Marseille for English speakers: a first-visit field guide

Marseille is generous with people who make an effort, and it does not always make the effort itself. English is spoken in the hotels and in most places along the Vieux-Port, less so beyond, and printed information is often French only. This page lists what you can do here comfortably in English, and where a little help makes a big difference. It is written by guides who bridge that gap every day.

Museums and monuments with English

• MuCEM. The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations is fully bilingual: panels, audio guide, app and website. The building, the footbridge to Fort Saint-Jean and the roof terrace are free.
• Musée d’Histoire de Marseille. Next to the Centre Bourse shopping centre, built around the excavated Greek port. English audio guide and a bilingual route through 2,600 years of the city. The best hour of context you can buy.
• Château d’If. Bilingual signage, English audio guide, and the Monte Cristo story told properly.
• Cosquer Méditerranée. The replica of the prehistoric painted cave discovered under the Calanques, next to the MuCEM. The visit is by audio guide in a choice of languages, including English and German.
• Notre-Dame de la Garde. Leaflets in English in the basilica; the small museum has bilingual labels. The view needs no translation.
• Vieille Charité. The archaeology and African-Oceanian-Amerindian museums have English summaries in each room.

Tours, boats and bikes in English

The tourist office runs a small number of English walks in season. Shared boat trips to the Calanques announce commentary “in French and English”, which in practice means a few sentences in English between long French explanations. For a full experience in your language, book a private guide. Our three tours, on foot, by e-bike and by boat, are run entirely in English or German by guides who live here; we explain how to choose any guide, including us, in how to find an English-speaking guide in Marseille.

Eating out without fear

Most restaurants around the Vieux-Port have English menus, and the quality there is uneven. The rule of thumb that works: the further you walk from the water, the better and cheaper the food, and the more useful a few words of French become. Some helpful facts:

• Bouillabaisse is a two-course ceremony ordered in advance for at least two people. The charter restaurants of the Vieux-Port and the Vallon des Auffes serve the real thing and explain it in English.
• Panisses, chickpea fritters, and pizza (Marseille has its own tradition, sold from vans) are the everyday street food.
• Navettes are the boat-shaped orange-blossom biscuits sold at the Four des Navettes near Saint-Victor, the oldest bakery in the city.
• Menus: plat du jour is the daily special, formule a fixed-price combination, menu a set meal. Water is une carafe d’eau, free.
• Kitchens serve 12:00 to 14:00 and from 19:30. Between those hours you will find pizza, kebabs and bakeries.

Shopping and everyday life

The Noailles market is a souk of spices, olives, North African pastries and fabrics where pointing works as well as any language. Savon de Marseille is sold everywhere; the real thing is stamped on the cube with 72 % oil content and made by a handful of soap works that can be visited. For English books and newspapers, there is an English bookshop in the centre and newsagents at Saint-Charles. Pharmacies display a green cross and pharmacists usually manage English for common needs.

Football

Olympique de Marseille is the city’s religion, and the Orange Vélodrome, with 67,000 seats, its cathedral. Tickets are sold through the club’s website, which has an English version; match-day atmosphere needs no translation, though a local who explains the chants adds a lot. We can include a match in a custom day; ask through the booking form.

The phrases that change everything

You do not need to speak French. You need to open in French:

• Bonjour (before anything, always). Bonsoir after about 18:00.
• Excusez-moi, parlez-vous anglais ? Most people will try.
• S’il vous plaît / Merci / Au revoir.
• L’addition, s’il vous plaît. The bill.
• Une carafe d’eau, s’il vous plaît. Free tap water.
• C’est où… ? Where is…?

Say bonjour and smile, and the city switches from indifferent to warm in one second. That is the real secret of Marseille for English speakers, and everything else in our travel tips follows from it.