To the north of the Vieux Port is the oldest part of Marseille, Le Panier , where, up until the last war, tiny streets, steep steps and houses of every era formed a vieille ville typical of the Côte. In 1943, however, with Marseille under German occupation, the quarter became an unofficial ghetto for Untermenschen of every sort, including Resistance fighters, Communists and Jews. The Nazis gave the 20,000 inhabitants one day's notice to quit; many were deported to the camps. Dynamite was carefully laid, and everything from the waterside to rue Caisserie was blown sky-high, except for three old buildings that appealed to the fascist aesthetic: the seventeenth-century Hôtel de Ville , on the quay; the Hôtel de Cabre , on the corner of rue Bonneterie and Grande-Rue; and the Maison Diamantée , on rue de la Prison. After the war, archeologists reaped some benefits from this destruction when they discovered the remains of a Roman dockside warehouse, equipped with vast food-storage jars, which can be seen in situ at the Musée des Docks Romains , on place de Vivaux (Tues-Sun: June-Sept 11am-6pm; rest of year 10am-5pm; 12F/¬1.83).

At the junction of rue de la Prison and rue Caisserie, the steps of montée des Accoules lead up and across to place de Lenche , site of the Greek agora and a good café stop. At 29 montée des Accoules, the Préau des Accoules , a former Jesuit college, puts on wonderful exhibitions specially designed for children (Wed & Sat 1/1.30-5/5.30pm; free). What's left of old Le Panier is above here, though many of the tenements have recently been demolished. At the top of rue du Réfuge stands the restored Hospice de la Vieille Charité , a seventeenth-century workhouse with a gorgeous Baroque chapel surrounded by columned arcades in pink stone; only the tiny grilled exterior windows recall its original use. Local people say it was "beaucoup plus jolie" when it was lived in by a hundred families, all with ten children each. It's now a cultural centre, and alarmingly empty except during its major temporary exhibitions - usually brilliant - and evening concerts. It houses two museums (Tues-Sun: June-Sept 11am-6pm; rest of year 10am-5pm; 12F/¬1.83, 18F/¬2.75 during exhibitions, or 25-30F/¬3.81-4.58 for both and the chapel): the Musée d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne , with some very beautiful pottery and glass and an Egyptian collection with a mummified crocodile, and the dark and spooky Musée des Arts Africains, Océaniens et Amérindiens .

The expansion of Marseille's Joliette docks started in the first half of the nineteenth century. Like the new cathedral, wide boulevards and Marseille's own Arc de Triomphe - the Porte d'Aix at the top of Cours Belsunce /rue d'Aix - the docks were paid for with the profits of military enterprise, most significantly the conquest of Algeria in 1830. Anyone fascinated by industrial architecture should join a tour of the docks run by the tourist office, or at least stop by the old warehouse building, Les Docks (follow rue République to the end), restored as a shopping and office complex. On the hill above looms the town's massive eighteenth-century cathedral , decorated by a distinctive pattern of alternating bands of stone (red and white outside, black and white inside).