First, the bad news – Marseille is not Paris. Unlike its long-standing rival, France’s second largest city lacks top-drawer museums, stunning landmarks and hordes of Japanese tourists queueing up outside Louis Vuitton. The good news is that… Marseille is not Paris. Pampered by the Mediterranean, this city of radiant sunlight, with its multicultural population and suburbs in the very heart of the city, is so much of an oddity that it earned itself the nickname Planète Mars.

With one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean, a chaotic urban layout and an abiding reputation for being a decadent capital, Marseille is above all France’s enfant terrible, a noisy, dynamic city full of contrasts, where street hawkers take over the pavements, walls are smothered in graffiti, one’s clothes are impregnated with a brackish odour and the Olympique de Marseille is the mortar that binds it all together.

Apart from the usual tourist destinations, the tables have turned since it was voted European Capital of Culture in 2013. Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Norman Foster all have their state-of-the-art buildings on the snazzy waterfront esplanade. The bohemian way of life, however, is to be found inland and that is where we are heading. With a map in our pockets, we embark on our alternative, urban bobo tour of the capital of Provence!

At La Friche la Belle de Mai

An erstwhile tobacco factory at the Gare Saint-Charles is Marseille’s liveliest cultural centre. We have come to La Friche! Exhibition areas, artists’ ateliers, theatre, skating ramps and even a nursery rub shoulders here. All in one hybrid amalgam and in constant flux, focused on contemporary creation in a precinct where the communal spirit matches the extensive programme.

The huge roof terrace, which affords spectacular city views, is filled to bursting in summer, as it hosts parties with guest DJs and open-air cinema on Sundays. For the rest of the year the music never stops, while the Cabaret Aléatoire features sessions ranging from rock to hip-hop.

If you need to refuel, head for La Salle des Machines, a café-bookshop where you can have a café au lait while you leaf through a catalogue of the latest shows. But, if you’re actually feeling peckish, Les Grandes Tables is the place to go. Here, the menu changes each day, but they always have the classic steak tartare and Caesar salad. Mondays usher in a market of local produce and, as you well know, French markets are peerless.

Outside, alongside the warehouses and level with passing TGVs, the walls of a city park are daubed in graffiti proclaiming “Skateboarding is not a crime”. Here, skaters spin their tricks, while others play basketball, scale the climbing wall, play in the children’s area or work the land in the community allotment. That’s Marseille – a heterogeneous magma where everyone and everything become fused.

A few metres to the west, among the maze-like streets of La Belle de Mai, stands Le Gyptis Cinéma. Their (original version!) listings are as eclectic as the city itself, featuring thematic film cycles, classics, titles you won’t find on the Internet and children’s movies. The facade is peopled with portraits of neighbourhood characters, the upshot of a communal street-art programme designed to put a face to the locals.

And, with that image fixed in our mind’s eye, we head for Cours Julien, the hardcore urban Marsellais scene.

Around Cours Julien – Street Art & Urban Vibe

Alternative, carefree and colourful, the Cours Ju, as locals call it, is the in district right now. Take the metro to Notre Dame du Mont, although the climb up from the harbour is a heart-stopper. A district of artists, musicians and designers and the bastion of the ultra-modern bobo community (bobo, in French, is a nickname for “bourgeois-bohemian”), the Cours Ju is an endless string of trendy cafés, restaurants of all kinds, vintage stores and streets covered in full-colour graffiti.

The fact is that no other spot in the “Hexagone” can boast such a tour de force of urban art of this calibre. Streets fronts along Rue Vian, Pastoret and Bussy l’Indien are overrun by countless pamphleteering murals of a social nature, with references to pop culture or signs announcing the cafés hidden inside. Street art is clearly part of Marseille’s urban DNA, both rebellious and multicultural, as evinced in their well-known hip-hop – see this fast-paced video set to a local rap rhythm to get the idea.

Against this backdrop, every square metre of what is Marseille’s Kreuzberg is inundated with alternative art galleries, terraces, cafés and stores selling anything from apparel to household goods. The best approach is to venture carefree into the chaotic maze of pedestrian streets and let yourself get carried away by the relaxed atmosphere.

In the Cours itself, the multi-faceted concept store Oogie sells apparel and books, but also serves food and houses a hairdressing salon which hosts DJ parties. Nearby, La Licorne makes soaps using traditional methods and, in the rue Trois Frères Barthélémy, the Brasserie de la Plaine micro-brewery sells craft beer and has a bistro where you can wolf down the market-cuisine formule du jour or menu of the day, which usually consists of a starter, main course and dessert for around €10.

