Marseille port day - Camargue national park

Hello,

We are cruising next year and I was wondering from your experience if it is realistic to do a visit to the Camargue park for a short one, maybe yake the train, and still to have some time to go either to Aix or Les Baux Provence?

Port time is 9-16, and we will be travellibg with kids?

If not, would you suggest visiting thr park or Aix/Les Baux?

I will probably take a taxi.

Thanks,

Yuval

You have a very short port time, which is not sufficient to even visit the Camargue park. Just go to Aix-en-Provence for the day. We rode the bus there with our kids and really enjoyed the market and the Cezanne house.

I agree that one is enough. Our children in their teens loved les Baux. Cassis and the calanques is also nice.

Aix used too be one of my favourites, but I was disappointed last visit.

Les Baux is an excellent choice especially with children. It has a great castle to climb over, reconstructions of medieval siege machines, wonderful views. The village is touristy but excellent with alleyways and shops and art exhibitions.

At the foot of the hill is the absolutely spectacular Carrierres des Lumieres. This is an immense stone quarry that now shows wonderful audio visual exhibitions projected onto the walls and ceilings. We saw The Giants of the Renaissance with constantly changing huge walls showing wonderful enlarged masterpieces accompanied by wonderful music. The shows change but all of them would be a wonderful experience.

I do not think there is anything else like it anywhere and everyone walks in (you can just walk round all the time and the films are on a loop) and just goes 'wow'. It would certainly be a mistake to go to Les Baux and not turn the other way from the car park at the foot of the village to visit this wonderful place.

Obviously you would have to have either a private tour or of course hire a car for the day and drive yourself giving you freedom to drop in at other places if time allows.

Thanks All!

Indeed, Aix tour if chosen we will probably take the ride from the cruise line.

Les Baux do seem interesting, but I would have to see if we will have the time as I saw it is slightly further away than Aix and we will need a taxi, so might be harder with timelines.

Reading the OPs post and the thread, I could not help but wonder why one would want to visit Camarque National Park? While we were staying in St Remy de Provence (we had rented an apartment for a couple of weeks), we wanted to do something different, so we drove down to Saintes Maries de la Mer. This meant driving through Camarque and I do recall it being a large wetland (good for bird watching) but am trying to picture going to a wetland for a port day. The town of Saintes Maries de Mer is actually an interesting walled village which does become a pretty busy tourist place i(some might say tourist trap) in the summer months. But it pales by comparison to many of the more popular places in Provence that can easily be reached from Marseille. You might consider that driving to Saintes Maries de Mer would probably take about 4 hours (round trip) much of which would be just motoring through wetlands. On the other hand, if one enjoys wetlands and hiking nature trails the park is an OK destination. DW reminded me that we did see plenty of flamingos in the park, which is about our fondest memory of the pla

Hank

We liked our night there. We had planned three nights in Arles, but we just didn't like it, so we took off for the Carmargue. It was interesting in a weird way...a mix of the everglades, the American west, and a cheap US Atlantic resort town. I'd only go if you are on a land trip and you are making your way slowly to the Languedoc.

I agree that one is enough. Our children in their teens loved les Baux. Cassis and the calanques is also nice.

Aix used too be one of my favourites, but I was disappointed last visit.

why were you disappointed? I am debating to go AIX or Cassis never been in any of those cities. We just want to see some of France and possibly but some Armagnac.

Aix is a beautiful town with lovely fountains and market. It was my favourite but last time it seemed to be overrun with spring break like young people interested primarily in drink. What a shame. Hopefully in the day time that would not be an issue. It seems to have become a victim of excess.

Cassis is very small and only really the start point for a boat trip to the Calanques.

Arles has many interesting sites. We also really enjoyed St Remy and Les Baux. We were in the area several times on land trips.

Aix is a beautiful town with lovely fountains and market. It was my favourite but last time it seemed to be overrun with spring break like young people interested primarily in drink. What a shame. Hopefully in the day time that would not be an issue. It seems to have become a victim of excess.

 

Cassis is very small and only really the start point for a boat trip to the Calanques.

 

Arles has many interesting sites. We also really enjoyed St Remy and Les Baux. We were in the area several times on land trips.

Your post kind of reminds me of Yogi Berra's old quote that is something like "the place is so crowded that nobody goes there anymore :). Aix does have its share of charm, but its also a major city with over 140,000 residents. You also need to consider that Aix is the home of 3 Universities (one of which has over 30,000 students) and numerous other smaller colleges. Like any college town, you are going to find plenty of young folks out and about....and yes, they will be hitting the bars at night. Because its a University Town, it has become a very interesting shopping city with a huge variety of shops, boutiques, markets, etc.

Hank

Love the quote! Places do suffer from too much tourism for sure. And they are real places with real inhabitants.

Just for us, we were very saddened on our last visit by the dearth of nice restaurants and the change in atmosphere, when over our past visits it had been so charming.

Love the quote! Places do suffer from too much tourism for sure. And they are real places with real inhabitants.

Just for us, we were very saddened on our last visit by the dearth of nice restaurants and the change in atmosphere, when over our past visits it had been so charming.

Like many cities, tourism has taken its toll...but primarily in the main tourist centers. There are still plenty of nice restaurants and even 5 Michelin Starred restaurants. The problem is that many tourists stick to the main tourist streets which is often not the place to find the decent eating venues. Tripadvisor actually has over 700 restaurants on its list for that city. The last time we walked around Aix (nearly two years ago) we were also not impressed with what had happened to several of our favorite haunts on the famous Cours Mirabeau. Many tourists (including moi) often head to this popular avenue and the cafes are still crowded at lunch and dinner. We used to suggest, here on CC, that cruisers head to that area and check-out the "menus" to choose a place that suits. But now, we would no longer make that recommendation as most of the cafes in that ole trendy area have become tourist traps. They are fine for a snack or drink, but would not be where we go for a decent meal.

Hank

Agreed Hank! Lots of restaurants for sure, but a lot more tourist traps.

We had a favourite restaurant on a back square that you had to wander in to. I have fond memories of a wonderful meal with a wonderful peach drink. On our last visit also about two years ago, the square had changed dramatically. No longer the same lovely atmosphere.

I guess that is why we like getting off the beaten path. We have had excellent meals in St Remy and In The little village of Fontvielle.