Le Panier — the basket — is the small hilltop quarter rising above the north side of the Vieux-Port, the oldest part of Marseille and roughly where the Greek city of Massalia was founded around 600 BC. The streets are narrow, steep, lined with shuttered three- and four-storey houses painted in sun-faded yellows, ochres, pinks and blues. Street art is everywhere, washing hangs across the lanes, and small bars and bistros spill onto the cobbles.
Over the past two decades the Panier has gentrified noticeably — artisan shops, craft beer bars, a fixed circuit of galleries — but it still has its own character and a working-class memory. The Vieille Charité, a baroque almshouse complex now housing museums, sits at the top. From there, walking downhill in any direction will eventually deliver you to the port. The Maison Diamantée and Hôtel de Cabre, both early-Renaissance survivors that escaped wartime demolition, are worth seeking out as you wander.