Marseille is France's oldest city, founded around 600 BC by Greek sailors from Phocaea, and it has never entirely lost its Mediterranean temper. The Vieux-Port, the old harbour, is the heart: a long rectangle of water lined with fishing boats and yachts, a market where fishermen sell the morning's catch, and the quays where restaurants serve bouillabaisse, the fish stew that is the city's pride. The district of Les Grands Carmes lies a little to the north, near the old port and the Joliette docks, where warehouses have been turned into offices and flats.
Above it all stands Notre-Dame de la Garde, a basilica topped with a gilded statue of the Virgin, which can be seen from almost everywhere in the city. It is a short ride up, with views that stretch from the islands in the bay to the white limestone hills of the Calanques, the steep sea inlets that run east toward Cassis. The old Panier quarter, a tangle of steep lanes with murals and small shops, is a pleasure to wander on foot.
Riding in Marseille is not for the faint-hearted. The traffic is dense and fast, and the tunnels and flyovers can be bewildering. Scooters and motorbikes are common, and drivers are used to them, but you need to stay alert. Fuel is plentiful, and parking for bikes is easier than for cars. The mistral, a cold northerly wind, can blow hard in winter and spring, and it clears the air so that the light is extraordinary, but it can make a motorbike hard to hold.
If you have the time, ride out along the Corniche Kennedy, the coast road that runs above the sea south of the Vieux-Port, with the islands and the sun low on the water. The city is loud, rough, generous and alive, and in the evening a plate of fish on the quay is the best answer to all of it.