There are certain cities that, upon uttering their names, immediately evoke a reaction from just about any skateboarder. Marseille, France is one such city.
I have been wanting to skate the Marseille skatepark for several years now. When Heckler went to Spain in 1999, we had planned to detour up to Marseille, but we ran out of time skating all the parks in Spain. So when Heckler hosted two interns from France, Aline Sogorb and Jean Phillipe Audin, I started making plans with Jean Phillipe (aka JP) to meet him in Marseille and finally skate the fabled park. Sometimes far flung plans do come true, and last fall I traveled to France with my wife, Maria, and met up with JP and finally skated the Marseille park! But this is only an introduction. The point of this article is that you should go to Marseille too. Every skater knows that there’s a great park there, but here’s eight more reasons why you should go to Marseille.

1. Paris. This is where you’ll probably fly into, as there are lots of cheap flights into Paris. A round trip train ticket to Marseille costs less than $100 and it takes about five hours. By June 2001, there should be a high speed line that will cut the trip down to three hours. But, enjoy Paris while you’re there. Yeah, it can be expensive and the Parisians can be snotty, but if you’re friendly and try a few words of French, you can usually get a smile out of them. We found a nice hotel for about $35 in the Latin Quarter. It even had a balcony, so we could just buy some bread and cheese and eat a cheap lunch while people watching. The Latin Quarter is the place to stay; right near the Isle de la Cite, where Notre Dame is, and there are a lot of cheap bars and cafes. Paris is a beautiful city and there’s tons of stuff to see and do, plus lots of good street skating. Plan on spending at least a day or two there before you move on.

2. While Paris can be cheap if you work at it, Marseille is even cheaper. It’s the second largest city in France after Paris and is more like a real city, without many concessions to tourism. As such, there aren’t a lot of people visiting it and rooms and food are about half of what they cost in Paris, or even California for that matter. There’s a Hostel, in the suburbs near the bus line to the skatepark, that’s only $10 (72ff) a night. But, we opted to spend a little bit more and booked a room at Hotel Le Richelieu. The hotel is built into a cliff directly over the ocean, and is about halfway between the city center and the skatepark. The windows in our room opened out to the Mediterranean sea; an incredible view with the sound of the ocean to accompany it. It’s one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in and it set us back $35 a night-less than a Motel 6 in Kansas. It’s super laid back and the owners are a cool french couple, Cristel and Christhoper Lasserre who speak good English, which is nice. Cristel is an artist who also drew the title for this article. It took me about 30 minutes to skate from the hotel to the skatepark, along a road that hugs the ocean the entire way. There’s also a bus line that goes directly to the park.

3. Besides the skatepark, there’s a lot to do in Marseille. The city is centered around the old port. (Port Vieux) and not too long ago was a major drug trafficking city, (Remember the movie The French Connection? It was filmed in Marseille) but that’s in the past now. It gets a little sleepy near the Les Richelieu at night, which can be nice if you just want to chill, but the area around the Vieux Port parties all night, with tons of bars, clubs and places to eat. We spent a few nights at the Hotel Alize which is right across the street from the port. (Spend the extra $5.00 and get a room with a view of the port). There’s tons of stuff to do and see in this area. There are two old forts that were built in the 13th century to guard the port, and you can take a boat out to the Chateau d’lf, a 16th century prison on a small island that Alexander Dumas uses as the setting for The Count of Monte Cristo. But the best thing about Marseille is just hanging out. The people are friendly and real, and since there are lots of ferries from North America, there’s a cool ethnic vibe mixed in with the French Folks. A recent poll of French youth rated Marseille as the number one city in which to live, with Paris coming in third.

4. Marseille is on the Mediterranean Sea and is part of the French Riviera which means that the weather is great and you can swim in the ocean. If you head southeast you’ll find Cannes, Monaco and Monte Carlo and other stuck up, expensive cities where wealthy people go to escape the cold and hang on the beach. But, you can do that in Marseille instead. When we went in November it was warm and sunny and the water was still warm enough to swim in. It did rain after we left though. It’s cheaper to go in spring and fall of course.

