City Guide to Marseille, France
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John McCarthy once said "If I owned Marseille and Hell, I'd rent out Marseille and live in Hell" which to be fair isn't too kind to old Marseille; it has to be one of the most underrated places in France!Massage marseille pas cher
I had never thought of visiting Marseille before however through the powers of social media (Instagram to be exact), Intercontinental Hotels posted a photo of the view of the Vieux Port from their new hotel earlier this year and I booked straight away.
Obviously we stayed at the newly opened Intercontinental Marseille Hotel Dieu which is a beautiful historic building that has become a tourist attraction in Marseille since the hotel opened; it was the old hospital so a number of ex hospital staff and locals alike are visiting.
The rooms themselves are a little too dark for my liking however if you do get a Port view room (well worth the extra expense) the view is to die for as you look over the Vieux Port and the Notre Dame de la Garde and it's a view you will never tire of. I have a number of photos to prove it!Salon de massage marseille
The Terrace rooms give you the opportunity to order room service and they will come in and set up a table for you on your terrace (as below).
My favourite view of the Hotel was at night, it's just spectacular and this photo doesn't do it justice.
The Le Capian Bar is a nice area to take a cheeky cocktail (they have a great selection of Champagne cocktails for the girls) and to take in the views from the terrace.
The hotel has a Spa by Clarins and G went for a deep tissue massage before we left and said it was definitely deep tissue! The treatments are pricey (but you expect this at a hotel plus a Clarins spa). The swimming pool is free to use for the guests however unfortunately you need to pay to use the hamman and steam rooms at a fee of €20 a day. All the toiletries in the rooms are Clarins.
2013 is Marseille's year as it is the joint European Capital of Culture with Kosice in Slovakia, while most cities just throw on a few exhibitions and displays, Marseille took the opportunity to clean up the Old Town area and it was money well spent. Almost every weekend there is a new exhibition or show to watch so you won't get bored while visiting.
Unfortunately like the real elephants, the elephant above has also lost its tusks!
I do like kooky art exhibitions (however detest the Tate Modern, yes I said it!) and we decided to visit the Musee Regards de Provence which had a couple of very interesting displays and a dead Mickey Mouse!
And I thought I had big feet, my Topshop ballet flats are still going strong! The second pair of these shoes are safely tucked in the back of the shoe room until required.Massage chinois marseilleMassage marseille sp
The Musee Regards de Provence is located in the Le Panier area of Marseille which was my favourite part of town, with its narrow little streets with pastel coloured buildings, clothes floating in the breeze, cute little flowers hanging off the window shutters; basically all I needed was a man playing an accordion wearing a breton stripe top and I would have died happy!
One trip I was really looking forward too when visiting Marseille was a boat trip to the Calanques National Park however due to the Mistral wind (it's the famous Provence wind) we couldn't take any boat trips to the Calanques as they were cancelled; which I was gutted about. Our concierge recommended Croisieres Marseille Calanques for the boat trip and the start point is at the Vieux Port.Massage spa