Marseille · Self-guided audio walk

Noailles and the Canebière: The Belly of Marseille

A short, dense walk through the market quarter where Marseille has shopped since 1956.

5Stops
2 kmDistance
30+ minTime

Photo by Chabe01 on Wikimedia Commons

This walk threads the Canebière into Noailles, the market quarter you smell before you see it. Start where the famous avenue meets the Old Port, duck into the covered Marché des Capucins, and follow Rue Longue des Capucins past an herbalist trading since 1815 and a hardware shop open since 1827. The street drops to Rue d'Aubagne, then loops back to the open-air market for lunch, past a street still being rebuilt. Allow about 45 minutes, longer if you stop to eat.

Hear it on the street

Get the turn-by-turn audio guide in the app. The narration plays itself as you reach each stop, hands-free and offline.

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Stop by stop

The route

Interactive map of the route. The full stop list below works without it.

Must see

Photo by IngolfBLN on Wikimedia Commons

La Canebière

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Marseille's most famous avenue, a kilometre of pavement running from the Old Port to the Église des Réformés.

You're at the bottom of the Canebière, where the avenue meets the Old Port. The name comes from the Provençal canebiera, a hemp field, and that one word holds the story of this street. Marseille's ships needed rope, so the city grew hemp and made cordage here, and the trade paid for the grand facades that came later. The avenue runs a kilometre from the port up to the Église des Réformés.

For most of its early life it was only 250 metres long and 11 metres wide, and it did not reach the water until 1785, after the galley arsenal closed. The lower stretch is now pedestrian, which is why you can stand in the middle of it. When you are ready, walk uphill with the port behind you.

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≈2 min walk to the next stop

Must see

Photo by Carl Ha on Wikimedia Commons

Marché des Capucins

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The covered market at place des Capucins, selling fruit, vegetables, and fish six days a week since 1956.

You are at the Marché des Capucins, the covered hall on place des Capucins. It has sold fruit, vegetables, and fish six days a week since 1956. The schedule is simple: Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm, and closed on 1 January, 1 May, and 25 December. Under the roof the aisles are stacked with produce you will not find in a supermarket, and the air smells of herbs and fish.

This hall is the heart of Noailles, the quarter the rest of Marseille comes to when it wants to cook. Outside the doors, the open-air market spills into the surrounding streets and keeps the same rhythm. Walk the length of the hall once before you move on, and watch the traders set out their produce.

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≈7 min walk to the next stop

Local pick

Photo by Boris Hadjur on Unsplash

Rue Longue des Capucins

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A 778-metre market street lined with old shops, from the Père Blaize herbalist to the Maison Empereur.

You are on rue Longue des Capucins, the working spine of Noailles. From here the street runs 778 metres down across the Canebière to rue d'Aubagne, and for most of that length it is a market in its own right, with crates of vegetables on the pavement and traders calling out prices. Watch for two of Marseille's oldest shops just off the street as you go. The Père Blaize herbalist was founded in 1815 by Toussaint Blaize, a healer from the Alpes de Haute-Provence, and six generations of his family ran it over nearly two centuries. The Maison Empereur, France's oldest hardware shop, opened in 1827 and still fills a warren of rooms with about 50,000 items. Step into one of them if its door is open, then keep walking downhill toward rue d'Aubagne.

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≈11 min walk to the next stop

Free preview ends here · stops 4 to 5 continue in the app

Rue d'Aubagne

A street of old apartment blocks, still in the middle of a long rebuilding.

in app

Marché de Noailles

The open-air market that spills from the square toward the Canebière, and the walk's lunch stop.

in app

Good to know

Before you go

When is the Noailles market open?

The Noailles market is a morning affair. The covered Marché des Capucins sells produce and fish six days a week and is at its best before lunch. The open-air stalls of the Marché de Noailles also run in the morning. The big La Plaine market on Place Jean Jaurès runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with a flower market on Wednesday.

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