Marseille is a chaud fire hit

Running street battles during the World Cup is the most recent image of Marseille to reach London. Since then France's second city, famed for Pagnol, pastis, gangsters and football violence, has undergone a rapid reversal of fortunes.

Just one summer on from the violent scenes of rampaging fans, the Vieux Port was the setting for an elegant fashion soirée.

Champagne celebrations aboard Phocea, the multi-masted jet-set yacht bought from soccer boss Bernard Tapie by glamorous divorcee Mouna Ayoub, marked the arrival of Ayoub's haute couture collection at the local Espace Mode in 1999 - a sea change from football to fashion, showing off a more refined side to a newly dynamic city.

Now known as Planet Mars by locals, taking their cue from the flourishing rap scene, Marseille has been voted France's favourite city by under-25s. "Right now there is a buzz about Marseille," says Bertrand Boucquet, fashion editor of French FHM. "Parisians would jump in fright or look down their nose whenever the name was mentioned - now it's seen as trendy."

The allure of the port city still lies in the element of danger which undeniably hangs in the air - a vagabond vitality now captured in a cult Marseille film which has gone mainstream and become the top French movie of the year: Taxi II, the story of a daring Marseille cabbie, beat Hollywood to the box-office top slot. France liked that. Taxi is the lad flick of the new multicultural France.

Point of entry from North Africa and the Orient, Marseille has long considered itself the French New York, and emerging big names are starting to justify the swanky status. The biggest, bubbling Gallic melting pot, Marseille puffed with pride when local hero Zinedine Zidane gave saintly Abbé Pierre a run for his money as most respected Frenchman.

The footballer has giant street-mural status here, and was also chosen as a very different sort of pin-up boy, the face of Christian Dior's Eau Sauvage. The southern city is also a contender in the cerebral stakes - a Marseille-born Jewish writer won this year's Goncourt, the French Booker prize.

Embracing the new multicultural France, though, does not alone explain the rise of Marseille. The TGV link from the Gare de Lyon, opening next June, will put the Mediterranean three hours from Paris; the QE2 will be stopping over in April for the first time.

While the Cote d'Azur becomes ever more commercial, Marseille's raw energy and untapped property market have attracted Riviera refugees. Gentrification and dynamic urban development plans have hitherto bypassed France's second city, but house prices are rising. A critical mass of chic has been reached on the social scene as new restaurants open across town: 504 - a kind of Marseille Momo serving Maghrebin cuisine - looks out on to Place aux Huiles next door to the multistorey Agnes B. Upstairs is an Arabian nights candlelit slumber room padded with the finest Ali Baba cushions. "We had Eric Cantona in last week," says 504's Akim.

For the start-up, advertising and media crowd, the power lunch is now possible in the city's Butler's Wharf-style development, the Docks. Packed with a cosmopolitan crowd, brasseries Les Docks and Milano could happily host an Ally McBeal office party.

Alternative Marseille has also found a niche. Cours Julien is an untidy, bustling square filled with café terraces and graffiti. Roller bladers glide by and couples chat. Here designers like Casablanca and Ange Blanc have outlets. "Designers are setting up all the time. I am the first one in this street [rue Thubaneau] - now it's attracting other young names and we mix in well with the neighbours," says Linda Carle, whose boutique La Thubanerie stocks the work of up-and-coming Marseille talent.

As we leave the store, this fashion babe exchanges a joke with local Arab men. This is community more than coexistence. While there are still many streets where Charles Bronson would fear to tread, Marseille is finally finding a place for fashion, film, music and the new economy.

SITTING on the balcony of hip hangout La Caravelle, resident Dr Philippe Minodier has dropped in for a coffee before going to work, and is happy to offer an opinion on his home town. "The take-off is culture-led," he says, as the Gaultier matelot'd waiter serves up the drinks.

The table at which we are sitting will be a prime vantage point for this New Year's Eve extravaganza when the Vieux Port will be illuminated by a light show, stage-managed by Christophe Berthonneau and Yves Pepin, whose Eiffel Tower spectacular amazed the world on Millennium Eve.

More Parisians than ever are expected to see in the New Year here and many may consider staying, as style arbiters and entrepreneurs move in on a Marseille on the move.