: from flower vendors to department stores, from horse-drawn carriages to electric trams, from the elegant carriage-lined avenue, the Cours Belsunce, to the La Bourdelle high-rises of the 1960s. Two thoroughfares for passing through and taking in the sights, between shop windows and the hustle and bustle.

Throughout the tour, Élodie brings the visit to life by unveiling a collection of vintage postcards and Renaissance works depicting Marseille, to better understand the city’s transformations over the ages. Then we plunge into the “belly of Marseille,” the colorful Noailles neighborhood, home to a diverse and eclectic crowd.You’ll then be swept up in a dance of the senses: the scent of spices, colorful market stalls, the clamor of vendors in every language—a whole world teeming with life.

We’ll make a stop for an oriental tasting at the stalls of Noailles.

Noailles is both a journey through space, with its intercultural mix, and a journey through time, featuring century-old shops like Maison Empereur—a former cutlery and hardware store—and Père Blaise, a century-old herbalist. These two establishments have never lost their identity, and their success has never waned. Noailles is, above all, the heart of the city—a hub of markets and small food shops—once a bourgeois neighborhood, then a place of exodus and working-class renewal. Marseille is the only city where working-class neighborhoods have carved out a place for themselves right in the city center.

Throughout this immersive tour, your guide Elodie invites you to slow down, observe, and experience the atmosphere.

• French
• English