The trendiest spot par excellence is WAAW, on the rue Pastoret. Halfway between a bistro and a cultural centre, WAAW’s activities range from presentations to silk-screen print shops. It is also the best place to make a technical stop, order the dish of the day or stock up for the evening on a pastis or rosé when it’s time for the popular “apéro” – a pre-dinner aperitif.

Night time ushers in drinks and music. Sited in the Place Jean Jaurès, L’Intermédiaire is one of the best venues for live and DJ-set alternative music. Next door is Au Petit Nice, which offers a huge selection of beers in an inner patio where you can while away the hours. And, in La Dame Noir, hipsters queue up to get into the most sought-after club in the area.

As if that weren’t enough, a local producers’ market sets up shop in the Cours Ju every Wednesday morning. Stamp traders get their turn on Sundays, while second-hand books are sold every second Saturday in the month. The Marché de La Plaine, in the Place Jean Jaurès, is a market selling fruit and vegetables, cheese, fish, takeaway food, cheap footwear and accessories of all kinds on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, while the flower market is held on Wednesdays.

The Cours Ju has a special something which grows on you! Get going and discover cosmopolitan Marseille – book your Vueling here!

Text by Núria Gurina i Puig for Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Photos by Caroline Dutrey, Coralie Filippini, JeanneMenjoulet&Cie, marcovdz, Pop H

Modernism emerged in the late-19th and early-20th century, marking a break in style with the past, in line with the prevailing cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial mindset of the moment.

In 1883, the city needed to expand, leading to the construction of its famous Ensanche district,which spans the present-day streets of Juana de Vega,Picavia,Feijoo, Plaza de Lugo and Plaza de Pontevedra.

With the wealth they had acquired from foreign trade, the local bourgeoisie commissioned luxury residences in this new area, modelled on those of Vienna, Paris, Prague, Budapest and Berlin, in an outward show of their prosperity and cultural pursuits. This enabled them to distinguish themselves from the old Corunnan aristocracy, who still lived in the Ciudad Alta and Ciudad Vieja districts in dilapidated mansions with dark rooms, lacking proper ventilation or glazed window balconies, with their backs to the sea and to modernity.

Strictly speaking, Modernism came to the city in 1906 with the arrival of the Cuban architect, Ricardo Boán y Callejas, and the Corunnan architect ,Antonio López Hernández, who brought the new trends in building design from Austria, Switzerland and Germany. They also brought journals, catalogues and photos from those countries featuring designs by the Austrian, Otto Wagner, and the Belgian, Victor Horta.

One of the most striking features of these houses are the female faces adorning some of the buildings that are still standing. They were mostly inspired by the countenance of an English lady, Elizabeth Siddal, the wife of the Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She was immortalised in the guise of her languid, enigmatic beauty and her long tresses following her death from an overdose of laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol.

Modernism in A Coruña was influenced by the ornamental style of the English architect, Owen Jones (1808-1874). Local artists decorated the facades and doorways with irises, horse-chestnut leaves, water plants, roses and camellias in multi-coloured garlands which seem to reach out to the passer-by and lavish pleasure on the senses.

Galleries are awash with the Mackintosh Rose motif of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as well as twirling, sap-bearing plant stems. The transparent glass surfaces spread out among them like dragonfly wings. However, Japanese influences also come to the fore in the form of embossed irises, reeds and butterflies on lilies, star-shaped holly leaves and lotus flowers framing windows and lifts, by way of a country-like, ecological architecture. Enjoy a Modernist route through the city – download the guide here.

Modernist Top 5 in A Coruña

1. Casa Rey (1911)

The work of Julio Galán, his architecture distils the essence of the glass city. The rippling cornice, the Mudéjar inspired glazed ceramics and the wrought iron balconies made in the Wonenburger foundry make it a veritable dolls house for the ladies of those times that adorned its balconies with their head-dresses of gardenias and palm leaves. Chocolate was one of the exotic wares shipped from the Indies and other colonies to the port of A Coruña, and chocolateries dating from that period are still open to the public on the streets of Riego de Agua, Plaza de Lugo and Estrecha de San Andrés. Hence the origin of the popular Corunnan demonym ofcascarilleiros(huskers),an allusion to the cocoa husks which filled the streets with their aroma. Plaza de María Pita, 12.

2. Casa Molina (1915)

Designed by Rafael González Villar. The building was the home of Don Raimundo Molina, a representative of Royal Dutch Lloyd and consul of the Netherlands. He was also the father of the well-known mayor, Don Alfonso Molina. Influenced by the Italian Modernism of Turin, the garlands and draped ribbons of the building form a theatrical final curtain to the Old City. C/ Santiago, 2.

