A fruitful search for pizza including an expensive taxi ride and the names of the best pizzerias in Marseille.
I had heard that Marseille pizza is on the top ten list of the greats so of course, I had to venture out to the best place. Everyone talked about Chez Vincent so I asked my taxi driver to take me there. It was quite a long ride from my hotel, and on the way, I discovered that we were talking about two different Chez Vincents. However, both his (the best in the city, he said) and mine (number one on the list in my guide book) were closed for the summer vacation. From there, I chose Chez Etienne, not far from the second Chez Vincent and in what is called the Five Avenues neighborhood. No luck there so we proceeded to Chez Sauveur.
On the way, I had a tour of many of the neighborhoods in Marseille. Although the city is organized into "arrondissements" or districts, the Marseillais refer to the different neighborhoods by name--such as Le Panier, Les Cinq Avenues, Le Vieux Port, Les Calanques, etc. I must say that the city itself is not very attractive but the views are spectacular.
We went to two more pizzerias (closed) and then close to the next one our combined lists, we ran into a big traffic jam. I was watching the counter mount up, so I told the driver I was ready to walk. He directed me to Chez Noel. After about 15 minutes, I began to lose hope, but when I turned a corner, there it was: open!!!!! The taxi ride had cost me 40 euros (about $55) for a very inexpensive meal.
Ordering the pizza was interesting. They had a menu of set ones and I chose the anchovy pizza--remaining true to the region. However, I had to order the mozzarella as well! The basic pizza comes with dough and tomato sauce and that's it. The pizza was as good as the best pizza I could get in Paris--that is not very terrific at all. The bill came to about 15 euros for pizza, wine and coffee. I thought of the experience as a private tour of the city ending with a pizza dinner.
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