OFFICE: Good morning.

TOURIST : This is our second time to Marseille and we would like to visit more towns and sights in the region.

OFFICE: That’s a good idea. There are a lot of beautiful coastal towns to visit. Do you have a car or do you need to use public transport?

TOURIST: We drove here from the UK.

OFFICE: Ok. there are two possibilities, you can either drive west towards Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer or East towards Toulon.

TOURIST: Ok, can you tell us about both?

OFFICE: Certainly. If you drive west out of Marseille, you can visit Martigues where the locals like to call it the Venice of Provence. It is a colourful town with great expanses of lakeside frontage. And each July there is a Venetian Evening, with street music and theatre all over the town, climaxing in a spectacular free sound and light show over the Berre lake.

TOURIST : That sounds great!

OFFICE : Whilst you are in the area you should also visit Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to see the pink flamingos on the salt flats and go for a horse ride on the beach. The Camargues is a very popular destination with French visitors and foreign tourists too.

TOURIST : And what about East of Marseille?

OFFICE : You can visit the quaint town of Cassis which is not far, and spend the afternoon in the Calanques, which is a rocky stretch of coast with deep inlets where you can swim and sunbathe. It’s also possible to hire a boat with a professional sailor to take you around the inlets. This way you avoid the crowds, as it is very busy in the summer.

TOURIST : Yes we don’t like overcrowded Is there any nightlife in the area?

OFFICE: Yes there is. Just further down the coast is a town called Bandol.  The village next to it is Sanary-sur-Mer where you can enjoy  lively night markets and fireworks on certain nights.

TOURIST: So there are a lot of things to visit in the area!

OFFICE: yes, you have a lot of choice!

TOURIST: Oh, one last question, my husband is a former military officer and he would love to visit the military port and see some French Navy warships, can we do that ?

OFFICE: Yes, you can buy a boat tour of the harbour and it is not very expensive, it costs around 10 euros per person for an hour.

OFFICE: Thank you so much for all the information.

OFFICE: My pleasure . Have a good holiday !