3. Kiosko Alfonso (1912)

Also designed by Rafael González Villar, this is a magnificent example of early-20th-century recreational architecture. With its rectangular floor plan, it operated as a café, music hall and cinema, the central screen of which divided the auditorium into two rooms. In the first room, the audience saw the positive film, while a negative of the film could be viewed at a lower fee from the other. Converted into an exhibition hall in 1982, the original Modernist decoration is still intact, including dragons which surround and immerse the audience in a world of mystery and fantasy. Jardines de Méndez Núñez.

4. Compostela, 8 (1910)

Also the work of Julio Galán Carbajal. The foyer, with access at no. 8 Calle Compostela, is the most striking entrance hall in the city. Walls, ceilings and the archway leading into the lift turn the space into an original stuccowork greenhouse, brimming with intertwined water plants, lotuses, lilies and irises. The lions at the entrance, the eagle and the caryatids on the cornice form a symbolic defence of the house’s residents, reminiscent of ancient Persian palaces.

5. Plaza de Lugo, 13 (1912)

Lastly, this bourgeois residence designed by Antonio López Hernández, linked to the family of the Corunnan actor, Fernando Casado Arambillet (better known as Fernando Rey), features overflowing ornamentation as an outward show of the economic prowess of its residents. It is theatrically adorned with a large garland of roses, leading the eye towards the huge female caryatid dominating the ensemble. The decorative syntax makes this the most beautiful building in A Coruña.

Don’t wait to see these Modernist architectural jewels in A Coruña. Check out our flights here.

Turismo A Coruña

The route starts in the Siete Calles area, in the pedestrian streets that alternate the more classical shops with the more innovative and brimming with bars and restaurants to sample the very best in Basque cuisine.

This metropolitan area has an outstanding architectural and monumental heritage, with civil and religious buildings of great interest and where the bars and shops truly come to life. El Arenal of Bilbao is the best Gateway to the city’s Old Town and its bridge, a watchtower over the Teatro Arriaga, a great centre of Bilbao’s cultural life, built by Joaquín Rucoba and Octabio de Toledo, who took inspiration from the Paris Opera in its creation.

We enter the Siete Calles through the Arenal and, at 2 calle Fueros, we encounter Lautxo, a small shop specialising in all types of take-away croquettes and cannelloni. The huge selection of croquettes includes Basque style cod, prawn and mushroom, baby squid cooked with onion, and chorizo, and the cannelloni delicacies include leek, Idizabal and mushroom.

To eat we were recommended to try Kasko, a colourful restaurant with oak columns offering modern cuisine combined with Basque products. It offers menus to suit all budgets.

Strolling around the Siete Calles you will come across interesting shops such as lu:la, in plaza Santiago s/n, which sells beautiful shoes, the latest fashion and one-off accessories. Another of the shops that caught our attention in the Old Quarters was La Casa del Yogur of Bilbao. Located at 2 calle Víctor, this outlet specialises in dairy products from Cantabria made from 100% natural yoghurt.

The Plaza Nueva, which is built in a defined neoclassical style and with 64 arches supported by Grecian columns, is teeming with bars. We loved Víctor Montes, with its huge array of pinchos (brochettes), but you can lose yourself in any of the many lively, popular bars and establishments in the square.

At number 2 Calzadas de Mallona, you will find the Archaeological Museum which houses the Basque Country history in a chronological route from prehistoric ages to the modern age.

Climbing the 213 steps of Mallona which start in the plaza Unamuno, takes you to the Basílica de Begoña, passing by the cemetery of Mallona. This stretch forms part of the Route of St. James via the Costal Route. From the viewing point you have the best views over the old quarters. And for the lazy, you have the alternative of going up in the Begoña lift.

Most noteworthy in the Etxebarria Park is the old chimney which still remains intact on the Aceros Echevarría steel factory. This is due to the fact that many of the industries were located inside the city.

Going down, you arrive at the river where you will find the Mercadillo del Nervión, a curious shop selling second hand items. Antiques, rarities and a little bit of everything. If you are a lover of vintage clothing, you must visit the market on calle Dos de Mayo which takes place on the first Saturday of every month. Here you can find second hand and new clothes, old vinyl, vintage furniture and much more.

Bordering the estuary we come across Zubizuri, which means “white bridge” in the Basque language, it is also known as the Campo de Volantín Pedestrian Bridge or Calatrava Bridge, which has become the new symbol of Bilbao.

Continuing along the path through Volatinse country you come to the plaza del Funicular which will take you up to Artxanda. The funicular railway was built in 1913 and during the journey which lasts a few minutes, you will pass through Ciudad Jardín (Garden City), an area of pretty houses with beautifully kept gardens.

