Marseille, Mon Amour (A 3-day travel journal ) – Day 3

Marseille from above: raw concrete, divine views & tender vertigo!

Final morning. We climbed up to Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. A steep ascent, but the view from the top is unique. Marseille unfolds beneath us, from the sea to the hills, the docks to the Bonne Mère. Stark, powerful, breathtaking.

Next stop: the Marseille History Museum near Centre Bourse. A temporary exhibition on tattoo culture surprised us with its richness — aesthetic, historical, and deeply human. A museum that knows how to speak to the present.

On the way back to the hotel, lunch at La Cantinetta, an Italian trattoria tucked behind a discreet gate. Shady garden, handmade pasta, creamy burrata, chilled Pinot Grigio… A graceful pause away from the urban buzz. We loved it.

Before leaving, a detour to Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse. A brutalist icon, still offering a unique architectural experience. Art bookstore, galleries, tea rooms, and above all: the 9th-floor rooftop with its sweeping views.

A perfect final chapter to a trip defined by elevation. The Unité d’Habitation, built between 1947 and 1952, houses 330 apartments designed as a vertical city: interior streets, shops, a rooftop kindergarten, even a hotel-restaurant. Built on Modulor proportions, the apartments are bright, sound-insulated, and each with a private loggia. The rooftop — complete with open-air theatre and old kiddie pool turned art studio — offers a poetic vision of modern living.

On the 9th-floor rooftop, you’ll find an open-air theatre, a repurposed kiddie pool atelier, and panoramic views that celebrate the poetry of modern living.

It’s 4 p.m. On the way out, we imagine a final dip at Mont Rose Beach—gay-friendly, naturist inlet in the calanques—before hitting the road to Mandelieu.  Marseille lingers in our luggage: its light, its contrasts, its boldness.

Three days, a thousand impressions. One certainty: we’ll be back.

marseille-tourisme.com

provence-alpes-cotedazur.com