Fete du Vent Marseille

Look up in the sky: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super…Kites! And if you happen to be looking up into the late summer Marseille sky, you’ll see loads of really cool, larger than life cerfs volant!

You’ll be blown away by the flying menagerie - giants of the sea such as whales and octopi, creepy crawlers such as millipedes and lizards, and a synchronized kite routine where more than a dozen kites danced and dived in the sky all set to classical music.

Other fliers that took the sky stage were a pair of friendly dancing pirate skeletons, giant carp, and - only in France - a giant blow up doll? Oh, my mistake. It had tiny wings so I guess that makes it a cherub!

Inspired by the great display of fliers, kids can attend a kite-making atelier for 5 euro each. They decorate and embellish a paper kite frame and then actually fly it. Or, buy some ready made kites and add to the array of flying beasts and characters.

Aside from the spectacle in the sky, there was a fenced off area filled with curious percussion and other instruments such as a rubber boot piano for the little ones to bang, twist, and turn. There are also two great play grounds for the kids to explore, and of course the beach itself is a great way to lay back and enjoy the view above.

There’s a goodly amount of parking along the coastal road and the parking lots that line the seaside park were reasonable priced. A beachside restaurant with generous portions makes for easy eating but it does get busy at peak eating times around noon.

It was a great family day with no strings attached, except of course for the ones on the kites! Most things were free and the option to buy (food, kites, parking) was, for a family of 5 less than 50 euro for the day. That relatively low cost might’ve seemed unbelievable to me but that day, I even saw pigs fly.