On my second weekend living in Lyon, my friends and I decided (super last minute) to go on a day trip to Marseille from Lyon. When I say last minute, I mean we booked our tickets less than 12 hours before we left!

Originally, I was going to Grenoble with another group of people, staying over Friday night, but since I had been so busy last week, I really wanted to sleep in my bed. It also was stressful starting to plan and pack for it the day before I left. Even though Marseille was planned even less in advance, since I wasn’t staying over night, there was less to worry about.

In this blog, I’m going to share my itinerary for spending one day in Marseille, France! This itinerary is perfect for those looking for a relaxing day trip in France, especially from cities like Lyon or Nice.

Our day trip at a glance:
The Train to Marseille
First impressions of Marseille
Lunch on the Mediterranean Sea
La Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde
Enjoying a glass of wine during golden hour
Heading back to Lyon

The Train to Marseille

On Saturday morning, we took the TGV from Lyon to Marseille and it took two hours for just under 200 miles. The TGV is a speed train, and I was super excited to take it since I first learned about it in my French class about a year ago!

Our train left the station at 8:06am but the station told us to get there 30 minutes early. I arrived around 7:30 with Kathleen, and we met up with Camila who got there a few minutes prior. Slowly, we all started to trickle in (there were 7 of us total), but Gray was having a hard time finding the station! I don’t blame her because there weren’t any signs when we got off the metro and we had to walk through a little bit of construction. Claire and I split up from the group to find the bathroom while they found Gray (which by the way it costs 1 euro to use public bathrooms in France – what is this?!). We walked back to gate J, where our train was, and the others were still trying to find Gray. We didn’t know where in the station they could be since it was so big, or if they were outside of it, so Claire and I decided to walk up the ramp to the train since it was already 7:55am – we had 11 minutes before it left. Once we got up there, we decided we needed to find our car since the train was so long and it was going to take a few minutes. We were in car five, and by the time we sat down in our seats it was already 8am – 6 minutes before the train left. At this point, Claire and I thought it was just going to be us two in Marseille. I did not think anyone was going to make it! But luckily, by 8:03 they all confirmed they got on the train, though not all in the right cars or seats. The TGV was pretty empty, so if we moved seats it wouldn’t matter a whole lot. They didn’t even check our tickets until after the TGV started moving. Ian said he sat in first class the whole way there!

On our way to Marseille, the TGV made a few stops in places like Avignon and Aix en Provence. The ride was really smooth, and I ready the third book of Harry Potter until my eyes were too tired to keep reading. I felt a little boost of confidence when I mostly understood what the lady on the loudspeaker was saying to the passengers!

First Views of Marseille

As we arrived in Marseille, we were greeted by the beautiful, warm sun in the sky. Something we don’t see a whole lot of up in Lyon! We didn’t have much planned out for the day, but the first order of business was to get lunch because we were starving. We bought a tram ticket and headed to the port to scope out lunch. While on the tram, I saw a little boy running with paper big filled with three or four baguettes, I don’t think I’d ever seen a little boy in such bliss. He was running and skipping, it almost felt like he could’ve been in the movie Luca.

Little did I know until I returned to Lyon, the Port of Marseille-Fos used to be one of the 15 world’s largest cruise ports and the 5th largest port in the Mediterranean Sea! It has an annual traffic of 4 billion euros!

Lunch on the Mediterranean Sea

We decided, since we were by the sea, what better place to have seafood! I have only recently started eating seafood, but I’m always open to try new foods so I didn’t oppose. I decided not to get oysters or muscles for my main dish since I didn’t want to risk not liking it (the restaurant was too expensive to just order another meal). So I decided on the pâtes aux fruits de mer, which is seafood pasta. The pasta tasted amazing, but I was a little bit disappointed with the portion of the pasta, I wish I got more! I wasn’t all that surprised, however, because I know that Europeans have smaller portions than in the States. Camila let me try one of her oysters and muscles and I discovered that I don’t like oysters, they taste just like the ocean and not in a good way for me. But the muscles I really liked! I would order moules et frites (muscles and fries) next time.

After our déjeuner, we walked along the port towards the bus stop and headed up to La Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde.

La Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde

La Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde was absolutely stunning. The architecture was mesmerizing to look at, I loved the stripes going up. It was also an emotional experience for me. I’m not super sure why, but I hadn’t been to mass in about two years because of covid, and I don’t attend it while I’m at school. For some reason just walking into the chapel, not even the basilica made me feel emotional. I saw candles lit for peoples’ loved ones, so I decided to light one too. I remember when I visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona, with my mom and dad, my mom lit a candle in remembrance of her mother, so I decided to do the same.

Just a few minutes after lighting my candle, a lady tried to pick-pocket me. I had barely noticed what was happening, but I saw someone put their arms around me and I stepped back, I couldn’t even feel it. Luckily, she didn’t take anything since I didn’t have any valuables in my coat pockets nor in my backpack pockets, just extra masks. My friends did warn me to be careful in Marseille, they say it’s a big city for pick-pocketing (but that goes with any big touristy city in Europe).

After walking through the basilica, I basically got lost just staring out into the Mediterranean Sea. This was my first time visiting the Mediterranean Sea and it was just gorgeous. For some reason, looking out in this specific direction (pictured below) towards the tiny islands really caught my attention, I loved that the islands looked 2D from the angle of the sun in the sky.

Once we were done touring the basilica, we headed back down to the port, though that was easier said than done. We went back to the bus stop where we got off and waited for the next one, but he wouldn’t let us on for some reason. I think he knew we wanted to go back down towards the port, but he still had more stops to go up the hill. We figured out, after the next bus drove down the hill, that we needed to wait on the other side of the rode so the bus stops for us! But the next bus wasn’t for another 10-15 minutes so we just waited. It wasn’t a bad wait at all, but it’s funny because it reminds me of that one SpongeBob episode where SpongeBob is trying to get back to the Bikini Bottom from Rock Bottom and he misses the bus! Though for us, it wasn’t a scary experience like it was for SpongeBob.

Finally, we caught the bus back down to the port, but it didn’t take us all the way since there were covid protests going on at the port. This worked out fine though because we wanted to find a boulangerie and patisserie to stop in. We ended up splitting up at this point, Trudy, Gray and Ian stayed at the patisserie, and me, Camila, Claire, and Kathleen searched for a boulangerie. I was still a bit hungry since my pasta wasn’t super filling so I was looking for something more savory. I got a quiche and petit croissant, and the others got two pastries each, and then we took our treats and walked to the port to enjoy them. We couldn’t really find a quiet spot away from the protests, so we ended up just popping a squat where it was slightly less busy and tuned them out. My quiche and petit croissant were so satisfying, and more filling than my pasta from earlier!

Claire has been on the hunt to find the best tarte au citron in France, she’s had one nearly every day! The one she got today, she says, had been the best one yet. I need to try a tart au citron next time I find myself in a boulangerie or patisserie, I have yet to try one!

It felt so good to sit in the sun and enjoy these treats. It has been so cloudy and cold in Lyon, that we’ve felt deprived of vitamin D. In Marseille, it was around 54 degrees Fahrenheit and the average in Lyon lately has been 30. I even got a little but sunburnt since I wasn’t expecting so many rays!

An Aperitif on the Sea

After we finished our treats, we stopped at a nearby restaurant for a glass of wine before heading back to the garre to go back to Lyon. This was my first time ever ordering a drink at a restaurant since I’m only 20, so what better place to do it than in Marseille :) I ordered “un verre du vin blanc” which is just white wine and it was very tasty! It helps that Camila is a certified sommelier to help us identify the notes in the wine. I didn’t find the wine dry or super sweet, it was a nice balance and really refreshing.

The Train Back to Lyon

Finally, we walked back to the garre to catch our train back. It took us a bit to figure out which gate we were supposed to leave from since they never posted it on the TV screens, so we had to walk up to each one to see if it was labeled with our train number. The garre in Marseille was a bit different than Lyon, because they checked our Pass Sanitaire first and then we scanned our QR code to board the train. This system makes more sense than how we boarded in Lyon!

The ride back was somehow more empty than the ride to Marseille. I honestly really enjoyed using the TGV, besides being difficult to find our gate and find the station in Lyon, it’s super convenient to use to travel to cities further away and you can get lucky with cheap tickets.

All in all, my day trip to Marseille was very enjoyable! I really liked that we only tried to do a few things, rather than do everything there is to do in Marseille. This way, the day is more relaxing and it gives us more to do the next time we visit!