This was the fourth port stop on the P&O Arvia Mediterranean Cruise (K319) in September 2023, stopping at the port of Marseille in France.

This is our first ever trip to France, so we were looking forward to seeing some new sights and how it differed to other places we have visited.

The cruise ship docked about 3 miles away from the main tourist area. The cruise ship had shuttle buses that took passengers down to the area close to the Cathédrale Basilique Sainte-Marie-Majeure. Although you have to pay for the shuttle busses arranged by P&O, if you walk just outside of the cruise terminal, there are FREE local shuttle buses. As we try to avoid crowded buses though, we decided take neither of these options and to walk to the area from the cruise terminal.

We hadn't really seen any other YouTube videos showing people walking this route, so didn't really what to expect.
As we left the cruise terminal, it became clear that there wasn't really an obvious pedestrian route to the main area. The location was a working port with some busy main roads passing by along the North edge of the port area.

Generally we like walking and we feel it's always good to see the real locations we visit, but this walk wasn't one of our better ones. We had to walk along the edge of the busy roads, which were noisy and had fast moving cars on them. In some areas there wasn't really any pedestrian walkways. In areas off the main roads, there was lots of rubbish strewn around, things like broken glass, bottles and various other unsavoury items all around on the road and pavements. Quite a mess, and I never really understand why whoever is responsible don't get this sort of thing sorted and cleaned up.

Although it was pretty disgusting, we just about felt safe enough during the day, but it's not an area that we would walk once it got dark.

Once we did get to the area around the Cathedral though, the town was pleasant enough. We had a good walk round and found the small narrow streets quite pretty. Many areas were covered in graffiti, but on the whole, this was quite artistic and well done.

Once again, we completely failed to buy a Mojito. We did sit down at a place with a big sign outside that said "Mojitos" (and other cocktails), but when the member of staff eventually got to us, they said they "couldn't make Mojitos today" ?? - We gave up :)

All in all, we did enjoy our port stop at Marseille, but we certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to walk from the cruise terminal to the main area. Just get either the cruise shuttle or the free one just outside the terminal. We are actually on a similar cruise next year that stops at Marseille. Our current thinking is that we will probably either do a cruise excursion, or maybe just stay on the ship next time (which is very unusual for us!). We will see closer to the time though.

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Steve & Amanda.
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Track: "Under the Canopy", Purrple Cat
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