Martigues France
36
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
![Cruise CE Croisieurope MS Princesse d\](/cruise-ce-croisieurope-ms-princesse-aquitaine-ship__615cc0649748c91011648ba06ee777bc.jpg "Cruise CE Croisieurope MS Princesse d\")
Frequently Asked Questions
In the heart of town, steps from the coloured façades. The three districts of the Île, Ferrières and Jonquières are all within walking distance of the landing.
Because of its canals and boats, which reminded the painter Félix Ziem of Venice. The historic core sits on an island between two arms of water, stitched to the banks by a series of bridges.
It is a basin where boats reflect in front of pastel houses, at the end of the Saint-Sébastien canal, a few minutes from the landing. 19th-century painters made it one of the most reproduced motifs in Provence.
The Saint-Sébastien canal and the Miroir aux oiseaux, the Madeleine church, then the Ziem museum on the Ferrières side. Crossing the bridges from one district to another easily fills the day.
The canvases of Félix Ziem, travelling painter and leading 19th-century Orientalist, along with those of the artists who followed him to these quays. Set on the Ferrières side minutes from the bridges, it is the best introduction to the local light.
It is a Provençal fishing boat in bold colours. Pointus lie gunwale to gunwale along the Ferrières and Jonquières quays, and they are the boats in every painting of the Miroir aux oiseaux.
Yes, the chapel of Notre-Dame des Marins on the hill to the north. Drive or walk up for a panorama taking in the canals, the lagoon and, in the distance, the blue line of the sea.
Poutargue, the salted and pressed mullet roe known as the local caviar, and fish from the lagoon next door: sardines, sea bass, sea bream. In summer, sardine grills happily smoke up the evenings around shared tables.
It is a fixed fishery where the net is worked from a hut suspended over the canal. Martigues keeps one of the last in France: a living tradition, not a reconstruction.
Two horizons. Inland, the Étang de Berre, one of Europe's largest lagoons, with its shores and hilltop villages. Seaward, the Côte Bleue towards Carry-le-Rouet and Sausset-les-Pins, whose viaduct-strung railway is among the finest coastal rail journeys in France.
