Bouillabaisse time!

Marseille gets a lot of bad press, often unjustly so. People often associate this vibrant, happening city with gang violence and dodgy dealings. Sure, those things exist in Marseille (otherwise it wouldn't be Marseille, right?), but there's much more to the place than those negative stereotypes.

Now, one of those things is Bouillabaisse, possibly the tastiest fish soup there is. A dish I'm rather partial to. So when Mathilde's colleagues suggested we join them for a proper Marseille bouillabaisse, we didn't need much time to think about it before replying with a resounding "yes".

The rendez-vous was at Marina des Goudes, a place tucked away in a small fishing port at the outskirts of Marseille. The place is located in pretty stunning surroundings, around the calanques, impressive rock formations that dot the seaside between Marseille and Cassis. And the Marina itself is just as one would imagine a port in this part of the world.

OK, and what about the bouillabaisse, then, you ask ? Well, the nice thing about this place is that they serve a proper traditional bouillabaisse (as it's the local speciality, there are plenty of places selling rather poor imitations of it). Another great thing about the place is that it's not touristy at all, unlike some of the places in the town centre. And probably it's a bit less heavy on the wallet as well (having said that, bouillabaisse is always rather expensive).

We were joined by Julie (who is almost a local - the recommendation for this place comes from her), Aurelien, Charlotte and Julien for the feast. We predictably had a great time, chatting away, drinking wine, and of course, enjoying the bouillabaisse.

After the feast (which took a good couple of hours - if you ever plan to have a Bouillabaisse, plan a whole afternoon for it, and forget about having a dinner afterwards!), we decided to head into the town centre for a bit of culture - so we headed off to the fancy MuCEM museum, which had been built in the Vieux Port a couple of years ago, when Marseille was cultural capital of Europe.

Actually, it was getting a bit late, and we had a theatre play to go to in Nice, so we decided not to just check out a temporary exhibition and not visit the main museum, and just walk around the nearby Fort Sain-Jean, a lovely place which offers some fantastic views over the View Port.

And then, time to drive back to Nice. This visit once more confirms my view that Marseille is a pretty cool place, which deserves more visitors than it currently gets!