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Marseille
The South of France conjures up many images: spotless yachts and white bikinis, private parties with designer sunglasses, seaside restaurants with cloth napkins and obsequious waiters. Thankfully, Marseille is none of those things. In consulting guide books of the region geared toward the “average” tourist, they recommend you tolerate the city as a necessary evil in order to change trains from Paris to your waiting rental car and leave as quickly as possible. Admittedly, the twentieth century was a rough patch for the ancient port city. By the mid-1970s it was known as the “heroin capital of the world,” supplying North America with copious amounts of the deadly drug. Marseille today is very different, though admittedly still rough around the edges. In Le Panier, a district historically home to the Greek and North African communities, the narrow streets and alleyways are festooned with brightly colored buildings and flowerpots exploding with rosemary and lavender. The Noailles market, sitting back-to-back with the city center shopping district, still looks exactly the way it did during the French Connection II (1974) era. Marseille was bombed heavily during World War II, and although some buildings have been restored to their original late-1800s grandeur many others weren't, creating a distinct waterfront landscape that's a frank patchwork of what the town has been through: blocky late-1950s apartment buildings bask in the late afternoon sun alongside Byzantine cathedrals. The distinct cultural blend of influences from the neighboring countries of Morocco, Spain, Italy, and Algiers are keenly felt throughout the city. To an outsider these different backgrounds feel like distinct and unique elements but to Marseillais that's the way the city has always been, the U-shaped waterfront buzzing in the late afternoon sun with the sound of families speaking Arabic and French, Moroccan drums, and fishermen selling the last of the day's catch. There's an energy around town that’s wholly separate from tourism or trendiness, a palpable joy of a city that's designed to please its locals.