Places to stay & week end in Marseille, Provence

Marseille is no plain city. As a real catalyst of the Mediterranean, this mosaic of 110 villages is a melting pot full of energy, where all sorts of influences cross paths. Around Le Petit Nice, in the Endoume area, Italian and Spanish influences mingle. A rough and rugged city, Marseille is frank and down to earth. It’s not Menton, nor the Côte d’Azur, the sun burns and the earth is dry: a simplicity that I like to enhance intensely. But more than anything Marseille is an amazing epicentre for the whole region and hinterland, an opening onto the Mediterranean and the horizon.

At Le Petit Nice we have always worked with the fishermen, ever since Germain Passedat founded the establishment, and Gérald Passedat has refined his collaboration with local fishermen by drawing up a set of specifications respecting sizes and seasons, and laying claim to traditional fishing techniques. The fish are therefore caught using the longline technique (a selective technique used from the 17th century in Marseille, imported by the Catalans that settling in the city), through potting, creeling or simply by hand, particular for certain shellfish or sea anemones.
Between economy (ensuring fishermen’s daily livelihood) and ecology (conserving resources), sustainable traditional fishing is a difficult balance, and the relationship between gastronomy and environmental responsibility is sometimes strained: it can be complicated, and Gérald Passedat believes in common sense being applied every day more than anything.
Customers must understand and allow themselves to be guided… because here, the Mediterranean reigns supreme, and everything varies depending on what it gives us…

I was born in Marseille, looking over the Mediterranean. I inherited what the men and women in my family knew about food, the traditions of Marseille and Provence, and the Mediterranean of course.

Thanks to sharing and passing on the love of taste, we enjoy traditional Mediterranean cuisine today. Our duty is to extend this culinary tradition of simple and down to earth cuisine. Each cook, each producer possesses  knowledge and expertise, knowing that they have the duty to adapt and enhance with their appreciation.

As a firm defender of this culinary culture, I am keen to foster energy to promote this cuisine through my association Gourméditerranée, to pass on what I know to my teams and share it with as many people as often as possible; Marseille must become a dynamic opening to the Mediterranean.