I finished off my trip to France last week with a very brief (one evening and one morning) stay in Marseille. I had never visited this city before, although I felt I knew it from the pages of Jean-Claude Izzo’s books. Undoubtedly, it is a tough city to live in: while I was there, a couple of buildings collapsed and burnt just two streets away from my hotel. I saw smashed shop windows, armed police in busy areas, heard the wail of police cars everywhere and was repeatedly warned to watch out for pickpockets. For all that, it is also a beautiful town, especially at sunset, bathed in a golden glow. It is also a very hilly town, so it’s an excellent work-out to wander through its streets, with an ice-cream reward at the end.