Marseille in a Day: Bouillabaisse

Departing from Lyon, I landed in the post city Marseille, France. Why Marseille? It's the second largest city in France after Paris, I have to find out what's the fuss about.


Where there's a port, there's seafood.



And Marseille is famous for their Bouillabaisse dish: an intense seafood stew boiled and simmered over long period of time with varieties of fish till all the essence of the fish are infused into the soup. A good bouillabaisse is said to be ultra rich in flavor of all the best fish just by sipping the thick fish stock soup; best served with rouille (see wiki) on baguette with shredded cheese.




I arrived in cold and chilly Marseille to a very funky boutique hotel with a very pink room.



Unfortunately, unlike the welcoming apartment, the owner and host of the place wasn't as pleasant. Being a typical rude French, despite me being a girl and the lift to his 5th floor apartment was out of order, he wasn't expecting me to carry my own mad heavy luggage all the way up to his doorstep. What made it so infuriating was that he wasn't some old frail man but a big sturdy muscular and tall man for his age, probably in his early 40's.

To add cherry on top (sense the sarcasm), the apartment was cold as the Arctic, even sitting in my room was enough to shiver me down to my knickers (yea it doesn't make sense, but when you're that cold, nothing makes sense).



My stay in Marseille was a short one as I was going to make my way back to London, leaving France faraway behind, till after Christmas before I make another trip to Paris again.

During my extremely short stay, I visited the Notre-Dame de la Garde of Marseille which was located on top of a small hill.



Just a small climb up and you could reward yourself with a view of Marseille port from the top.





The basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde wasn't big but it was worth the visit considering it wasn't such a difficult journey to make.



Take a walk along Vieux-port and grant your eyes on a vast collection of yachts parked along the harbour.







After that, make your way to Chez Madie Les Galinettes, a small restaurant situated among a row of restaurants and shops next to the harbour, to find one of the best authentic bouillabaisse in Marseille, a.k.a. the world.





At 35 euro it wasn't a cheap dish for a person but when one's in Marseille, it would be a waste not to try it.


starter - complimentary

The bouillabaisse here was a big bowl of thick fish stock soup cooked with five varieties of fish. It's served with a piece of baguette in the centre of the plate, spread with their homemade rouille; and topped with as much shredded cheese as you please, free refillable bowl to one's content,




the server would then pour generous amount of hot steaming bouillabaisse over the baguette.




Oh... imagine the melted delicious cheesy with rouille fused with thick soup all combined into one. It's heavenly!




I couldn't finish the whole bowl, and it didn't make sense to doggy bag soup, so I left Chez Madie Les Galinettes with a warm and filled belly. And a memory of the best bouillabaisse I had ever tasted, two years and counting. I have since looked for similar dish else where but never nearly the same.

If I ever make it back to Marseille one day, I would make sure I'd try bouillabaisse to my heart's content before I leave again.