Costa Magica Cruise Photos

From: Costa Magica Cruise Review

Marseille (3)

The Marseille Tourist Office was just to the north of the Vieux Port, between the old harbor and the Place du General de Gaulle.

Since we had only a few hours in Marseille, we headed into the main business district, passing a vintage storefront and a carousel on our way.

A modern shopping mall, the Centre Bourse, was just beyond the harbor. A Galeries Lafayette department store was the mall's anchor tenant.

For Cheryl, the mall's high point was Loisirs & Creation, a crafts shop with a huge selection of rubber stamps, art materials, papers, home-decorating products, sewing and jewelry-making supplies, and other items. (Loisirs & Création is a French chain with more than a dozen stores in Paris, the Paris region, and Provence.)

After enriching the local retail economy at Loisirs & Creation, we explored the rest of Marseille's lively (and seemingly prosperous) downtown shopping district.

We couldn't visit France without joining the line at a local bakery.

The croissants au beurre weren't up the standards of our favorite Paris bakery, but they were better than the croissants on the ship.

Having satisfied our caloric quota with croissants, we walked past this produce shop and  chocolatier without stopping. 

We did stop at the two-story McDonald's in downtown Marseille--not to eat, but to document the clean (though seatless) WCs.