5. Marseille is in a region of France called Provence, which has more of a rural vibe than a pretentious city vibe. What I liked about this was the Provencal food. It’s hearty and cheap-not lots of foo-foo sauces like Parisian food. Also, because Marseille is right next to the port, it’s a fish lovers haven. Every morning about 30 fisherman sell their catch along the sidewalk at the port. If you leave Marseille without eating Bouillabaisse-a fish soup, with at least three of four whole fish in it, that’s a complete meal-you totally blew it. You should also drink some Pastis, a drink that’s a derivative of Absinthe. It’s a good idea to learn a few French food words, or you may end up with some pretty wacky stuff on your plate like the sea snails (bulots) that I inadvertently ordered. There’s also an open air market just north of the port where you can buy just about anything including some of the substances that used to give Marseille a bad name.

6. Marseille is also ground zero to one of the most happening music scenes in all of Europe. The strong north African influence has mixed with an existing DJ and house music scene to create a world/techno scene that’s getting lots of attention throughout the country. There’s also a healthy rap, reggae and rai scene. And, France has a cool jazz scene with deep roots. I expect you’ll hear more from Marseille musically in the near future.

7. Since Marseille is a large city, it’s a rail hub. This means there’s lots of trains to other cities, some of which have skateparks so you could use Marseille as a base to explore some other cities and skate lots of new terrain. All of the following cities have parks. Aix-En-Provence- 45 minutes by train, Montpellier( the sister park to Marseille)- 1 hour, 45 minutes, Nice (2.5 hours), Hyeres and La Ciotat (near Marseille), Toulouse (4 hours), Albi, Carcassonne and Narbonne (Near Toulouse) and Annecy (5.5 hours).

8. You thought I might forget to mention the skatepark itself? No way. Marseille is one of the sickest, if not the sickest, parks I’ve ever skated. It’s fast as hell with good coping and a zillion lines. The hype is true, and it was totally worth the cost of the trip to skate it. While you could visit some other parks if you wanted, I think I could skate Marseille every day for a month straight and still be finding new lines and tricks to do. I would wake up in the morning and go to bed at night thinking about new lines to try out at my next session. I did meet up with JP which was hella’ fun, and we also met two skaters from Ohio and Tahoe local Chuck Kassella at the park. All the local kids are friendly and their folks hang out with them too. The park has a fun family vibe which I think is cool, but it can get out of hand on weekends and Wednesday afternoons, when all of the French schools let out early. Expect at least a hundred roller bladers during peak periods, so plan accordingly. I even saw an old French dude that had to be at least 65, making some turns. To find the park, get a city map and look for Plages de la Vielle Chapelle. It’s right on the beach, about 50 yards from the ocean! So there you have it. Everything you wanted to know about going to Marseille for the best skate vacation ever. I’m already thinking about when I can go back, so I’ll see you there!

Contact info:
Marseille and Paris Contact Info:
(You must first dial 011 when calling from the USA, and then the country code for France,
which is 33. "Par-Lay Voo Ahn-Glay means do you speak English which most hotels and hostels do which makes things easier.)

Paris:
Two Cheap Hotels in the Latin Quarter:
Hotel Familia 1-43-54-55-27
Hotel Marignan 1-43-54-63-81
Also check out www.hostelworld.com which has listings for three hostels in Paris.

Marseille:
Hotel Le Richelieu (overlooking the ocean)
4-91-31-01-92 (hotelmer@club-internet.fr)
Hotel Alize (Overlooking the old port)
4-91-33-66-97

Auberge de Jeunesse de Bonneveine (Cheap hostel near skatepark)
4-91-73-21-81
Train Fares and Schedules:
www.raileurope.com