Marseille & Aix En Provence: Adventures: On Water:

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If lying about in the sun, combined with a bit of snorkeling, sounds like just about enough activity, you’re never far from a good beach. Marseille is lined with beaches, but, except for Prado, they are not wide and, as a major city, Marseille has a big working population who take to the beaches on hot days.

If you want a quiet, uncrowded beach, try a boat trip to the Calanques or take a GACM water taxi from the Vieux Port to the magical beaches of the Frioul Islands in Marseille harbor. These include sand beaches at Maison des Pilotes and Saint Estève Calanque, and pebble beaches at Havre de Morgiret and Debarcardére. Boats cost €10 and leave the Quai des Belges every hour during the summer and every hour and a half the rest of the year. The trip takes about 25 minutes. This is really worth doing. Once you arrive at a beach on le Frioul, you won’t believe you are within shouting distance of France’s second-largest city.

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