A Artxanda has always been considered the lungs of Bilbao because the town was formerly the location of a lot of industry and the air wasn’t as clean as it is nowadays.

Once you are up there you will come across a park with grass, a children’s play area and a picnic area where the Bilbao inhabitants go up to sunbathe and relax after having lunch in one of the rotisseries. There are three good restaurants to eat in, the Sidrería Artxanza cider bar with a menu of cod tortilla. fried cod and drink for €28, the restaurante Txacolí with typical Bilbao cuisine and the restaurante Antón.

 Picture by kurtxio

Want to live Bilbao? Check our prices here!

Musical journalist Bruno Sokolowicz decided to leave behind his hectic work life for a few years to embark upon a long journey leisurely exploring the most out of the way corners of the world. His plan: to slow down, turn off the auto-pilot and learn to look at the world around him again – to live every experience as if it was the first time again. First stop: Naples.

Napoli is a fascinating city. Unique. With great character. It is THE city of southern Italy. A historical marvel, architectural wonder, artistic beauty, gastronomic delight and geological impressive. Its inhabitants are as hot-blooded as the lava from Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that looms over the city, always in the background. There is an endless list of historical buildings, castles, palaces and churches to visit in Naples: Castel dell’Ovo, Palazzo Reale, the iglesia del Gesù Nuovo and the Capella Sansevero where one of the most special statues from the history of sculpture can be found – the Veiled Christ by Giuseppe di San Martino

On this tour, we will explore the streets of this Mediterranean city and its surrounding area in search of some unique sites.
Pizza Da Michele

The world’s first pizza parlour, opened in 1870. Even today, with thousands of pizza parlours all around the planet, it continues to be one of the best and, of course, the most authentic. They only offer the two classic varieties from the city: Margarita (normal or double cheese) and Marinara. Less is more!

It was here that the pizza legend began and the most popular version comes from Naples: the Margarita. Three colours like the Italian flag: white for the mozzarela di buffala, red for the home-made tomato sauce and green for the fresh basil.

For those interested in more “pizzeril” gastronomy tourism, there are a couple of appealing alternatives to a Da Michele (always full of both locals and tourists long before Julia Roberts scoffed her pizza in “Eat, Pray, Love”): Gino Sorbillo, the inventor of the calzone, wide variety of pizzas. Quality.
Di Matteo, spectacular Marinara (no mozzarela, but with a decent portion of garlic).

Galleria Umberto I

A shopping precinct with some serious architectural touches from the end of the 19th Century. Built at the same time as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the architect Emanuele Rocco was inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Tall, imposing, something interesting wherever you look. From the mosaics on the floor to the glass and metal domed ceiling. For talking a walk indoors around the Naples of 120 years ago.

Mergellina Fishing Port

Strolling along the shores of Naples, leaving Mount Vesuvius behind us, we reach the old fishing village of Mergellina. Today, it is a district of the city with its own character where locals relax in the sun, especially at weekends. One sunny Sunday morning, no matter if it’s in the middle of winter, the fishing port of Mergellina fills with walkers, roller-skaters, cyclists and people gathering for chat. People seeking to enjoy the more Mediterranean side of the city. An excellent place to buy live fish directly from the fishermen on the boats or on the beach. Or even to eat that fish in one of the many beach bars that dot the promenade.

Posillipo

Fancy wandering around the most beautiful houses in Naples? Take a photo of the bay from where you can see the whole city, the sea and Mount Vesuvius in the background? Go to a park and take in the Mediterranean breeze? Take a break from the fast pace of the city and recharge your batteries? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then you can’t leave Naples without visiting the residential Posillipo district, where the smart, rich people live. But don’t worry, you won’t spend much money there because there are hardly any bars or shops to be found. Just lovely tree-lined streets, views of the sea, gorgeous houses, parks and lookout points. Basically, a wealth of peace and beauty to be enjoyed free of charge. Check it out!

Solfatara de Pozzuoli

Two thousand years ago, Mount Vesuvius was one single volcano. With the violent eruption of 24 August of 79 AD, which buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum (also recommended visits), a crater was formed that created a volcano with two peaks: Vesuvius and Solfatara. Solfatara is like a snub-nosed volcano with vents that stink of rotten eggs. That is the smell of sulphur, which was once associated with hell and the devil, and that some believe today increases libido, strengthens sex lives and enhances reproduction when inhaling the fumes. Just in case it’s true or even if you only get the placebo effect from visiting Solfatara de Pozzuoli, it has to be included as another place of interest in the Gulf of Naples.

By Bruno Sokolowicz from scannerFM

Makes you want to go, right? Do it! Check out our prices here!