Marseille

A vibrant city on the beautiful Mediterranean coast, Marseille also enjoys a distinctive identity, nourished by the mix of cultures that have shaped it, as well as a rich lore that feeds its mythos.

While Marseille's smaller neighbour, Aix-en-Provence, is charming and attracts US study abroad programs, it represents a rather homogeneous slice of French society. IFE has chosen Marseille specifically because of its special weave of much that is Provencal, Mediterranean, French, international, old, and future-looking into something that is... Marseillais. Specifically, the city is an ideal vantage point for observing an interface of global north and south, in a French and European context.

Living in Marseille students experience the issues of the day in French society, but inevitably shaped by the singular local context. Marseille and Provence engage student residents in a different version of French life, and provide abundant possibilities for wonderful urban explores, nature hikes, day trips, unexpected daily encounters or just a chance to take in the bustling atmosphere of the Port.

"Marseille is a series of invented cities, living as stories and images, sometimes original, sometimes borrowed, strung together without too much concern for the joints and overlaps".

From "Marseille Mix" by William Firebrace, The MIT Press, 2022

Mucem - The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, Panier neighborhood, and Palais Longchamp

"Marseille is a brilliantly idiosyncratic city: issues of ethnic, religious, and class conflict have evolved differently here and for a longer time than elsewhere in France, and its contrasts  are striking (… ), but Marseille has also been praised for a more participatory civic culture and for privileging  political integration over assimilation."

From "The Marseille Mosaic. A Mediterranean City at the Crossroads of Cultures", by Mark Ingram and Kathryn Kleppinger, Berghahn Books, 2023

HOUSING

IFE finds affordable French-speaking housing for students, either with homestay families, or residences for students. Housing options are available with or without meals, and are priced accordingly.

PRACTICAL INFO

IFE 's Marseille Center 

IFE's spaces are located in La Friche de la Belle de Mai, a former tobacco factory near the Saint-Charles train station, in the Belle de Mai neighborhood. It was converted into a cultural complex in 1992.

Cell Phones

All students are required to have a local cell phone with a local number, or an international phone plan that allows them to communicate at all times without relying on Wifi.

Getting around Marseille

Public transportation system: RTM / Bikeshare system (“levélo”) / Trains in the Provence region: TER.

Money and Banking

Students should arrive with a credit card for payment and for withdrawing cash. It is difficult for a student coming to France for several months to open a bank account.

Health and Wellbeing

IFE Marseille maintains a full set of reliable references among health care professionals. Students who are on a regular program of medication should plan to arrive with sufficient supply for the semester or, alternatively, ask their doctor for the scientific name of the molecule, not the proprietary name, for prescription by a doctor in France.

IFE on Social Media

IFE Facebook Marseille/ IFE Youtube channel / IFE Instagram

Before Arrival

Students enrolled in IFE Marseille participate in an interactive online pre-departure readiness exercise. In addition they receive detailed practical information for their semester in Marseille.