Lyon and Marseille - NY Times article

I, too, think Marseille is an absolute gem. I absolutely fell in love with it back in 2015. I found the people to be charming, the cuisine to be excellent, and the sights were just amazing

I haven't been to Marseille yet, but we were just in Lyon. Loved it there. Restaurants, sights, the bridges over the city.

Absolutely LOVED Lyon! Didn't expect it to be as beautiful as it was from the guide books. Just from my experience, there are really three Lyons. Each has a completely different feeling. Vieux Lyon is the small, sort of traffic free, "old town." "Old," here being a relative term. Its touristy, and crowed, but still charming. The banks of Vieux Lyon are on the Saone River. This is the dirty, mostly polluted river that the locals no longer embrace as a nice place to hang out, unless they want to get really drunk on Friday night. However the best morning food market is along the east side of the Saone.

Then you have the Rhone part of Lyon. This is where all the wild life hangs out, swans...fish, college students, etc. This is a clear, clean river. Modern Lyon embraced that with beautiful parks along the east side of the river and lighted bridges at night. It is nothing short of magical to walk at night.

The third character of Lyon is the Red Cross district, or La Croix Rousse. It is due north of Vieux Lyon. Not much in the way of tourism, unless you care about the history of silk and Jacquard looms or the foundations of Gaul-Roma - the original Amphitheater, an important historical site, isn't open for visitors. I have a big question as to why this isn't open or why the caves, the largest caves discovered in Europe, under Lyon City are not open, and not open at least a little. .... Lyon should be interested in opening these places up. Any one listening from Lyon in the tourist industry, please get them to do a restoration of the original Amphitheater, and at some point get some of the underground stuff to be safe for tourists.

Croix Rousse is the avant-garde area of Lyon, if you are into edgy art and night life activities and people following a self made, DIY, world philosophy; its like Portland Oregon, in French. :)

We have been to Lyon and loved it. Also, we did a wonderful 7 day Rhone/Saone River cruise that explored Burgundy and Provence. Loved places like Vienne, Arles, Avignon, Ponte du Gard and Aix en Provence.
Also loved the Cannes area and the village of St. Paul de Vence.

Marseille was a huge disappointment. Sorry, but I would not recommend Marseille over any of the other places that I mentioned.

I'm a Marseille fan, but it's clearly a love/hate kind of place. If you can afford to spend a couple days out of curiosity and 'take the plunge', it's worth a shot!

Like Balso, I love Marseille. To me it has more in common with other Med ports I enjoy such as Palermo, Naples, Genoa and Barcelona than it does with the rest of France. It's an acquired taste, perhaps, but coming from a Bronx like area of Chicago and living in a Bronx like area of Paris, Marseille is right up my alley so to speak.

Never thought the Bronx was that great. If you like slums, go to Marseille.

Never thought the Bronx was that great. If you like slums, go to Marseille.

They used to say that about Brooklyn too, and now look at it. It's chic. Not that the Bronx is chic .... yet. Incidentally, both my parents were born and raised in the Bronx.
And I liked Marseilles a lot (Lyon, of course, is wonderful). Yes, there are slums on the outskirts, but I don't know many cities that size that don't have slum areas.